What is human subjects research?
Putting these definitions together, human subjects research covers a wide variety of activities, including studies of:
- Data from surveys/questionnaires, interviews, focus groups (only if focus group information is generalized outside the group to the general population) and observation
- School or correction records
- Employment information or records of earnings
- Bodily materials, such as cells, blood, urine, tissues, organs, hair, nail clippings, or DNA, when these are linked to specific individuals
- Analysis of existing data (e.g., medical records, school records)
- Cognitive and perceptual experiments
- Case Studies
While the scope of activities considered human subjects research under federal regulations is broad, not all human subjects research must undergo full review by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Following procedures laid out in federal regulations, the UW-Stout IRB grants exemptions and uses both expedited and full reviews to examine proposed human subjects research. All three kinds of review will be discussed in Module 4.