How to Write the Procedure Section of the Method Chapter: Ethics, Informed Consent and the Order of Steps

What goes in the procedure section - ethics approval, informed consent, how the questionnaires were administered, order of steps, duration, assignment to groups in an experiment, debriefing and privacy - with a template and examples for an online survey and an experiment.

Part of the series: How to write the method chapter of an empirical paper

The procedure section tells what happened, in order, from the moment a participant met the study until they finished. It's written so another researcher could replicate the study step by step - and so the marker is satisfied the study was conducted ethically.

What it must include

1. Ethics approval - from which committee (the department's or faculty's ethics committee), and an approval number if there is one.
2. How participants reached the study - a link, a referral, direct contact (briefly; details go in the participants section).
3. Informed consent - what participants were told (general aim, duration, voluntariness, the right to withdraw, anonymity), and how they consented.
4. Administration - online (Qualtrics, Google Forms) or in person; in groups or individually.
5. Order of steps - the order of the questionnaires or tasks; whether it was counterbalanced.
6. Duration - how long it took on average.
7. In an experiment: how participants were assigned to groups (random assignment?), and what each group went through.
8. Ending - debriefing, compensation, and how the data were stored.

Example: an online survey

The study was approved by the psychology department's ethics committee. The questionnaire was administered online via Qualtrics between March and May 2026. The opening page explained that the study concerned experiences around exams, that participation was voluntary and anonymous, and that participants could stop at any point; continuing to the questionnaire constituted informed consent. Participants first completed the test-anxiety questionnaire and the self-esteem scale (in random order), and finally the demographic questionnaire. The survey included one attention check. Completion took about 12 minutes on average.

Example: an experiment

Participants came to the lab individually. After signing an informed consent form, they were randomly assigned to one of two groups: the experimental group wrote for 10 minutes about their worries about the exam, and the control group about an ordinary day. Immediately afterwards they solved 20 quantitative problems with a 15-minute time limit. At the end of the session they were debriefed on the study's aims and received one course credit.

Writing rules

• Past tense, chronological order.
• Don't repeat the instrument descriptions - refer to them by name ("the test-anxiety questionnaire").
• Only what was actually done - not what was planned.

Common mistakes

• No mention of ethics or informed consent - an almost certain comment from the marker.
• "Participants completed the questionnaires" with no order, platform or duration.
• In an experiment, no explanation of how groups were formed - without random assignment, you can't claim causation.
• Mixing in the data analysis - what you did with the data belongs in the data-analysis section.

FAQ

Does a seminar paper need ethics approval? In most departments, yes, for any study with participants. Check your department's procedure before collecting data.

Procedure vs data analysis? Procedure is how the data were collected; data analysis is what you did with them (software, tests, handling missing data).

Do I attach the consent form? Usually in the appendices.

What else is in the method chapter? Participants, instruments and data analysis - see How to write the method chapter.

Want someone to go through your method chapter? Send us the draft.

Last updated: 2026-10-01