Who Should Apply
If your answer to all of the following questions is “yes,” then you must apply for IRB approval of your research.
- Are you a member of the Middlebury faculty or staff, or a Middlebury student, or will your research involve working with persons who are members of the Middlebury community, or with unpublished data collected from members of the Middlebury community?
- Are you doing original research?
- Are you working with human subjects?
We define a human subject this way:
In the context of original research, a living person about whom a researcher obtains either:
- Personal data through interaction with the individual.
- Private information.
Is IRB approval needed for classroom-based research activities?
It depends. Many courses involve student activities that would be considered human subjects research if they were occurring outside of the classroom context. The IRB has developed guidance to help you determine if you class-based research activities require IRB approval: Guidance for Classroom Research Activities.
The following activities are not considered original research and thus do not require IRB review:
- Works that deal entirely with secondary sources (public data sets are considered such secondary sources)
- Activities in which human subjects perform exclusively for instructional purposes (however, intent or attempts to publish data from such activities—at any time—converts these activities to original research involving human subjects)
- Data gathering to support fund-raising by the external affairs offices; market research for the purposes of admissions recruiting; recruiting efforts for faculty or staff; statistical data collected to manage institutional affairs; and attitudinal research among alumni, students, or parents
- Interviews with experts sharing facts or professional opinions in the area of their expertise to be human subjects (however, if the interview will also involve questions that go beyond professional opinions or factual information, IRB approval may be required).
- Journalism
- Oral history
- Information collected for entertainment purposes
It can be difficult to determine if a scholarly activity meets the criteria for IRB oversight. Conducting research that should be under IRB oversight without IRB approval is noncompliance and will be handled per the Middlebury IRB policy. If you are unsure if your research requires IRB approval, please reach out to the IRB for guidance (irb@middlebury.edu).