Before you send your plan please ensure you have read the frequently asked questions. Below are terms and conditions that you must accept before you can submit your research plan.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS – RESEARCHERS

Questions about these terms and conditions and/or the warranties should be directed to gary.allen@ahrecs.com. Allegations of any breaches or disputes should also be directed to gary.allen@ahrecs.com.

1. This platform is a service to connect researchers with research ethics advisers.
2. Advisers must not provide advice with regard to a project where they might be involved in the research ethics review of that project or otherwise involved in the governance or conduct of that project.
3. Advisers must not provide advice with regards to a project where they have a conflict of interest (regardless of whether that conflict might be perceived or actual).
4. Advisers must act with integrity and honesty when using this platform, including the provision of advice to clients of the platform (researchers).
5. Advisers must not misappropriate the original ideas, or other intellectual property, shared with them by researchers.
6. If an adviser is employed by, or has a role with, a research institution then before providing advice an adviser must confirm that they are permitted to do under the policies of that institution.
7. This platform does not indemnify advisers for their provision of advice to researcher clients. Advisers should confirm the degree to which they are covered by existing policies band seek appropriate advice with regard to the desirability of seeking additional cover.
8. It is the responsibility of the adviser to pay all the relevant taxes, duties and fees that are required for the monies they receive from the platform for the provision of advice. Advisers are encouraged to seek independent financial advice with regard to their obligations.
9. Researchers pay AUD50 for basic advice and AUD500 for full advice.
10. Basic advice would generally be in the form of around a paragraph of text reflecting on what kind of shape the project described by the submitted research design is in and some dot points of the most significant ethical challenges and difficulties.
11. Full advice would reflect upon all of the significant ethical challenges and difficulties related to the submitted research design. This is likely to include suggested refinements or other changes to the design, the adviser should direct the researcher to relevant academic literature or other resources. The adviser might also usefully comment upon the matters likely to come up during research ethics review.
12. Payments are initially paid by EFT to Australasian Human Research Ethics Consultancy Services – the current operator of this platform.
13. The operators will deduct a flat 20% operator overhead from all payments. The balance will be paid by EFT to the relevant adviser.
14. An adviser must not solicit or otherwise seek payments outside of this platform or seek engagement from a researcher client for work that is provided by this platform.
15. In communication with researchers, advisers must not use racist, sexist or otherwise derogatory language. Advisers are urged to approach communications in a collegiate, courteous and constructive manner.
16. Advisers must not bring the Research Ethics Adviser platform to disrepute.
17. Failure to observe these conditions may result in the suspension or termination of the adviser’s user account.

Warranties

18. The operators of this platform offer no warranties to users with regard to the uninterrupted operation of this service.
19. The operators of the Research Ethics Adviser platform make every effort to keep the platform free of computer viruses and malicious software but the operators provide no warranties that the platform is free of viruses and malicious software. Users are urged to use an effective internet security software and keep it up to date.
20. Transfers of payments to advisers will be commenced as promptly as possible and an email confirming the commencement of a transfer will be sent to the relevant adviser. The actual commencement of a transfer and the time a transfer takes can be dependent on a number of factors, such as interruptions to the online services of the relevant financial institutions. Consequently no warranty is provided as to the actual time between the receipt of the payment by the operators and the adviser’s receipt of the payment.
21. The terms and conditions that researchers must accept make it clear that the advice they receive is not a research ethics review and, though it is independent and experience advice, no guarantee is offered that there will be no difficulties when the work is submitted for research ethics review. The operators of the Research Ethics Adviser platform offer no professional indemnity or other cover to Advisers. Advisers are encouraged to arrange their own professional indemnity and other insurance cover, Advisers with institutional cover are urged to check that cover does include advice provided via the Research Ethics Adviser platform.
22. The operators of the platform will not share the name/email address of users with third parties.
23. The operators of the platform will maintain the confidentiality of adviser and researcher users of the platform. Aggregate or otherwise de-identified information about the operation of this platform (including the provision of advice to researchers) might be used to-
    1. improve the operation and functionality of this platform
    2. prepare a business case for seeking funding for the development of the full platform
    3. advertise or otherwise promote this platform
    4. discuss this platform in academic outputs.