Field Research Guidelines

Field Research Approvals

The following process applies to all field research, whether it is being conducted within Alberta, the rest of Canada, or internationally.

Effective: August 18, 2021

Step 1. Complete the “10 easy pre-planning steps for Field Research” outlined here. You can access the templates for the Field Activities Plan (FAP) and the Human-Participant Field Activities Plans (H-FAP) in the Field Researcher's Toolkit.

Step 2. Submit your FAP or H-FAP to Nancie Hodgson at resarts@ualberta.ca, copying your Chair or Supervisor. Please download the template form and save it to your computer, and send your plan as a WORD attachment. Do not send a Google link.

Step 3. Nancie and Marie will review your plan, and we will notify you once it is approved and about next steps. Until further notice, international travel requests will need to obtain approval from the Public Health Response Team (PHRT) in addition to Faculty approval: we will guide you through this third step.

Finally, what constitutes field research:

According to the terms of reference of the university's Field Activities Committee, field research consists of off-campus research activities, including all types of field, archival, library and other research carried out nationally or internationally. If you are gathering data in an archeological site, an archive, a museum or any other site, you are conducting field research. Meetings and consultations are generally not considered field research. A single FAP or H-FAP for one project that involves multiples site visits should be sufficient—as long as there are no major changes and the same PIs and students are involved.

If you have any doubts or questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Nancie or myself.