Guidance on UG submissions reporting data from other people – from original

research involving human participation to “personal communications”

All research involving other people – asking them, for example, to keep diaries, respond to
survey questionnaires, be observed or interviewed – has to be approved by the RNCM
Research Ethics Committee. This policy was agreed by Academic Board in 2006.

Undergraduate students should NOT carry out research involving other people unless they
completed the 3rd and 4th year elective “Applied Music Psychology: Theory, Practice and
Research” in 2012-2013. In this elective they made an application to the RNCM Research
Ethics Committee having read the RNCM and BPS Codes of Conduct and the UG Music
Psychology Guidelines: Accessing Materials, Reading and Writing. They learned how to
raise appropriate questions. They addressed the ethical issues associated with carrying out
research involving other people by ensuring that participants (in studies using methods such
as observations and experiments) and respondents (to questionnaires and in the context of
interviews) have given their informed consent, are guaranteed anonymity and/or
confidentiality and are debriefed. They were introduced to methodological issues such as
bias, demand characteristics, reliability and validity, and found out how to analyse and
interpret the data they gather in the course of their investigations. This elective is not
available in 2013-2014.

It is clearly valuable for student composers and performers to talk with, and learn from each
other. Students should NOT, however, report conversations in submissions as though they
were research findings. They should be regarded, rather, as “personal communications”,
used only for the purpose of enhancing practice. Examples might be a performer
demonstrating the capabilities of her instrument to a composer, or one performer talking
about his experience of playing a specific piece or singing a role to another. While holding
conversations (face-to-face, via telephone, Skype or e-mail) would not normally require
ethical approval, students asking questions of their peers (and others) should nevertheless
obtain the explicit consent of their interlocutors to make use of their responses, and
acknowledge the contribution they have made to the student’s learning. They should be
given the opportunity to check transcripts if the conversation has been recorded, and to
satisfy themselves that paraphrases of what they said are accurate.

The standard way of citing personal communications (letters, e-mails and other person-to-
person communication) using APA-style formatting, for example, is to cite in the body of the
text (essay, project report, dissertation etc.) the communicator’s name, the fact that it was
personal communication, and the date of the communication.

(S. Lawrence, personal communication, 29 October 2012).

E. Masson also reported that many of her students had difficulties distinguishing
between research findings and anecdotal evidence (personal communication, 26
October 2012).

Do NOT include personal communication in the list of references or bibliography. If you

include a personal communication in your submission, however, please supply evidence
such as an e-mail from the person who provided the communication saying they agree to
your making use of it and are confident that they have not been misrepresented.

Prof. Jane Ginsborg, ADRE and Chair of RNCM Research Ethics Committee,
September 2013