Martin Tolich

Tolich specialises in qualitative research methods and research ethics committees. He earned a master's degree in sociology from the University of Auckland and completed his PhD at the University of California, Davis in 1991. He was a lecturer in sociology at Massey University from 1992 to 2004. In 2005 he transferred to the University of Otago to establish that university's first sociology major programme.^[1] Tolich was appointed Associate Professor at the University of Otago in 2009.^[2] He retired from teaching in 2022.

Tolich served as the deputy chair of the Massey University human ethics committee from 1997. In 2002 he joined the Manawatū-Whanganui Health and Disability ethics committee.^[3] In 2004 the Minister of Health appointed Martin Tolich chair of the newly established Multi-region health and disability ethics committee, where he served until 2009.^[4] In 2011 Tolich and his colleague Dr Barry Poata Smith were awarded a three-year Marsden grant to study the "Tensions around ethics review and Māori consultation".^[5][6]

Tolich is the founder of the Aotearoa Research Ethics Committee (previously the New Zealand Ethics Committee), a not-for-profit independent ethics committee, serving any researcher not eligible for health or institutional ethics review.^[7]

Born in Auckland, Tolich now lives in Dunedin. He married Derrith Bartley in 1983.^[8] The couple have two children.^[9]

• Tolich, M. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative ethics in practice. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
• Sieber, J.E., & Tolich, M.B. (2013). Planning ethically responsible research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Tolich, M., & Davidson, C. (2011). Getting started: An introduction to research methods. Auckland, New Zealand: Pearson.
• Davidson, C., & Tolich, M. (Eds.). (2003). Social science research in New Zealand (2nd ed.). Auckland, New Zealand: Pearson Education New Zealand.