Capella University

Research Sites – location, location, not location?

2010 Mar 9 Posted by nbodkin

Following on the heels of last week’s post about site permissions, it seemed like an opportune moment to say a few words about what a “site” is.

First, always remember: the intention of every question in the IRB forms is to provide the reviewer with an understanding of your research, and further, how that will affect the human participants (if any) involved. So in section 3.A, you are asked to provide information about your research site(s), and the question goes on to ask this:

…briefly describe the setting in which the research procedures (including participant recruitment procedures) will be carried out (e.g. hospital, clinic, school, home, lab, online, etc.).

So let’s say you plan to conduct interviews at the local library. You would include that information in this section (listing the library, its contact information, what you will be doing there, and whether you have received permission to conduct your interviews or not).

So far so good….my site is the library; but wait -

Maybe you plan to invite your participants to complete a follow-up survey online, by clicking on a link that you email them. This would also be included in section 3.A – the “site” is online.

And…..

If you have contacted your local chapter of the American Red Cross to obtain the contact information for the people you want to interview, your other “site” would be that Red Cross chapter, because that is the organization (or “site”) that you intend to recruit from.

Taking it to the final stages…

Finally, if you will be analyzing the data at your local computer lab, you would include that information as well.

But what about permissions?

A good question. And because the answer often depends on the details of your study, start by asking your mentor; if you both have questions, it’s time to contact our office. In the above example, many studies would not necessarily need written permission from the library, and the only permission needed from the website for your survey is an excerpt of google’s user policy agreement. (You will likely need permission from The American Red Cross.)

So you see, your answers in this section can really help the reviewer have a sense of how and where (even if it’s not a physical location) you will carry out your research, and this will in turn help the reviewer help you design an ethically sound research procedure that will provide you the right kind of data you need.

Obtaining Site Permission

2010 Mar 4 Posted by cdietrich

Researchers who want to conduct research at a particular site or who want to utilize contact information provided by an institution to recruit participants need to obtain written permission from the site involved. Site permission should be provided in the form of a letter written on the site’s own institutional letterhead and physically signed by an individual with the appropriate permission-granting authority. This letter can then be scanned by the researcher and uploaded into IRBNet for review by a member of the IRB.

Some forms of documentation of site permission that we cannot accept include e-mail messages or other unsigned text files.

Across the Board