Public engagement and involvement in research can take place at several levels: 1) as participation, e.g. in clinical studies, 2) engagement, e.g. dissemination of results, and 3) active involvement in research activities and steering. Each of these ways of engaging the members of the public in research entails different ethical requirements. This checklist is intended to help applicants and ethics committees to classify their public engagement and involvement activities and to reflect on the relevant ethical aspects. This checklist was developed in the context of an informal working group of Austrian ethics committees initiated by the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft (Austria). However, this checklist does not replace the requirements of the ethics committee to which the application is submitted.