Hi Peter Good questions! One thing you could do is set up some kind of relationship with your former university. I know at the time I completed my PhD at OISE/UT, other recent graduates became visiting scholars. This involved no funding of course that they could maintain their association with the university, have a business card, and I presume, get any research involving participants reviewed by the REB (IRB). Your idea to find a co-author with a university affiliation is also a good idea. Finally, you CAN do research as an independent scholar and as such, there is no generic REB, at least not in Canada. However, you will should actively secure consent using the same kind of letters of information and consent forms as if you had university affiliation. Protocols for social science research differ from medical research. I sit on the REB at Athabasca University so email me privately at my AU addie below if you have more questions or want more information. best Rhiannon Bury Assistant Professor,Women's Studies Athabasca University rbury@athabascau.ca ________________________________ From: Peter Timusk <ptimusk@sympatico.ca> To: aoir list <air-l@aoir.org>; communityinformatics@vancouvercommunity.net Sent: Sun, April 18, 2010 5:37:39 AM Subject: [Air-L] Thoughts on IRB and identity of researcher. I am no longer a student and I wonder how to identify myself in a research paper. Like "the student" of the student T test/distribution who worked for Guinness brewery I also can not use my employer for identity in my own research. If I do Internet studies at work it has to be prescribed by my bosses. The research i am thinking about is of a non profit I am a director of Computers for Communities. I also wonder if there is a generic IRB I can use or how an independent scholar handles such things. I am just one term past school studies may be my former school can help me. This has probably been answered here as I know there have been many discussions on this topic. I ask anyways. I think may be my school or employer could offer to do this process in an informal way. Also I may interview participants in a community computer lab set up which may include residents of a housing project where we set up a computer lab. I am guessing a well thought out "permission to be used in research" form would be fine and does not need to the same degree of "care" that a medical experiment needs considering the risk of harm . I use care here in a medical sense not the care in making the permissions form. Any thoughts or offers to coauthor, welcome I am in Ottawa Canada. Peter Timusk, B.Math statistics (2002), B.A. legal studies (2006) Carleton University Systems Science Graduate student, University of Ottawa. just trying to stay linear. Read by hundreds of lurkers every week. kiitos paljon, merci, thank you and muchas gracias for reading. _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/