Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans

The second edition of the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans was launched in December 2010. TCPS 2, as it is commonly known, updated and expanded the original (1998) version of TCPS. The Panel on Research Ethics (PRE) and the Secretariat on Responsible Conduct of Research that supports PRE, strive to ensure that TCPS 2 is current and that the guidance it provides is as clear as possible. In this, they have always received the full support of the federal research agencies (CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC) that are jointly responsible for the TCPS, and for PRE and the Secretariat.

This revised version of TCPS 2 reflects the efforts of PRE and the Secretariat since the launch of TCPS 2 to achieve those goals. Together, they have addressed areas requiring clarification and responded to the evolution of issues that arise in research involving humans. These efforts are informed by the feedback we received from the research community and from those whose professional focus is research ethics. Community engagement provides an invaluable source of information for PRE and the Secretariat, whether through our interpretation service, our speaking engagements at regional and national meetings, or our public consultation on the proposed changes that led to this version of TCPS 2. It is our hope that these revisions make TCPS 2 a more useful resource for researchers and, therefore, a more effective instrument for the protection of research participants.