BU Research Blog

A participant must be informed about the purpose, methods and intended possible uses of the research, what their participation in research entails and what risks, if any, are involved, so that they can make an informed decision about whether or not they want to take part in your research.  Provide your participants with a suitable Participant Information  Sheet and Agreement Form, allowing sufficient time for a participant to reflect/ask questions before they agree (consent) to take part.  Participation should be voluntary and free from coercion.

Templates are available for your to download and adapt:

• Participant Information Sheet template (PI Sheet) for general use – make sure you read the associated ‘How to prepare….’ guidance
• Parent/Guardian Information Sheet Template
• Participant Agreement Form template (PAF) General Use
• Participant Agreement Form template (PAF) – Parent/Guardian
• Exemplar Participant Assent Form (kindly provided by Dr Fiona Ling)
• Exemplar Participant Information Sheet/Assent Form (kindly provided by Mark Moseley, PGR)
• External guidance on how to produce an information sheet for children (http://www.hra-decisiontools.org.uk/consent/examples.html) – please refer to section ‘Children and Young people (UK wide)‘
• Global kids Online provides tools and example participant agreement forms for working with children and schools (http://globalkidsonline.net/tools/qualitative/)
• Health Research Authority guidance with regard to readability, including external resources/tools you can use.

Participant Information Sheet Templates for a questionnaire or online survey

If collecting identifiable personal information:

• Participant Information Sheet Template for questionnaires/online survey

Anonymised Questionnaires (not collecting identifiable personal information about a research participant):

• Participant Information Sheet Template for questionnaires/online survey

Remember depending on your research, you may need to consider using a number of different forms or adapted version of the forms as follows:

Participant Information Sheet – Adults
Participant Information Sheet – Children/Young People
Parent/Guardian Information Sheet

Agreement form for Adults
Agreement form for parent/guardians
Assent form (for children/young people who are agreeing to take part (under 16)).

When involving children with a wide age range, it might be appropriate to provide separate PI Sheets for the different age groups.  Always tailor your PI Sheet to the participant.

Research activities such as data collection should not commence before the online ethics checklist (including participant information/agreement forms if relevant) has been approved.