My personal opinion is that if you are debating whether you should or should not pursue IRB approval...then you should pursue it. ESPECIALLY if you are a grad student. It is probably wise to mention that the much discussed "academic freedom" does not include grad students under it's legal umbrella, and beyond making that statement I will have to leave it to experts to explain the finer points of the issue. One of the things that is often missed about the IRB process in the USA, is that once the university has approved the research then you are shielded by the universities approval. Should someone inquire (aka gritch) about your research then they can deal with the universities systems such as IRB personnel and legal advisers. If you don't have IRB approval then you are on your own...and might have to deal not only with the complainer but with the aforementioned university professionals. And don't think that people do not complain about our research. In truth, complaints come in all the time. Since many of these complaints do not rise to the level of online archiving I will point to one large example that has been discussed online. To check it out do a search on "phishing experiment" (without the quotation marks) to see the spotlight that can be placed on our research, even our approved research. While it isn't often that a university research project gets slashdotted, it does happen, and trust me on this, you will want to have the attorneys and the media people dealing with it so you can go about your business as much as possible. As for the issue of your IRB's understanding of online research, I agree many do not understand, but as educators and members of the academic community it is up to us to educate them. I've done my part at IU and I have seen our IRB gain understanding of the unique and not so unique issues surrounding this work. Remember that any new venue for research has the same set of underlying issues...you have to teach your audience what questions to ask so they understand how to think about what they are receiving. You can educate them by writing up a well reasoned and articulated research protocol, by meeting with leaders in the organization, by asking to present your research to the full committee, and by becoming a member of the IRB. Remember that most major university boards in the USA have graduate student members...you might have to ask the application process but they are out there. No quicker way to educate the IRB community about internet research then by working from the inside out. 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