Human research
The project involves people, their information, or their biological materials and is intended to extend knowledge through disciplined inquiry.
Independent review
for minimal-risk research.
The Vancouver Art Therapy Institute Ethics Review Board provides fee-based, independent ethics review. We specialize in delegated review for eligible minimal-risk research, including qualitative and arts-based studies. VATI is recognized by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as an eligible institution.
IndependentDelegatedTCPS 2Fee-based
Our review service
Is delegated review the right route?
The Vancouver Art Therapy Institute Ethics Review Board specializes in delegated review of minimal-risk art therapy, expressive arts therapy, qualitative, arts-based, practice-based, educational, and student research. Eligibility is determined through a proportionate assessment of the participants, research procedures, materials, context, and foreseeable harms.
Minimal risk
The probability and magnitude of possible harms are no greater than those encountered in everyday life as they relate to the research.
Independent review
The applicant needs review by a board outside their own organization and confirms that this pathway is acceptable to any institution, funder, publisher, or site involved.
Within our scope
The study can be reviewed through a delegated process. The Board may decline, request more information, or identify a different review pathway after screening.
Eligibility first
Confirm that independent review will be accepted.
Institutions and research sites may require their own REB review or authorization. Applicants are responsible for confirming that an independent decision from this Board meets those requirements.
Check TCPS 2 scopeWhat we review
A complete, reviewable study file.
Review begins when the Board has the protocol and every document a participant will encounter. The file should let a reviewer follow the study from recruitment through final data use.
Question and purpose
State what you are trying to learn, why the study is needed, and how each method answers the question.
Match the protocol, recruitment text, and consent form.
People and recruitment
Name who may take part, who will invite them, where the invitation appears, and how pressure or dependency will be handled.
Attach the exact email, poster, script, or post.
What will happen
Describe each visit, interview, survey, workshop, or observation in order. Include duration, location, equipment, and prompts.
Account for remote, in-person, and group settings.
Consent
Explain what participants will know before agreeing, how consent will be documented, and when it will be revisited.
Consent must be free, informed, and ongoing.
Risk and response
Connect each foreseeable harm to a practical response. Include privacy loss, distress, social consequences, power differences, and stopping rules.
Name the action, the person responsible, and the timing.
Data and withdrawal
Map collection, transfer, access, storage, retention, deletion, withdrawal, analysis, and publication. State where identifiers are separated.
Check that every platform and storage location is named.
TCPS 2
Three principles. Concrete choices.
Use the principles to test the design, the documents, and the decisions you will make when the study changes.
01 / Respect for Persons
Can each person make a real choice?
Use clear information, allow questions, revisit consent, and address relationships that could make refusal difficult.
02 / Concern for Welfare
What could change in a participant’s life?
Consider physical, mental, social, economic, and privacy effects. Make safeguards proportionate to the study.
03 / Justice
Who carries the burden and who receives the benefit?
Justify inclusion and exclusion. Make recruitment fair, and do not choose people only because they are easy to access.
Our specialty
Delegated review for eligible minimal-risk research.
The Board screens the project before accepting it for delegated review. A fee is charged for the review service. Payment supports reviewer time and administration; it does not guarantee approval or change the standards applied.
Areas of attention
Research that needs a close reading.
Qualitative and arts-based work+
Images, voices, bodies, stories, and places may identify a person even after a name is removed. Separate consent for participation, recording, quotation, exhibition, archiving, and publication when those choices can differ.
Describe how an emergent design will be managed, what counts as a protocol change, and when an amendment will be filed. Address dual roles, distress, stopping, support, and what happens when work is made in a group.
TCPS 2 Chapter 10Research involving Indigenous Peoples+
Read Chapter 9 early. Determine what community engagement is appropriate and how the project will respect relevant customs, codes, protocols, governance, and expectations about knowledge and data.
Community engagement does not replace each participant’s consent. Describe agreements, authority, access, interpretation, return of results, and continuing relationships with care.
TCPS 2 Chapter 9More than one institution or site+
A project involving several institutions, provinces, territories, or countries may require coordinated review. Map where recruitment, data collection, analysis, and oversight occur, then confirm the pathway with each relevant institution.
Canadian citizenship alone does not decide whether a Canadian REB reviews a project. Institutional responsibility, research activity, funding, affiliation, and local requirements all matter.
TCPS 2 Chapter 8Privacy and secondary use+
Name the information you will use, its identifiability, who controls it, who may access it, and whether consent covers the proposed use. “De-identified” is not the same as anonymous.
Explain security in ordinary language: devices, accounts, encryption, transfer, backups, access logs, retention, destruction, and the point after which withdrawal is no longer possible.
TCPS 2 Chapter 5Prepare to submit
Send a file the Board can review.
Begin with an eligibility inquiry. The Board will confirm whether the project appears suited to delegated review and provide the current fee and submission instructions.
Fees and decisions
Review is fee-based. Approval is never purchased.
The current fee and payment instructions are provided during intake. Fees cover the review process and do not determine the outcome. The Board may approve, request revisions, defer a decision, or decline a project that is outside its scope.
Contact the Board
Start with an eligibility inquiry.
Send a short description of the project, where it will take place, who is responsible for it, and why you believe it is minimal risk.
Richard.wainwright@vati.bc.caEmail inquiry
Send us a message.
The email draft includes prompts for the project, participants, procedures, minimal-risk rationale, safeguards, review requirements, timeline, and available documents.
Complete the prompts in your email application, attach any appropriate documents, and send the message to the Board. Do not include identifiable participant information in the initial inquiry.