Submit or not my HCI research project to the ethics committee, that is the question

Abstract

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) deals with the communication phenomena study between people and computer systems, thus the involvement and participation of human beings in scientific research are crucial. Studies taking individuals as subjects, however, may have implications in ethical and legal issues directly, and may impact directly on research participants. In order to reduce such risk, it is recommended to submit a research abstract, prior to the beginning, to Research Ethics Committees-RECs (coordinated by NCRE - National Commission for Research Ethics in Brazil). This article presents a brief discussion, based on some previous experience, about challenges and opportunities when submitting papers to RECs and it is based on a survey held in HCI community about practices on submitting papers to the RECs in Brazil.