Situation
A multidisciplinary research team is interested in mounting a large, multi-site study involving both individuals and organizations involved in urban poverty (e.g., the staff of welfare agencies, it administrators and its clients). In an attempt to get a better handle on how each of the “stake-holders”, themselves, conceptualize issues and respond to how researchers are thinking about the work that they intend to do, the team decides to do a pre-test during a state-wide, annual conference that targets continuing education of workers and interested parties. The team secures an agreement from the conference organizers to set up a booth at the conference and distribute self-administered surveys which would be done on a voluntary basis.
Questions
- Has the team obtained sufficient “consent”?
- Does such an effort need to undergo review by an IRB?
Discussion
Since the survey is voluntary in nature and causal in its distribution (i.e., attendees have to pick up a survey if they would like to participate), it is likely that this serves as sufficient informed consent that would not require signed statements. However, even in this situation, this is a gray area and requires, at minimum, an application to the local IRB to see if the research is exempt and if these procedures meet standards for the protection of human subjects.
