Institutional Review Board (IRB)

IRB News

April 2020 - Keep Calm and Research On!

We are all beginning to adjust to our “new normal” and find creative ways to adapt, including with research endeavors. This month we want to answer some common questions and provide some recommendations for moving forward.

COVID-related changes to procedures:

If you are making changes to your research procedures to minimize or eliminate immediate hazards (e.g., conducting interviews via phone in lieu of face-to-face), you may do so immediately, prior to IRB review and approval of your protocol modification. You should still submit these forms when possible.

Maintaining privacy standards on virtual platforms:

With internet-based research come internet-related privacy concerns. When moving from face-to-face contact with your research participants to a virtual platform, consider the following safeguards:

  1. Inform your participants of any changes in risk or confidentiality, and give them the opportunity to re-consent to participate.

  2. Use all available protections to minimize data breaches. Zoom (MinnState’s official platform for virtual meetings) allows you to

    1. password-protect your meetings (you can do this on the scheduling page)

    2. institute a waiting room (this prevents “Zoombombing,” as the host of the meeting must manually admit any participants to the group session, and also prevents participants from “meeting” one another by keeping one in the waiting room until the other has left the meeting)

    3. password-protect your recordings and transcriptions (you can do this by opening your “recordings” page and clicking “Share,” then toggling the password feature to “On.”) Click on the link for SCSU Zoom help.

  3. Continue to send all email communication through your SCSU email account.

Capitalizing on virtual features:

If there is a silver lining to this situation, it is that many virtual platforms have wonderful features we can all now use! A few examples:

  1. Breakout rooms: if your research requires a focus group or participant interactions, you can continue to facilitate this using breakout rooms. This allows you to place meeting participants into separate groups, and you (the host) can enter and leave to interact as needed.

  2. Transcription: Zoom automatically creates a transcription of meetings, including all spoken content and chat conversations. For research that involves lengthy interviews, this service can save you a lot of time and money (though it may not be as accurate as more traditional transcription services).

For more information on the US Office for Human Research Protections policies on COVID-19 related issues in research, go to https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/guidance/ohrp-guidance-on-covid-19/index.html