academics
“It would be awesome if the college could work toward building a wind generator or start investing in photovoltaics to cut our electricity bill.”
Desktop Technology Specialist David Levine
Certain research does not require review. The Institutional Review Board (IRB), not the investigator, certifies whether research qualifies as exempt. Please contact the Chair of IRB or a member of the IRB committee to discuss a research proposal that meets these criteria. In general, the following things are exempt from IRB review:
- Normal educational practices (assignments and course evaluations);
- Educational tests, surveys, interviews or observation of public behavior unless identified and sensitive (substance abuse, sexual behavior/attitudes);
- Research using existing data and documents if publicly available and unidentifiable;
- Taste and food quality evaluation and consumer acceptance studies;
- Studies that do not fit the federal definition of research.
- "A systematic investigation (including research development, testing and evaluation), designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge."
In general, IRBs seek to ensure a few basic things and these can be useful to think about with any survey:
- Respect for Persons
- autonomy
- protection of individuals with reduced autonomy
- Beneficence
- maximize benefits and minimize harms
- do good, not just avoid harm
- Justice
- Equitable distribution (by race, class, gender, age, etc.) of research costs and benefits
- Informed consent
- participants should understand what they are being asked to do
- participants should understand the anticipated benefits and costs of participation (time, money, physical and emotional risk)
- participant responses remain confidential
- participants have the right to refuse to participate or withdraw at any time
- participants are provided with contact information for the investigators/researchers and are given contact information for someone else at the institution if they have concerns about the investigators/researchers and/or the activity (usually IRB with research studies)
