Do I Need IRB Approval?
If your research involves human subjects, you need to apply for IRB
approval.
If
your project is not a systematic
investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge,
then your project does not constitute research involving human subjects
and you do not need to file for IRB approval.If your project is designed to obtain
information about living human individuals through intervention or
interaction with those persons, then you need to file for
IRB approval.
Projects
that obtain information through
intervention with a person
include (but are not limited to) procedures that gather physical data
about a person, and manipulations of a person or a person's environment
that elicit information about the person.
Projects obtain information through interaction with a person
if there is communication or interpersonal contact between the person
and an investigator.
If
your project is designed to obtain identifiable
private information about a person, you need to file for
IRB approval.A
project obtains identifiable
information about a person
if the identity of the person can be ascertained readily from the
information or if the identity of the person is associated with the
information.
Private information
about a person includes (but is not limited to) information that a
reasonable person would expect to not be made public (such as a medical
record) and information about a person's behavior in a context where it
is reasonable to expect that no information-gathering about that
behavior is occurring.
If
(1) your project is designed to obtain identifiable information about a
person but the information is not private, and (2) your
project is not
designed to obtain information through intervention or interaction with
a person, then your project does not consitute research that involves
human subjects and you do not need to file for IRB approval.
Examples
of research that involves human subjects include: surveys or
cognitive tests designed
to measure psychological reactions or mental abilities, human factors
research, testing medical equipment on humans, tests for the
effectiveness of drug treatments, and other therapies.
If you have a question about whether your research requires IRB
approval, please contact Dr. Nicholaos Jones, IRB Chair, by email at irb@uah.edu,
by phone at 256.824.2338, or by letter at 332B Morton Hall, 301
Sparkman Drive, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville AL
35899.