About Eckerd IRB

Eckerd College endorses faculty and student research that advances knowledge and supports learning. In order to ensure that research with human subjects is conducted by faculty and/or students in a manner that respects the rights, maintains the well-being and guarantees the privacy of those who participate in it, as well as the ethical principles embraced by Eckerd College, the College has developed pertinent policies and procedures that will be governed by an Institutional Review Board (IRB).

This Web site provides the College’s policies, procedures and review guidelines on research involving human subjects as well as the forms necessary for obtaining approval from Eckerd’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).

If you are conducting a research project using human subjects, you will need to obtain approval of the IRB prior to collecting data. The purpose of this policy is to provide a single, comprehensive standard of protection for human subjects of research conducted by students, staff, faculty, or visiting researchers at Eckerd College. The intent is to assure that investigators do not unduly put at risk or harm humans who are the subjects of research, and that the subjects of such research are aware of their rights as defined in Title 45, part 46 of the Code of Federal Regulations. IRB approval must precede commencement of any work involving human subjects.

Eckerd College Policies

Eckerd College is 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. These safeguards derive from the following ethical principles, which were first articulated in the Belmont Report issued by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979:

Respect for Persons: Recognition of the personal dignity and autonomy of individuals and special protection of those persons with diminished autonomy or particular vulnerabilities, including prisoners, children, those who are mentally or cognitively disabled, pregnant women, or economically or educationally disadvantaged persons. Human subjects should enter into research voluntarily and with adequate information about the research project and the potential consequences of participation in the study.

Beneficence: The obligation to protect persons from harm by maximizing anticipated benefits and minimizing possible risks. Possible risks to human subjects should be weighed against possible benefits to the subjects, as well as against the possible improvement of knowledge.

Justice: Fairness in the distribution of research benefits and burdens. In selecting human subjects for research, investigators should ensure that no group of participants is either consistently selected to participate in research, or consistently deprived of the opportunity to do so.

The procedures for review adhere to the regulations of the Department of Health and Human Services, 45 CFR 46, as amended and published in the Federal Register on June 18, 1991.

See the research misconduct policy for federally funded research.