Took my project to the Regional Ethics Committee yesterday, and they sent me back to make substantial amendments. I found some of the points they raised valid, but most of them were just pedantic. Anyway, I'm set back a bit, i reckon by a few months, I'm annoyed more than anything else and just wanted to share this with everyone. Has anyone else been bitten by the REC??

Hi Ace,

sorry to hear regarding this. Seems that ethical committees live in an ivory tower, requesting all kind of conditions from research which are completely unrealistic. What kind of remarks did they make?

It can be depressing, and often they seem to consider things that are outside of their remit, but the process is worthwhile/important. I went to MREC for my project, a week later I received a list of over 50 recommended changes, ugh! Some were fair enough, but there were a number that I didn't agree with, so when I submitted my changes I didn't change those things, but sent a letter justifying my decision. They didn't argue any of those points, so it's worth keeping that in mind.

cheers guys.

Uurgh! RECs! what can I say? you have my sympathies.

I ended up writing stuff that made me want to gag it was so inane and patronising but it seemed to be what they wanted. But pups point is a good one, sometimes it is a matter of clarification or justification rather than automatically changing things they question.

It has really made me think twice about the sort of research I want to do after the PhD.