A Workflow System for Managing Ethical Clearance in Research Work

Ethical clearances are mandatory for most research work involving or impacting humans, animals or the environment. The approvals ensure that research is conducted in an acceptable manner, do not affect other people, animals or the environment negatively and is done within expected boundaries. Though important, it takes a long time to obtain Ethical Clearances approvals; inevitably slowing down research work(s), demoralizing researcher(s) and rendering the research obsolete before commencement. Major causes of delay in Ethical Clearance approval processes, especially in Universities, have been attributed to the manual paper-based approach in use and the lack of effective tracking and feedback processes. In a bid to address these issues and speed up Ethical Clearance approvals, this work proposes an Ethical Clearance workflow system. The main functions of the system were developed, tested by stakeholders and was found acceptable and useful.