Importance of the Institutional Review Board

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews research proposals involving human subjects (Bachman & Schutt, 2020). The IRB can request changes in a research protocol or approve research if the researcher has not taken the proper measures to protect human subjects. The main types of reviews conducted by the IRB include exempt, expedited, and limited reviews. An exempt review includes determining whether the research meets the status to be exempted from complying with regulations regarding the documentation of informed consent and annual review. An expedited review is conducted on research projects that expose participants to minimal risk. A full board review is conducted when research involves sensitive topics such as illegal behaviour, vulnerable populations, genomic or genetic analyses, and a complex research design. The IRB ensures that researchers take proper measures to protect the well-being and rights of the humans participating in the research.

The IRB is important because it ensures that research is conducted ethically and that human research participants are properly protected from psychological and physical harm. For example, the board approves or rejects and monitors and reviews behavioural and biomedical research by conducting a risk-benefit analysis before concluding whether the research should be conducted. The board also ensures that the researchers take appropriate measures to protect human rights by promoting research participants’ voluntary and informed participation. The board also addresses issues such as confidentiality protection, tracking and evaluating research’s adverse effects, and managing conflict of interest. Therefore, the interests of the research participants and the researcher are protected throughout the research process because research participants are protected from harm, and the researcher is protected from liability that could arise from exposing research participants to physical or psychological harm.

The IRB is also significant because it protects researchers from potential conflicts between their concerns about pursuing knowledge and human subjects’ welfare. According to Bass & Maloy (2020), research is a systematic investigation that focuses on developing or contributing to generalizable knowledge. Human participants are the people an investigator obtains information from through interaction or intervention or identifiable private data. Therefore, the IRB ensures that the investigators and the research participants interact well during the research process and mutually benefit. The board also determines a research’s acceptability regarding institutional regulations and commitments, professional practice and conduct standards, and applicable law. The board also prevents conflict during research by assuming responsibility for the termination or suspension of research projects that are not conducted in accordance with IRB and federal requirements.

The IRB plays a vital role in providing administrative assurances through record-keeping and internal audits, thus making it important. Audits ensure that an institution’s procedures and policies are observed and allow the early identification and resolution of problems. The board also maintains adequate documentation of all its activities in the research review process, including all the research proposals that have been reviewed, continuing review activities, statements of vital new findings offered to subjects, and all communication between the investigators and IRB (Balon et al., 2019). The board is also essential because it offers training on research ethics and balances the risk to human subjects in research with the benefits research yields to the community. The board focuses on the conditions that may expose research participants to risk when conducting the risk-benefit analysis to ensure that the interests of the researchers and participants are met.

References

Bachman, R., & Schutt, R. K. (2020). The practice of research in Criminology and Criminal Justice. Pine Forge Press.

Balon, R., Guerrero, A. P., Coverdale, J. H., Brenner, A. M., Louie, A. K., Beresin, E. V., & Roberts, L. W. (2019). Institutional Review Board approval as an educational tool. Academic Psychiatry, 43(3), 285–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-019-01027-9

Bass, P. F., & Maloy, J. W. (2020). How to determine if a project is human subjects research, a quality improvement project, or both. Ochsner Journal, 20(1), 56–61. https://doi.org/10.31486/

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