[Air-L] A valuable addition to the discussion on IRBs

danah boyd aoir.z3z at danah.org
Wed Aug 15 02:52:05 PDT 2007


Needing a desperate break from the IRB was the heaviest straw in my  
decision not to enter the academic job market.  Folks keep telling me  
that this institution or that institution is not that bad, but when I  
talk to folks, it depresses me beyond belief just what concessions  
academics are willing to make to make IRBs happy.  It's never about  
better protecting subjects; instead, it's about better protecting  
fearful institutions.  Research shouldn't be like that and most of  
the projects that I want to work on next would never fly through an  
IRB because of their necessary rogue nature.  I'm playing by the  
rules in order to graduate, but I'm leaving academia because of it.   
I hope to come back at some point, but I won't return while working  
on projects involving teens.

I also keep hearing of folks who work in industry who decide against  
graduate school because of IRB requirements - they feel more free to  
do research in industrial settings, even if they can't publish.   
That's depressing.


On Aug 14, 2007, at 4:40 PM, Lois Ann Scheidt wrote:

> * * *
> Mary L. Gray, an anthropologist at Indiana University at Bloomington,
> described her work in graduate school, which raised all kinds of red
> flags with her IRB at the time.....
>
> Gray said that "IRB fatigue" is discouraging researchers - especially
> graduate students - from even trying to get projects approved. * * *
>
> http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/08/14/soc
>




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