Research protocols involving human participants are subject to ethical review in the University of Hong Kong. The responsibility to obtain approval rests with the principal investigator of the research. He shall make sure that ethical approval is obtained prior to any data collection or analysis has taken place.
Academics and Research Postgraduate students (RPgs) from the Faculty of Law shall submit their application to the University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC).
The copies of full research proposal together with any questionnaire and/or interview script and completed application form should be submitted for review. The application form and standard templates of informed consent form are available here (link to http://www.rss.hku.hk/integrity/ethics-compliance/hrec). Normally the processing time for review takes no more than 3 weeks.
Starting from July 2020, all staff and research postgraduate students in the Faculty of Law are required to submit ethics applications via the Human Research Ethics Application System (HREAS) (HKU Portal https://hkuportal.hku.hk > Self-Service > Research> Human Research Ethics). More details can be found from the user guide for applicants https://intraweb.hku.hk/local/rss/hrec/hreas-manual-for-applicant.pdf.