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AC’s Research Ethics Board (REB) is accountable to ensure any and all research involving human subjects conforms to the ethical standards outlined in the College’s Corporate Directives RE – Research, and the research conforms to the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS (2022). As such, the REB is responsible for approving, rejecting, modifying, monitoring, or terminating any proposed or ongoing research involving human subjects which is conducted within or by faculty, staff, students or other researcher at Algonquin College, or by a researcher who is not a member of the Algonquin College community. When research involves human subjects, there are several guiding ethical principles:

  • Respect for human dignity;
  • Respect for free and informed consent;
  • Respect for vulnerable persons;
  • Respect for privacy and confidentiality;
  • Respect for justice and inclusiveness; and
  • Balancing harms and benefits – minimizing harm, maximizing benefit.

Research involving human participants must be reviewed and approved by the REB prior to the commencement of the research study.


Please click Algonquin College Directives for Research to find more information about Algonquin College’s policies and directives. Particularly, RE01, RE02, RE03 and RE05 pertain to human research and must be reviewed.

  1. RE01 – Research Administration
  2. RE02 – Integrity in Research and Scholarship
  3. RE03 – Research Involving Human Subjects
  4. RE04 – Use of Animals in Research, Teaching and Other Activities
  5. RE05 – Intellectual Property
  6. RE06 – Use of Bio-hazardous and Radioactive Materials in Research and Education

For more information regarding the operations of Algonquin College’s REB, please read our Terms of Reference.