You are conducting an interview for requirement gathering over Zoom for a research project. You will not record the interview's video or audio; you will only take notes during the interview. You plan to publish the results in a scientific journal, but all participant information will be anonymised. Do you need ethics approval for this study?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Research involving interaction with people (interviews) is treated as human-participant research and therefore normally falls under institutional ethics review, even when no audio/video is recorded and data are anonymised.

Relevant concepts:
- Human-subjects research: any systematic investigation that involves interaction with people to obtain data.
- Risk and consent: anonymisation and lack of recording reduce risk but do not eliminate it (e.g., sensitive disclosure, power dynamics).
- Institutional review: most universities and journals require prior ethics approval or an official exemption determination from an ethics/IRB committee before recruitment or data collection.
- Publication requirements: many journals request the ethics approval statement or an exemption letter.

Step-by-step reasoning:
1. You plan to interview people over Zoom, which is direct interaction to collect data — this qualifies as human-participant research.
2. Even without audio/video recording, notes taken during the interview are still data derived from participants and may contain personal or sensitive content before anonymisation.
3. Anonymisation and non-recording reduce potential harms but do not remove the need to consider participant welfare, informed consent, confidentiality, data management and potential re-identification risks.
4. Institutional review boards (IRBs)/ethics committees exist to assess these matters; most institutions require either formal approval or an official determination of exemption prior to starting the study.
5. Because you plan to publish, journals will typically expect an ethics approval statement or documentation of exemption; failing to obtain prior review can jeopardise publication and is against many institutional policies.

Why "Yes" is correct:
- The study involves human participants via interviews, so it requires ethics oversight; at minimum you must seek confirmation from your ethics committee that the project is exempt or eligible for expedited review.

Why "No" is incorrect:
- Assuming anonymisation and no recording automatically removes the need for ethics approval is incorrect; institutional policies usually require prior review or documented exemption regardless.

Conclusion: You do need ethics approval (or an official exemption determination). This matches the provided answer: Yes.

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