Questions 37-39 of the IRB application relate to your data
collection tools. This information should be in your proposal, but let's work
through the questions.
q. 37 asks if you are using any published measurement tools
(e.g., a survey). If yes, you must complete q. 38, if no you skip to q. 39.
q. 38a Here you name the copyright holder of each instrument
that you are using. Typically, it is the author of the instrument.
q. 38b you need to indicate if you have purchased the
instrument for research use or if you have gotten permission for its use. If it
was published in a journal or the full instrument is available online it is
typically considered in the public domain.
How do you get permission from an author? Write to them on
email; try googling them and finding out their current employer and tracking
them down. If you have no success at that try contacting the co-authors.
q. 38c asks you to list any modifications you are making to
the original instruments. Keep in mind that if you make major changes you will
need to validate the new measure, which requires additional time and
statistics.
q. 39a asks you to list any instruments that you have
designed. Typical ones are demographics surveys and interview questions.
q. 39b asks if you had an expert panel (outside of your
committee) review your self-designed items. This is a good idea, particularly
for your interview questions. You and your chair can ask a few faculty members
to offer their opinions on them.
q. 39c asks if you piloted the items already (you would have
needed to have IRB approval to do this)
q. 39d asks if you plan to pilot them in the future. If you
are a regular reader of the blog, you know that I strongly recommend this! See
my post on 10/16 for more info it.
Next time we will continue examining the IRB application,
with q. 40-42. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to
discuss in a future post? Would you like
to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
No comments:
Post a Comment