Institutional Review Board
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Determining if IRB Approval is Required for a Project

Any project that meets the federal (NIH) definition of research and uses human participants must have IRB approval prior to data collection. Research is defined by the NIH as systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

What this means is that if you intend on presenting your data in some sort of public venue (e.g., conference presentations, publication), federal guidelines require that your project be approved by the IRB before data collection.

If you are still unsure about a specific project, contact the IRB Chair for assistance.