I’m not gathering names on the survey, does that mean it’s anonymous and doesn’t need to be reviewed?
Not necessarily. Although there is no regulatory definition in Title 45 CFR Part 46 that defines anonymous, the Federal office that oversees research with human subjects has indicated that for purposes of determining anonymity, if there remains any possible linkage between the person and the data, the spirit, if not the definition of “anonymity” would be violated. In other words, anything that can link the research to an actual human being would probably take it out of the realm of anonymity. For example, if you are distributing a survey to a class and have people drop the completed survey on a table as they leave, there is a possible linkage. It is known that a specific person has taken the survey (you and everyone else sees him/her leave the completed survey on the table), and depending upon the nature of the survey questions, it may be possible to link that person through their completed survey to the data. The review process determines if the lack of anonymity poses any risk to the
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