24 November 2008

HARPO will be closed

The office will be closed for Thanksgiving, November 27 and 28, 2008. We'll reopen on December 1, 2008.

14 November 2008

Updated IRB forms and applications

Always remember to keep checking back on the IRB web site for the latest forms and applications that are used by the IRB. The most recent updates include revisions to the Expedited and Full Board Review forms, updates to wording on the Informed Consent form and a new form - a short descriptive form for theses, master's and doctoral dissertation research. This form tracks master's or dissertation students own lines of inquiry that was developed under a faculty mentor’s IRB approved protocol. A seperate, full blown application is not required, but the IRB will want to keep track of any and all research that occurs.

See those updates and new forms at http://www.umbc.edu/irb/irbforms.htm

04 November 2008

Keep your data (and computer) safe

Words of advice from the Office of Information Technology

Securing Your Laptop Against Physical Theft

Theft of laptops, desktop computers, computer parts and peripherals is a growing problem. According to insurance company figures, there is a 1 in 14 chance of a PC owner being victimized. If you lose your computer, or any part of its system, you've lost more than the cost of the laptop. You have lost your data. The hardware can be replaced, but the loss of work in progress could be devastating.

Click on this link for more information.

People who volunteer to participate in research do so with the understanding that investigators will protect their identity and their information from inadvertent and inappropriate disclosure.

So treat collected data just like your laptop to keep safe and secure. A few helpful tips:

1) train research staff on the proper methods of keeping data secure.

2) de-identify data when saved on the laptop - this means stripping all personal identifiers from the saved data.

3) if the research requires that identifiers be kept, save your data to a removable medium (i.e. external hard drive) and secure that drive under lock and key. You may wish to use an identity key to match various data sets; if so, secure that key as well.

4) sensitive data may be secured using data encryption - the algorithmic transformation of data into an unrecognizable format that can only be recovered using a secret decryption key.

New IRB members (part 2)

Please welcome additional new members to the UMBC Institutional Review Board who began in the Fall of 2008:

Sarah Chard, Assistant Professor, Anthropology/Sociology

Joseph Clift, Managing Associate/Project Manager, Association for the Study and Development of Community

The updated roster of Board membership is available on the IRB website.

Do surveys created for improving services and programs at UMBC need IRB review?

A question that comes up not only at UMBC, but at other institutions as well. And, is IRB review required? It depends.

Surveys that are for quality improvement/quality assurance or for developing new services or programs for students, employees, or alumni, may not need IRB review. Surveyors should keep in mind that privacy of the participants needs to be protected, the confidentiality of individual responses is maintained, and survey participation is voluntary.

If, at a future date, an opportunity will arise to contribute previously collected survey data to a new project producing generalizable knowledge, an application for IRB review would be required before the data could be released to the new project.

The IRB has developed a QI/QA algorithm to help sort this out.

Who signs a consent form?

Federal regulations (45 CFR 46.117) require written informed consent, one that is approved by the IRB and signed by the participant or the participant's legal representative and the principal investigator (or his/her delegate). The delegated responsibility can fall to members of the investigator's “research team”, provided the team members have been trained by the investigator and had also taken the UMBC Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) web-based course.

Consent forms should be signed by the person actually administering consent, at the time consent is administered, attesting to the informed consent conversation. At no time should the consent forms be pre-signed by the members of the research team.

Further details about the consent process may be found at http://www.umbc.edu/research/HARPO/IRB/consentassent.html