Institute for Communications Research: Resources on Institutional Review Board and Human Subjects Research

I Overview

The College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Committee is the college-level body responsible for reviewing researches involving human subjects. The committee is chaired by Professor Norman Denzin.

UIUC and College of Communications policy on human subjects research states that all research involving human subjects that is conducted by any employee or agent of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), or otherwise conducted at or sponsored by the UIUC, irrespective of the risks, scope, funding, or location of the research, must comply with federal and campus policies for the protection of human subjects. The UIUC Institutional Review Board (IRB) and College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Committee share responsibility for ensuring that all relevant research activities meet these requirements. All students, faculty, or staff in the College of Communications who plan to conduct research involving human subjects, or researchers from another institution who plan to collaborate with College of Communications students, faculty or staff must follow the procedures for human subjects review

In general, the College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Committee evaluates all studies involving human subjects except those studies that are funded in whole or in part by funding resources external to the university or those studies that involve more than a "minimal risk" to subjects. (Minimal risk is defined as a research protocol in which risks of anticipated harm are not greater, considering probability and magnitude, than those ordinarily encountered in the subject's daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests). All research which places human subjects at more than minimal risk and some externally funded research must be reviewed by the University Institutional Review Board (IRB) before researches can be run.

The internal review of research with human subject at the College of Communications follows the general federal and campus guidelines to prioritize ethical awareness for protecting human subjects in research. At the same time, it is expected that the internal review process could also generate lively conversations across the units in the college on the issues of federal regulation, academic freedom and research ethics, while at the same simplifying procedures and minimizing paperwork for communications researchers.

There are three tracks of review in the College of Communications: interpretive research of the oral history variety that does not require IRB review, behavioral science research that qualifies for expedited review and exemption within college IRB review, standard behavioral science research requiring campus IRB review. (Please refer to Appendix I for the routing of application requirements at different levels)

1. In the light of the present establishment on the application of federal regulations governing research on human subjects to oral history, above all, we hold that communication studies in general fall in a similar body of research that does not contribute to "generalizable knowledge", the regulatory definition of research, and should be freed from federal review. If communication scholars deem their communications project do not meet the regulatory definition of research, they may make a statement to the college IRB body claiming that their research is qualified for exclusion of IRB review. Although there is not yet a college protocol that defines the types of communication and media research to be excluded from IRB review, we hope college-level conversations on this subject could be generated to serve as a reference for researchers to make "exclusion" statements. These conversations join force with a nationwide action taken by academic professional associations such as AAUP (American Association of University Professors) against the "unchecked power" of IRB over the academic freedom. We encourage all members of the College of Communications family refer to the latest report of AAUP on this issue.

The following articles should also be of interest to concerned scholars:

Live Discussions, "Getting the OK to Interview Grandma," Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 8, 2006.

Jennifer Howard, "Oral History Under Review," Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 10, 2006.

Nevertheless, it should also be pointed out that the applicability of the exclusion of IRB reviews to communications research by no means contradicts with the high esteem for ethical integrity that communication scholars prioritize in their researches involving human subjects. For decades, indeed, communications researchers have promulgated high ethical and professional standards, including their ethical requirement to gain informed consent prior to conducting an interview. The College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Committee take these standards into consideration when assessing whether communications researches met the criteria for federal regulation. For a comparative review on the nature of research that might be exempted from IRB review, please refer to Appendix II on the complete exclusion of oral history research from IRB review.

2. If a project does meet the regulatory definition of research, the application for college IRB review should be filed. As a central part of the committee's effort to facilitate College of Communications researchers, the college IRB body makes decisions on certain research projects which are exempt from IRB review, or can be reviewed in an expedited process, based on the UIUC and federal guidelines. Please note that the determination of exemption may not be made by the investigators themselves. All human subjects research, whether exempt or not, must be submitted for approval by College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Committee. No involvement of human subjects may take place prior to formal, written approval from the appropriate body. For a description of categories of research that meet the requirements for both "exempt review" and "expedited review", please refer to Appendix III A and B.

Given the scope, nature and methodologies of communications research, much of research undertaken by College of Communications is supposed to be exempted from IRB review, and therefore it is the aim of the committee to facilitate researchers, by helping them adjust their projects to the federal and campus requirements.

3. If a project involves more than minimal risk to human subjects, and is funded externally, the application for campus IRB review should be filed with campus IRB-1 from and other required materials (Appendix IV).

All students, faculty and staff of the College of Communications are expected to make themselves familiar with the scope of research subject to IRB review, the different levels of review required for the research, and the departmental and University human subjects review processes.

II. Review process

For research projects that are not externally funded and do not involve more than minimal risk, and are deemed by researchers as "research" according to the federal definition, human subjects review may be initiated by submitting a completed College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Form (Appendix V), and supporting documentation to the College of Communications / ICR Human Subject Review Committee. The form and supporting materials must be received by the committee at least four weeks before the research is scheduled to begin. On the application form, it is assumed that researchers should indicate whether their project qualifies for either "Exempt from Review" or "Expedited Review".

On the IRB application form, researcher shall identify his or her Responsible Project Investigator (RPI). Responsible Project Investigator is a nonvisiting member of UIUC faculty or staff who takes ultimate responsibility for the protection of the subjects and the conduct of the human subjects research described on his or her IRB application. For College of Communications students, the RPI should normally be their academic advisor or course instructor that meets certain requirements, or the IRB contact person in their units. (See http://www.irb.uiuc.edu/ihb/part3.asp#A)

The supporting documentation may include but is not limited to an informed consent. The consent form may be a comprehensive written document that embodies the federally required elements of informed consent, or a short form stating that the required elements of informed consent have been presented orally to the subject or their representative. In either case, a copy of the form must be given to the subject or their representative. For a complete list of the required elements of a consent document, please see Appendix V. There are also samples of informed consent on the UIUC IRB site for researchers to design their own templates. (http://www.irb.uiuc.edu/ic/samples.asp)

Once submitted, the human subjects form and other documents relevant to the research will be reviewed to determine whether they are complete and clearly respond to the questions. If not, requests for additional or revised information will be made. Once the forms are complete and in order, and Campus IRB review is not necessary, human subjects review will be conducted in College of Communications, and the researcher will be notified of their project's approval as soon as possible by letter in campus mail or e-mail. The researcher may not proceed with their research until they have received notice of approval. If the reviewer determines that review at the Campus IRB is warranted, the researcher will be contacted and the materials will be forwarded to Campus IRB for review.

Accompanying IRB Documents

Routing of Application for Research Involving Human Subjects.
This is a graph that illustrates the text in the Part I about how researchers could decide what level of IRB oversight their research might go through.

Appendix II The Exclusion of Oral History from IRB Review.
This is an additional text that helps researchers understand what types of research might be completely excluded from IRB review. Before filing for IRB approval, researchers might consider if their research falls under the federal definition of regulable research as "generalizable knowledge" so that no IRB oversight would be necessary for their research at all. For an update report, click here.

Appendix III-A Categories of Research for Expedited Review.
This is a text that describes the categories of research that could reviewed by an IRB body in an expedited process. Also available on UIUC IRB website.

Appendix IIII-B Categories of Research for Exempt Review.
This is a text that describes the categories of research that could be exempted from IRB review. Also available on UIUC IRB website.

Appendix IV Campus IRB FORM.
This is the UIUC campus IRB form. Researchers have to go through campus procedures with this form if their research is externally funded or involves more than minimal risk to human subjects.

Appendix V ICR / College of Communications IRB Form.
This is the form for researchers to file IRB application at department level.

Appendix VI Informed Consent.