When is a project subject to IRB review?

Any research involving human participants MUST be reviewed and approved BEFORE beginning. 

Research is defined by the Office for Human Research Protections as "a systematic investigation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge."

In some cases, a project may not need to be submitted to IRB for review and/or approval. Those cases include:

1. Course projects that include interviewing ONE person.
2. Projects that do not involve human participants (secondary data analysis, which is raw data sets compiled with no identifying information). This does not include case studies where participants may be identified. 
3. Oral histories.

If you are uncertain if your project requires review, please contact the IRB chair or any member of the IRB committee.