Ethics for involving human participants in research
Unless observing public behavior without interaction and
without recording, research involving human participants should be
conducted with the following considerations:
- Informed consent
- Minimal risk
- Minimal deception (generally is not needed)
- Participant may withdraw at any time
- Participant's data is kept confidential
- Participant may withdraw his or her data from the study or
test
The informed consent process should provide the following
information:
- Purpose of the study
- What the participants will be doing
- That the participant may withdraw at any time
- How the results (and possible recording) will be used and
how the participant's data will remain confidential
- That the participant may decide that his or her results will not
be used
Depaul's
Institutional Review Board (IRB) for research involving human
participants has a website.
Items for discussion
- Documenting consent with a signed statement
- Ways of ensuring informed consent
- Difference between confidential data and anonymous data
- How does the DePaul IRB information
sheet address the process of informed consent?