Ethical Review board withdraws "Beauty study" from further processing

The so called "Beauty study" by PhD student Adrian Mehic at LUSEM, reported to The Ethics Review Appeals Board, is withdrawn from further processing.

During 2022 the research study Student beauty and grades under in-person and remote teaching was conducted by PhD student Adrian Mehic at Department of Economics at LUSEM. The study was reported to the The Ethics Review Appeals Board for ethical review in October and November by five different missives. The board has now announced that it has come to the decision to withdraw the case from further processing.

The appeal board states the following as reasons for the decision on February 3, 2023:

According to the documents, the data collected about the students is not the kind of sensitive personal data referred to in § 3 of the ethics review act. Nor has the research been carried out in violation of § 4 of the same law. The project is thus not covered by the regulations of the Ethics Review Act. The case is therefore written off from further processing.

The fact that The Ethics Review Appeals Board dismisses the case from further processing means that the board has made a decision which, according to § 37 of the Ethics Review Act, may not be appealed.

The research study has been reviewed and published in Economics Letters during autumn 2022. To the article in Economics Letters