IRB Institutional Review Board
For the Protection of Human Subjects
Kenyon College believes ethics and ethical principles extend to all spheres of human activity.
Kenyon College is especially concerned with and committed to safeguarding the welfare, rights, and privacy of all persons who participate as subjects in research projects conducted under its auspices, and to ensuring that the subjects of such research are aware of their rights and the protections available to them. Moreover, the College is required to assure the federal government that such safeguards are being provided and enforced for federally funded research involving human subjects.
The role of the Kenyon College Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to foster ethical treatment of human research participants and to oversee all research (broadly defined) involving human subjects conducted under the auspices of Kenyon College by its faculty, students, and staff. All research projects involving human subjects -- regardless of the source of funding -- require the review and approval from the Kenyon College IRB prior to gathering any data or information from the subjects.
The Kenyon College IRB also reviews research conducted by outside investigators involving Kenyon College students, personnel, records, or facilities. Researchers not affiliated with Kenyon College, who wish to come onto the Kenyon College campus, or use Kenyon records to identify potential subjects, must either provide the IRB with a previously approved application from an IRB at an institution with an FWA, or submit a new application to the Kenyon College IRB. The outside researchers must have approval from the Kenyon College IRB before they access Kenyon College records or contact Kenyon College students or personnel.
The ultimate responsibility for treatment of human research subjects, however, rests with the researcher. Researchers' informed participation in this process helps to ensure a positive, ethical, and responsible climate for scholarly research at Kenyon College. Ethics should never be sacrificed to expediency.
All Kenyon College researchers involved in human subjects research must complete the requisite training.
Review of all research proposals involving human subjects research must take place prior to the commencement of such research.
Research involving human subjects carried on at, by or under the auspices of Kenyon College must comply with the College's IRB procedures. The IRB reviews research proposals that contemplate a "systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalized knowledge" (45 CFR 46.102d.)
The chairs of individual departments and programs and heads of administrative divisions will be responsible for reviewing and acknowledging by way of signature all research proposals involving human subjects originating with faculty members, staff, or students in their departments or divisions prior to submission of such proposals to the IRB. The chairs and heads will make a recommendation to the IRB as to the level of review: exempt, expedited, or full.
The IRB administrator and/or chair will consider each application and decide if the proposal needs no further review (exempt) or requires an expedited or full review.