[Air-L] public/private [part 1 of 2]

[Lois Ann Scheidt]

Alex, I will have to think about some of your post and respond later, 
because one concept has my head spinning around backwards.  Nowhere 
that I know of in the regs, does it say that the decision as to what 
type of studies or data used is left up to the researcher to decide if 
they need to seek IRB approval.  Now I am by nature not a huge lover of 
rules and regs and authority boards...but when it comes to IRBs I see 
how we got here and I understand why all research requires peer 
vetting.  If the researcher could make the decision then 1) IRB's would 
not be needed because no errors would be made, and 2) lots of 
researchers would be saying they were exempt just to avoid going 
through the administrative process.

My personal research on teens and their online lives, etc. has required 
me to apply for IRB approval when my peers working with adults did not 
have the same requirement.  In short, all of my classroom research had 
to be approved - intended publication or not - where students not 
looking at protected populations didn't have to apply unless they 
intended to publish or present.  This exception is not available to 
faculty, so all research that loosely is tied to humans must be vetted 
by the IRB.

I know of colleges/universities that have taken a "old school" stance 
on what connotes "research" so that qualitative methods were not 
considered research - since findings are not generalizable - so 
application is not made.  I think these institutions are changing 
though...if nothing else because the feds have sent out lots of 
guidance of late on how to handle qualitative studies, within the 
current legal framework.

Lois Ann Scheidt

Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana
University, Bloomington IN USA

Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and
IUPUC, Columbus IN USA

Webpage:  http://www.loisscheidt.com
Blog:  http://www.professional-lurker.com