Although the ethics committee may not need to review all SOPs, researchers are encouraged to prepare them, regardless of the type or risk level of their study.
SOPs ensure that research subjects (or their tissues or data) are all treated in the same manner. SOPs are very important for complex procedures such as the performance of a new surgical technique, but can be equally useful for simple procedures such as the delivery of a questionnaire, or performance of a blood test.
Example of an SOP for a 6-minute walk test
When a research team is trained to follow SOPs, harm to subjects, scientific bias and unintended deviations from protocol are less likely to occur.