I think it has to do with the 'extension' of IRB into arenas where it did not used to cover. IRB in the u.s. are now pushing into issues in the humanities in some cases, and it wasn't that long ago that they pushed into social sciences. Many people in the social science are complaining of 'mission creep' according to the few blogs in this arena that i've been readings. I don't think anyone takes issue with the need for IRB's in many arenas, and that there can be issues of research ethics and human subjects in other arenas, but when IRB's are required when one is doing a biography of a living person that is funded in part by an NSF grant, then... i think people are left wondering. On Mar 11, 2008, at 7:59 AM, Lois Ann Scheidt wrote:
I am curious about an issue that seems to background much of our IRB discussions. As academics we have gone through many years of being reviewed/graded...in classes, with conference proposals, for publication, and through grant applications - just to name a few. In every one of those cases our research can be declined for any number of reasons from flawed protocols to reviewers personal attitudes toward us or our research.
All of that being said, why do we see IRBs as more of a controlling factor on research then say granting entities or publication venues?
Lois Ann Scheidt
Doctoral Student - School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington IN USA
Adjunct Instructor - School of Informatics, IUPUI, Indianapolis IN USA and IUPUC, Columbus IN USA
Webpage: http://www.loisscheidt.com Blog: http://www.professional-lurker.com
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