When are humanities or oral history projects considered to be human subject research requiring IRB review?
If the proposed project will involve analyzing data to reach conclusions, inform policy or generalize finding AND that data is either identifiable private information about a living individual OR collected directly from the individual about him or herself, then the project should be submitted to the IRB. For example, the following may be indicators that IRB review is required: The study is funded by an agency which seeks to support projects designed to create generalizeable knowledge such as U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education (including the Fulbright program) etc. • The study will involve multiple individuals’ perspectives on the issue of interest AND these perspectives will be analyzed to reach generalized conclusions. The following examples are projects which would NOT require IRB review: • The goals of the project are to document a specific issue or event or the experiences of individuals and will not be used for f
