Many of the projects undertaken by the CSMLS in the past have involved institutional document and data analysis and have not required ethical review. More recently, the occasional CSMLS projects involving clear researcher/subject relationships with human participants have made use of ad hoc ethics review processes. With the adoption of its specific research mandate, the CSMLS acknowledges the need for formal ethics review policies and protocols to demonstrate its commitment to research ethics and integrity.

The CSMLS seeks to conduct and facilitate research in accordance with accepted Canadian practices as laid out in the Tri-Council Policy Statement. The CSMLS document "CSMLS Guidelines for Research Involving Human Subjects" has been created to communicate research ethics policies, practices, and guidelines to CSMLS researchers, Research Ethics Board (REB) members, and interested observers. It is intended to ensure that research carried out by the CSMLS meets the high ethical standards maintained by academic research institutions in Canada, and has been developed in compliance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Human Subjects (TCPS).