Bernstein member involved: Alexandra Bendixen

Starting immediately, the Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID) provides the “Ethiktool”, a software for the dialogue-based user-guided generation of ethics applications and all participant documents for research involving human participants. The software was developed jointly with members of Chemnitz University of Technology (TU Chemnitz) and Bielefeld University and rests upon their longstanding experience in processing and evaluating ethics proposals. The Ethiktool guides applicants through a series of questions, which adapt dynamically based on previous input to specifically query those issues required for the planned study. The Ethiktool uses the responses to automatically generate all application and participant documents (information, consent, data protection, etc.) according to local regulations. The Ethiktool creates  standard phrases, checks the consistency and generates documents. while applicants and ethics committees can focus on the core issues regarding content and ethics considerations. This not only reduces the workload and sets the focus on the essential issues, but also supports researchers who so far have had limited experience with ethics applications by providing step-by-step guidance through all ethically relevant issues.

A predecessor software to the Ethiktool was developed at TU Chemnitz in 2021 and has since been in use there for all ethics applications. Building on the experience with this software, a team led by Prof. Alexandra Bendixen, who had already been in charge of the original tool, developed the new browser-based version at TU Chemnitz, ZPID and Bielefeld University with financial support by the Volkswagen Foundation. This new version is now available as a permanent service hosted by ZPID. Compared to its predecessor, new features include a modern user interface, substantially increased functionality, adaptability to local regulations and processes as well as the possibility to dynamically switch between English and German text versions.

The use of the Ethiktool is free of change and does not require any registration by the individual applicant user. Using the browser-based software, no data is transferred to third parties. Interested ethics committees and individuals are encouraged to explore the software’s functionality and to get in touch with the Ethiktool team for questions and comments.