[Air-L] IRB and social media

[Elizabeth Buchanan]

Hi, all,

From the regulatory side, but perhaps useful to bring to your IRBs attention--the Office for Human Research Protections has guidance around the use of social media specifically for clinical trials recruitment at http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/clinicaltrials.html

I agree with Monica that asking for permissions from list owners is good practice and usually is not difficult to attain. (ANd I highly recommend Monica's article in IJIRE.)

Also, having a site moderator or leader post a "sticky" or other note announcing the study on the top of a forum or on a wall, etc,  is good entrance and usually IRBs are fine with that approach. 




Elizabeth Buchanan, Ph.D.
Endowed Chair
Director, Center for Applied Ethics
University of Wisconsin-Stout
PO Box 790
Menomonie, Wisconsin, USA
buchanane at uwstout.edu


Principal Investigator, 
Internet Research Ethics Commons
internetresearchethics.org
(NSF Project # 0924604)

elizabeth at internetresearchethics.org