IRB

What does a member of IRB (Institutional Review Board) look for when he or she reviews your application? The IRB's focus is on ethical issues, so they will be looking at (among other things) how you say you will recruit participants, how you will be interacting with them and your relationship with any potential participants, or sponsoring organizations. Let's take each of these items and consider them.

The IRB will be looking for potential coercion in your recruitment, such as approaching people in-person to press them to participate or having a person in authority recruiting them. Better options are using fliers or ads, so it is easier for people to choose to say no. Many IRBs are now discouraging the use of large incentives for participation (i.e., paying people money) or using lotteries. They will also want to know if any vulnerable groups will be recruited (e.g., elderly, children, prisoners, patients), and if you have a prior relationship with participants.

If you are meeting people in-person (as opposed to using the internet), the IRB will want to see a copy of everything you will say to participants, including instructions and debriefings. They will want to know if you are working with a sponsoring organization and exactly what they will be doing (and the organization will probably need to provide a letter agreeing to these things).

Next time, I will discuss Chapter 4 from the faculty reviewer perspective. 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