Final letter to participants

The National Statement advises that you should communicate your research results to participants in a timely manner, and in clear and accessible language. See section 3.1.72 of the National Statement. The RCH HREC expects that in most cases you should do this by sending participants a final letter. Our office needs to approve this letter before you send it to participants. You can email the letter to us at rch.ethics@rch.org.au. 

Please:

• include your study number in the subject heading of the email
• let us know whether your study is single site or multi-site. If your study is multi-site, clearly list the full names of all the sites in the email
• make sure you send a clean copy of the letter in Word format. We cannot provide advice on PDF letters.

Once we have approved the letter, you can send it to participants. 

You can use this Example final letter to guide your own letter.

Sometimes, a study may close earlier than expected and have no results to pass on to participants. If this is the case, you can use this Example final letter with no results for guidance. 

For more information, refer to the Final letter guidelines. 

Other letters and forms

• Opt out letter - for the opt out approach. 
• Permission to contact form - to get permission from a third party to contact the participant about the project.
• Record of verbal consent - form to be signed by the research team rather than the participant or their parent/guardian.
• Recruitment letter - this should accompany a more detailed PICF. 
• Recruitment letter from third party - for recruiting a participant via a third party, rather than directly through the research team.  
• School permission form - asking a school principal to give permission for research to be done at their school.
  
• Tracing letter - if you are unsure of a participant's postal address, or if you have not had contact with them for about two years or so, we advise sending them a tracing letter. The letter complies with privacy legislation by providing limited personal information about the participant. It should be sent to the participant before sending them details about the research project.
  

Child information sheet

Some children do not have capacity to consent to taking part in research. You should still involve them in discussions about the project. One way to do this is give them a child information sheet to help them understand the project.