The Human Subjects Committee - Lawrence Campus (HSCL) protects
those who volunteer to be participants in research studies. If
you plan to use human participants in your research, you are
required to receive permission from HSCL before the project commences.
The federal government recognizes HSCL as KU's Institutional
Review Board, or IRB. Research institutions are required to have
an IRB before they may receive federal funding for behavioral
and biomedical research.
HSCL's primary mission is to protect research participants'
rights and privacy. In addition, it protects investigators from
legal and ethical missteps and safeguards them from the repercussions
of such missteps.
Investigators who don't work through HSCL will, if challenged
concerning their methodology or use of research participants,
have to meet the challenge alone. By submitting a proposal to
HSCL, investigators safeguard themselves and their work.
Must you work through HSCL?
The answer is "yes" if your project involves: interviews,
observation, surveys, or any other form of information gathering
about humans, either as individuals or members of groups ...and
if your project is sponsored in any way by KU, conducted by someone
connected with KU (this includes all students, faculty, administrators,
and other employees), uses any KU property or facility, or involves
KU non-public information to identify or contact subjects.
Who is responsible?
Every researcher is ultimately responsible for the ethical conduct of his or her research. In addition, faculty advisers are responsible for reading students' HSCL applications before they are submitted. Each investigator should keep records relating to his or her research. All written or oral consents should be documented and filed. Should subjects complain about how they were treated in a project, a well-documented record is the investigator's best defense.
What are the common glitches?
The HSCL administrator can provide a checklist of items to be
included in consent forms or introductory letters (used in
anonymous surveys, etc.) and also include samples of consent
forms. Here are some errors that commonly appear in consent
forms:
- Failure to offer to answer questions about the project. (The
name of someone who will answer questions should appear on
the form.)
- Absence of a contact name, phone number, and address.
- Omission of a statement at the end of the form that reads, "With
my signature I affirm that I am over the age of eighteen and
have received a copy of this consent form."
- Absence of signatures on the first page of the application.
(The investigator, or the student researcher and his or her
faculty supervisor, must sign the application.)
Questions? Please contact:
Mary Denning
785-864-7429 | mdenning@ku.edu
Coordinator |Human Subjects Committee of
Lawrence (HSCL)
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