Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC)
Ethics & integrity
The institutional body (IEC in India; IRB in the US) that reviews and approves research involving human participants before data collection may begin.
An Institutional Ethics Committee, also called an IRB or Research Ethics Committee, reviews research proposals involving human participants to ensure they meet ethical standards before data collection starts. Its role is to protect participants' rights, safety and wellbeing, and its approval is a precondition for most journal submissions.
A submission typically includes the research proposal, the data collection instrument, the participant information sheet, the consent form, a data management and confidentiality plan, and a risk assessment covering how any harm or distress would be handled. Committees assess whether risks are justified, consent is genuinely informed, and vulnerable participants are adequately protected.
Build the review into your project timeline. Approval commonly takes several weeks and may return with required amendments, and data collected before approval is generally unusable — journals and examiners can and do reject work on that basis. Quote the approval reference number in your methodology chapter and in any paper drawn from the study.
Where it's used
- Mandatory clearance for biomedical research under ICMR guidelines
- Increasingly required for survey and interview research at Indian universities
Related concepts
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