Using Personal Data in Research: Code of Practice for SOAS Staff and Students

As well as conforming to ethical standards, all Research projects that involve working with personal or special category data must conform to the requirements of current data protection legislation.

The Code of Practice for SOAS staff and students: Using Personal Data in Research (pdf; 693kb) (version 5.1) applies to all researchers at SOAS, where the research involves the gathering or use of personal data.

The guidance should also be read in conjunction with SOAS Research Ethics Policy.  The Code of Practice includes sections which explain:

  • How the Data Protection Legislation applies to academic research.
  • The importance of seeking informed consent from research participants.
  • How informed consent should be recorded.
  • Issues relating to audio-visual material, photographs and surveys.
  • How to keep research data secure.
  • Anonymisation, pseudonymisation, privacy by design.
  • The access rights of research participants.
  • Intellectual property and ownership issues.

Appendix B and C of the Code of Practice provide a Model Consent form and Participant Information Sheet (pdf; 240kb) which can be used and adapted by SOAS researchers.  A Word docx version is also available: Model Consent form and Participant Information Sheet (msword; 32kb)

All questions relating to the Code of Practice should be directed to the Information Compliance Manager (dataprotection@soas.ac.uk).