Author: Douglas Bradway

Announcement Regarding Prisoner Research Protocols

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Dear Investigators,

This is advance notice that the IRB will not be able to review protocols involving research with prisoners at its October 27, 2016 IRB meeting.  This includes submissions of new protocols, amendments and requests for continuation that involve research with prisoners.  The IRB prisoner representative member will not be able to attend this meeting.

Protocols involving research with prisoners may be submitted on Thursday, September 22, 2016 for review at the October 6, 2016 IRB meeting or submitted on Thursday, October 27, 2016 for review at the November 10, 2016 IRB meeting.  Click here for additional IRB meeting dates and submission deadlines.

If you have any questions, contact Doug Bradway at 6-0986 or by email at doug.bradway@uconn.edu.

IRB Policy Change: Review of Research Methods Courses

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The UConn Storrs Institutional Review Board (IRB) previously required that a protocol application be submitted to the IRB for any study for which human subjects research is the intent and the researcher proposes to use or involve human subjects student research projects conducted as part of Research Methods Courses.

As of July 1, 2015, that policy has been revised as follows:

A protocol application must be submitted to the IRB for any Research Methods Course where student human subjects research projects meet the regulatory definition of research: “Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.” Examples of this include: whole class projects where students are assisting the faculty member to collect data for the faculty’s own research purposes, those classes where each research project is designed to support a Master’s Thesis or a Dissertation, research projects intended to generate data that will be directly used for publication or presentation, or research projects designed to support further research (e.g., having students collect pilot data to support a future grant application or larger research project). Currently approved Research Methods Course protocols that meet the definition of research must be submitted for re-approval.

Any Research Methods Course where the goal of the student human subjects research projects is solely to provide an educational experience for the students that does not meet the regulatory definition of research will no longer require submission of a protocol application to the IRB.  Presentations of the data in the context of the class does not meet the definition of research.  Any individual or group projects within this course that do meet the definition of research must be submitted to the IRB as stand-alone protocols for review and approval.  Note that any currently approved Research Methods Course that does not meet the definition of research does not require submission to the IRB for re-approval.

Course instructors are encouraged to contact Doug Bradway at 860.486.0986 or by email at doug.bradway@uconn.edu with any questions.