In the world of academia conducting ethical research is important. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) was created to help protect humans recruited to participate in research studies to ensure any research done is harmless and protects the rights of those agreeing to be part of a study. Colleges and other institutions that do research have an IRB put in place to help ensure those doing research are conducting their projects in an ethical way.

Why is this important?

It is always important to protect human research subjects. Scientists want to further the body of knowledge in their field of expertise to understand humans better, but they want to do it in a way that protects the rights and needs of people agreeing to be studied. Some research studies, like those in the medical community, involve medications, experiments, and more which can cause harm to those being studied. The IRB weighs risks to participants to determine whether projects should be allowed to begin or if they need to be revised due to ethical concerns.

An Example To Explain The Purpose of the IRB:

A professor wants to do a study on the mental health of students suffering from depression. This professor wants to interview students with depression. Because the professor is interacting face to face with students with a mental health issue, they must conduct themselves in a way that will not harm their research subject. Interviews can be personal and discussing mental health can be difficult to do face to face. If a researcher asks questions that are inappropriate they could potentially cause a student to feel self conscious and trigger feelings of being depressed.

Before conducting their research or interviews, the professor must submit their research purpose, plan, interview questions, ethical concerns, and more to the IRB for review. An expert on ethical research will review their materials to ensure the research study will be safe for participants and will take their rights/needs into account. If the interview questions sound like they can do more harm than good, the plan will be rejected and the professor will have to revise their questions to resubmit to the IRB for approval. The professor will not be allowed to pursue their project until they have IRB approval.

An Example of Unethical Research

The story of David Reimer is one I always discuss with students when I teach the topic of ethical research. Back in 1967 a woman gave birth to twin boys. One of the baby boys had his penis damaged while it was being circumcised. It couldn't be repaired. The doctor dealing with this situation believed gender was largely the work of socialization and told the boy's parents they could remove the boy's penis and surgically turn him into a girl. The parents believed the doctor and the kid was operated on to surgically make him a girl. His parents raised him as a female. For the next 10 years the "girl" visited the doctor studying "her" so he could watch the kid's development to see if his experiment worked. It didn't. The "girl" never felt like a female. "She" behaved in masculine ways and suffered from psychological struggles from not fitting into society and not feeling at home in her body. The research subject finally figured out they were born male and had sexual reassignment surgery to become male again and took the name David Reimer. Reimer battled with severe depression and eventually committed suicide. (source)

Everything about this situation was unethical and caused harm to an innocent baby and ruined his life! This is why boards like the IRB exist. They work hard to protect people being studied.

What Research Is Reviewed By The IRB?

Research involving human subjects where data will be collected through researchers interacting with subjects.
Research that collects private and personal information (names, addresses, birthdays, etc.). Any information that can be used to identify people and/where they are located needs to be reviewed by the IRB to ensure researchers will protect their subjects private information.
Research using already existing data sets that contain private information.
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Important Parts of Ethical Research

Protecting the participants private information: Researchers need to protect their participants. They need to ensure confidentiality. Any information that can identify who participates in a study needs to have protections in place to ensure only the researchers have access to personal and private information. Anonymity is important to protect in cases where participants don't want their identities known.
Respecting the rights of participants: A researcher shouldn't force participants to do anything they don't want to. Researchers need to ensure that participants can refuse to answer questions or can refuse procedures in place during a study. Participants should be given the option to end the study at any time.
Avoiding harmful studies: Some research can potentially cause harm to research subjects. For example, medical studies can impact the health of participants in a study. Researchers need to be aware of all outcomes of conducting a study to ensure they protect their human participants.

My Experiences With The IRB

Different institutions have their own rules and standards for gaining IRB approval for research. I worked on several projects at two different universities where I had to get IRB approval to do research for studies in Sociology. Before getting approval I had to go through ethics training. I had to take an online course where I learned about ethics and was tested over different research scenarios to determine the best way to conduct research. At the end I was given a certificate of completion which was submitted to the IRB each time I did a new study. Every year two years I had to renew my certification of ethics training.

After that was completed I had to prepare my application for IRB approval. I had to write a literature review, questionnaires that went with my studies, and had to explain all aspects of how the research would be conducted to show my work wouldn't be harmful to my research subjects. For the most part, the IRB staff was quick in giving a decision and very thorough in looking at each application. I had to be extremely detailed in explaining the work I would do and how I would protect my research participants. I had to ensure confidentiality and anonymity. For one study I had to keep all participant records in a locked file cabinet kept in a locked office at the university. The IRB did a thorough job each time to ensure all aspects of my studies protected my participants.

Conclusion

Ethics is an important part of conducting scientific research. The IRB was created to help protect research participants and ensure researchers protect participant rights and wishes. It is the goal of scientists to further knowledge by studying humans but protecting those willing to be studied is also a goal to ensure human life is valued.

Author Information: Hive account@marxrab is a current doctoral student in the field of Sociology. She has 14 years of experience as a student, teacher, and researcher within the world of academia.

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Institutional Review Board: Protecting the Rights of Research Subjects