Informed Consent Form

Informed consent rests on three requirements: the participant has enough information to decide, they are capable of understanding it, and they are free from coercion. A signature on a form that fails any of those is not valid consent, which is why the participant information sheet matters as much as the form itself.

Write in plain language at a level your participants will actually understand, avoiding technical terms and institutional jargon. Cover what the study is for, what participation involves and how long it takes, any foreseeable risk or discomfort, how data will be stored, anonymised and eventually destroyed, who to contact with concerns, and an explicit statement that participation is voluntary and can be withdrawn without penalty.

Adapt this scaffold to your ethics committee's own template, which usually takes precedence. Extra safeguards apply for minors, where parental consent plus the child's assent is required, and for situations of unequal power such as recruiting your own students or employees. Obtain approval before collecting any data — data gathered beforehand is generally unusable and journals do reject work on that basis.