“Does this class project need IRB review?”
“A student asked me to complete this survey; was IRB review needed?”
IRB members at Granville, OH-based Denison University frequently fielded questions like those from faculty members about studies conducted by undergraduate researchers. The IRB was invited to present at several courses to discuss their role in research.
“Informally talking with colleagues, we could see that there were different ideas about the role of undergraduate researchers and the IRB,” says Nausica Marcos Miguel, PhD, an assistant professor at Ghent University in Belgium. For example, some faculty wrongly assumed that research conducted by students, and presented only in the classroom setting, always needed IRB approval. Some assumed that IRB review was needed even for projects that did not meet the official threshold for what was considered to be “research.”
Many faculty members had questions regarding projects that were carried out in the classroom. “We were really interested in understanding how IRB websites communicated ideas about human subjects research and the appropriate way to conduct research with human subjects,” says Shiri Noy, PhD, an associate professor of sociology at Denison University.
Marcos Miguel and Noy conducted a study comparing how IRBs at similar schools communicated with undergraduate researchers and faculty about research ethics.1 The researchers analyzed the IRB websites at 50 top-ranked liberal arts colleges. Most of the websites provided some information on undergraduate research and on classroom-based research conducted by students.
The content on the IRB websites varied widely, even though the institutions were fairly similar. “This can explain why faculty members have so many questions when working with undergraduate researchers on different kinds of projects,” suggests Noy.
The researchers also analyzed a subsample of IRB websites at 10 colleges. Those websites demonstrated the wide variety of ways that liberal arts colleges communicate what counts as research, and also the process of securing IRB approval.
It is important that IRBs define the term “research” for students and faculty members, says Marcos Miguel. Even if projects do not fall under the “research” category, IRBs can still help students with those projects. “Those pedagogical activities can be a first step before conducting ‘research’ as defined by IRBs. In those first experiences, students can already start reflecting why it is important to think of their participants,” explains Marcos Miguel. For example, students can reflect on privacy concerns if survey responses containing personal information of the volunteers who participated in the project are distributed beyond the class.
Student researchers also need to understand that there are discipline-specific issues related to research ethics. “Conducting biomedical research is not the same as conducting linguistics research,” says Marcos Miguel.
IRB websites have the potential to be an important educational resource for anyone conducting human subjects research. Some of the IRB websites defined key terms such as “research,” “harm,” or “anonymity” as related to human subjects research. “As faculty who have been doing our own research for many years, we often have questions for IRBs. For someone encountering these terms for the first time, things can be very overwhelming,” acknowledges Noy. Other IRBs provided flow charts on what kind of review is necessary for various research projects. “This is particularly important for students engaging in research for the first time,” says Noy.
Ideally, IRB websites serve as an institutional hub for information, guidance, and resources for further reading, which can help faculty and students educate themselves. “While not in the formal purview of the IRB’s role, it appears many IRBs see themselves as an important source of information, and really embrace the educational mission — which is ideal,” Noy concludes.
- Marcos Miguel N, Noy S. Human subjects research guidelines for undergraduate researchers: An analysis of Institutional Review Board (IRB) websites at top liberal arts colleges in the United States. J Empir Res Hum Res Ethics 2023;18:263-277.
