FAQs

Q. If there is one thing that is the most important part to get right what would it be?

A. Explaining your research project in sufficient detail so that the reviewers can determine the level of risk.  Remember that risk includes more than physical harm.  For social, educational, and behavioral research risks include:

Psychological: risks that may be experienced during participation in the research and/or afterwards as a result of participating in the research.  These risks include anxiety, stress, fear, confusion, embarrassment, depression, guilt, shock, loss of self-esteem, and/or altered behavior.

Social/Economic: risks that include alterations in relationships with others that are to the disadvantage of the subject, and may involve embarrassment, loss of respect of others, labeling with negative consequences, or diminishing the subject’s opportunities and status in relation to others.  These risks include payment by subject’s for procedures, loss of wages or income, and/or damage to employability or insurability.

Legal: include risk of criminal prosecution or civil lawsuit when research methods reveal that the subject has or will engage in conduct for which the subject or others may be criminally liable.

Loss of Confidentiality: Confidentiality is presumed and must be maintained unless the investigator obtains the express permission of the subject to do otherwise.  Risks from breach of confidentiality include invasion of privacy, as well as the social, economic and legal risks outlined above.  Loss of confidentiality is the most common type of risk encountered in social and behavioral science research.

To the extent that you can reduce, eliminate, or in other ways mitigate these risks, your research will benefit, and the review process will proceed much more rapidly.