Getting consent from participants

Ethical research necessitates informing your participants about all the details of your study, including what data will be collected, used, and shared. You are also obligated to notify them of the consequences of participating in your study. As a way to get all of this done in one place, it is advised to have a consent form signed before inducting participants into your study.

A consent form should ideally include:

• The purpose of your study
• The activities and tasks that will be involved in the study
• The option to withdraw voluntarily from the study
• What data will be collected, stored, analyzed, shared, and with whom
• A consent statement

Your study may include children and adults incapable of fully understanding the terms of your study or lacking the full agency needed to make voluntary decisions. In this event, seek out their guardians for their informed consent.^[1]