URECA – the research ethics and data protection online review platform used by the University of Malta

Abstract

Nowadays, research ethics and data protection are given very high importance, and research organizations, including universities, need to safeguard their level of professionalism and integrity by providing the necessary guidelines. Moreover, they need to ensure that these guidelines are being adhered to by their affiliated researchers, including students. This is needed for protection of the research subjects, researchers, and the organization (university) itself. However, care must be taken so that the research ethics review process is streamlined as much as possible to minimize bureaucracy, as such guidelines would then be viewed as a research barrier. This study describes URECA, the online review platform developed in-house by the University of Malta to streamline its research ethics review process, thus simplifying matters for the researchers/students, reviewers, and auditing committees. This platform is utilized by researchers and students to submit information regarding their research and related data collection, by supervisors to endorse their students’ research, by Faculty Research Ethics Committee members to review research proposals as required, and by the University Research Ethics Committee to manage and audit the overall process.