UWIC APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL

All Principal Investigators (PI) undertaking a research project should complete and sign this application form. Completion of Part One, the ethics review checklist, will help determine whether Part Two, the application for ethics approval, should be completed and, if so, to which ethics committee the application should be submitted for consideration. Before completing this form, please refer to the UWIC Research Ethics Committee (UREC) Guidelines and any relevant School guidelines. As a PI, you are responsible for exercising appropriate professional judgement in this review.

PART ONE - ETHICS REVIEW CHECKLIST

Principal Investigator: Supervisor (if student project): School: Type of researcher: Programme enrolled on: Project Title: Asif Iqbal Cardiff School of Management Postgraduate Student (no teaching) Making an Investment Decision and Choosing Between Stocks

SECTION A
Does your research fall entirely under the following three categories? 1. Paper-based, involving only documents in the public domain. 2. Laboratory based, not involving human participants or human tissue samples (eg electronics; chemical analysis). 3. Practice-based, not involving human participants (e.g. exhibitions, curatorial, reflective analysis, practice audit).

NO

If YES, you do not need to complete Part Two of this form. Instead, please provide a short synopsis of your project, complete Declaration A (page 3 below) and send the completed form to your School Ethics Committee for information. Synopsis of the project:

If NO, please answer the questions in Section B below and follow the relevant instructions. Before forwarding your application to the relevant committee, complete Declaration B below.

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SECTION B
1 2. Will you take blood or tissue samples from participants? Will the study involve prolonged or repetitive testing OTHER THAN repetitive training exercises of a type which form part of the participants normal activities (such as athletics or music training)? 3. Are drugs, placebos or other substances (eg vitamins) to be administered to participants? 4. Could the study induce physiological or psychological stress or anxiety significantly greater than the participants are likely to experience in their daily lives? 5. Does the study involve participants who are unable to give informed consent? 6. Will the study involve children? (NB: Projects in Professional Practice involving groups of children in a public place in school, with the permission of the school, are exempted.) 7. Is pain or more than mild discomfort likely to result from the study? 8. Will financial inducements, other than reasonable expenses and compensation for time, be offered to participants? 9. Will deception of participants be necessary during the study? 10. Will the study involve NHS patients or staff? No

No No No No No No No No No

Scenario 1 If you have answered NO to all questions 1-10 but your research involves human participants (e.g. answering questionnaires, interviews, taking part in focus groups, observation of behaviour, measuring physiological responses) you must complete Part Two of this form and submit your application (both Part One and Part Two) to your School Ethics Committee for consideration. Scenario 2 If you have answered NO to questions 5-10 but YES to any question 1-4 and you will be using an Approved Protocol1 for this section of your study, you must complete Part Two of this form and submit your application (both Part One and Part Two) to your School Ethics Committee for consideration. Scenario 3 If you have answered NO to questions 5-10 but YES to any question 1-4 and you will not be using an Approved Protocol, you must complete Part Two of this form and submit your application (both Part One and Part Two) to UREC for consideration. Scenario 4 If you have answered YES to any question 5-9 but NO to question 10 you must complete Part Two of this form and submit your application (both Part One and Part Two) to UREC for consideration. Scenario 5 If you have answered YES to question 10, an application must be submitted to the appropriate external NHS Research Ethics Committee and copied to your School Ethics Committee.

An Approved Protocol is one which has been approved by UREC to be used under the supervision by designated members of staff; a list of approved protocols can be found at:

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For all scenarios, applicants should note: It remains the responsibility of the applicant to operate within UREC guidelines and any School or professional guidelines in the conduct of the study. Participant recruitment or data collection must not commence until ethics clearance has been obtained from the relevant UWIC ethics committee (and in the case of Scenario 5 from both the appropriate NHS Research Ethics Committee and the relevant School Ethics Committee).

DECLARATION A
I confirm that the information contained in this form is correct My research falls entirely within categories described in Section A of this form and I do not need to take further action to obtain ethics clearance. Signature of Principal Investigator: Date: June 29, 2011

FOR STUDENT PROJECTS ONLY I confirm that I have read and agreed the information contained in this form Name of Supervisor: Date: Signature of Supervisor: School Research Ethics Committee use only Considered and supported Name:

Considered and referred to UREC Date:

DECLARATION B
I confirm that the information contained in this form is correct My research involves human participants and Section B of this form indicates: a) I must obtain ethics clearance from my School Ethics Panel b) I must obtain ethics clearance from the UWIC Research Ethics Committee c) I must obtain ethics clearance from the appropriate external health authority ethics committee Signature of Principal Investigator: Date:

FOR STUDENT PROJECTS ONLY I confirm that I have read and agreed the information contained in this form Name of Supervisor: Date: Signature of Supervisor:

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PART TWO - APPLICATION FOR ETHICS APPROVAL
Name ASIF IQBAL School/Centre Cardiff School of Management Other researcher(s) working on project N/A Does your project require ethical approval from an LREC or other body? If yes, please name the LREC or other body N/A Does your project use Human Tissue? N/A Has CRB clearance been N/A If yes, which organisation given? holds details of the check?2 Title of Project:

No

The Role of Financial Ratios and Risk & Return Analysis before making an Investment Decision: An analysis and evaluation of these functions when applied to two similar stocks in the Oil & Gas Industry Expected Start Date: JULY 02, 2011 Approximate Duration: 2 MONTHS Funding Body (if applicable): N/A

DECLARATION
I confirm that the information contained in this form is correct Signature of Principal Investigator: Briefly give experience in research involving human participants N/A Date:

FOR STUDENT PROJECTS ONLY

I confirm that I have read and agreed the information contained in this form Name of Supervisor: Date: Briefly give Supervisors experience in research involving human participants Signature of Supervisor:

School Research Ethics Committee / UREC use only

Decision reached: Project approved Project approved in principle Decision deferred Project not approved Project rejected Date:

UREC Reference Number: Name: Signature:

In cases where a CRB check has been sought by an external organisation, confirmation from that organisation that a satisfactory check has been received is required at application stage.

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A - PROJECT DETAILS
A1 Briefly describe the rationale behind your project The rationale of the study is to elaborate how a decision making process for an investment depends upon various valuation models studied by finance students as a primary knowledge base to become a finance professional A2 What are the aims of the research? Aims of research is show the utilization of Financial Theory in practical application during the process of an investment decision and identify factors affecting such process A3 Will you be using an approved protocol in your project? No A4 If yes, please state the name and code of the approved protocol to be used3 If your project does involve the use of an approved protocol, please indicate when answering the following questions, which areas of your study are covered by the protocol A5 What methods of data collection and analysis will you adopt? Quantitative Methods (Observing and recording well-defined events; Obtaining relevant data from management information systems and historical data from companies as well as past studies) and apply deductive approach using the pre-defined valuation models discovered by previous scholars A6 What remuneration (if any) will be offered to participants? N/A A7 What age group will participants be recruited from? N/A A8 How many participants will be involved? N/A A9 What sampling method and criteria will be used? 2 of the high performing companies in Oil and gas industry are taken for analysis, one of them is market leader, their performance will be compared to each other and against industry benchmark A10 Where and how will the sample be recruited? Historical data, past studies, internet, company annual reports A11 What method of initial contact will you use? Internet as well as finance books authored by finance and research professionals

B POTENTIAL RISKS
B1 What potential discomfort or inconvenience to the participants do you foresee? N/A B2 How do you propose to deal with the potential risks? N/A B3 What potential risks to the interests of the researchers do you foresee? The accuracy of the data will be based on the recent financial year figures compared with previous financial years, the current events and real time profits/losses or news as well as disputes may not be accounted for. The size of the study may not provide substancial basis for decision making in real, however it does present a smaller version of the actual practice B4 How will you deal with these potential risks? The limitations of the study have been clarified in the proposal and will be included in the
3

An Approved Protocol is one which has been approved by UREC to be used under the supervision by designated members of staff; a list of approved protocols can be found at:

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final research paper for the purposes of optimal confidence level

C CONSENT
C1 Will informed consent be sought from the participants? C2 IF NO, explain why informed consent will not be sought N/A C3 IF YES, describe how informed consent will be obtained and attach copies of relevant documents N/A C4 If you are using an approved protocol, has the approved wording for participants been included in your Participant Information Sheet? C5 IF NO, why not? N/A C6 If there are doubts about participants abilities to give informed consent, what steps have you taken to ensure that they are willing to participate? C7 If participants are aged under 18 describe how you will seek informed consent C8 How will consent be recorded? D OTHER DETAILS D1 Will participants be informed of the right to withdraw without penalty? If no, please detail the reasons D2 How will you ensure participants confidentiality and anonymity? D3 How will issues of data storage be addressed? D4 Are there any further points you wish to make with regard to the proposed research?

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