How to Get Research Approved by an Institutional Review Board

Abstract

We have seen in previous chapters how Institutional Review Boards have come to wield the power they currently have and we have examined some of the issues which they examine. For example, we have seen that procedures for informed consent appear to be one of the most common areas of a research proposal to receive the closest scrutiny by IRBs. Thus one entire chapter of this volume was devoted to the intricacies of constructing a consent form so that a researcher can ethically protect subjects. An assumption maintained throughout these discussions has been that the well-prepared researcher who, among other activities, constructs a good consent form will have little difficulty obtaining IRB approval for the research. Such approval is often then followed by the researcher’s sending various materials on to a funding agency to receive funds necessary to support the research. Obtaining IRB approval of the researcher’s subject-protection procedures is therefore usually the last step before obtaining research funds.