Operating Policies and Procedures Manual

POLICY

Persons conducting research at Arkansas State University are required to maintain high ethical standards in their treatment of human subjects. All researchers must abide by the basic ethical principles specified in the Belmont Report including (a) equitable selection of subjects; (b) voluntary, informed consent from subjects; (c) minimization of acceptable risk; and (d) confidentiality in maintaining reporting research data. Individual researchers are also required to follow the ethical standards established for human research in their respective academic disciplines.

Under the terms of this policy, any systematic activity involving the collection and/or analysis of data on human subjects for the purpose of advancing generalizable knowledge qualifies as human research, unless this activity is specifically exempted by current Federal regulations. Collection of information on students for routine educational or administrative purposes does not constitute human research, nor does course work assigned to students for the sole purpose of demonstrating established methodologies.

Arkansas State University will maintain an Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB). The IRB has the authority to review any research project involving human subjects that is associated with the university in any way. Based upon ethical considerations, the IRB can approve, require modification, suspend or terminate any research project under its jurisdiction. The final determination of whether or not any research project constitutes human research, and whether research procedures are ethical, will be made by the IRB.

This page is maintained by Cassey Tune
Last updated on 10/15/2009.