Editing Statistics and Statistical Programming (Fall 2020) (section)

==== Human subjects research, IRB, and ethics ====
In general, you are responsible for making sure that you're on the right side of the IRB requirements and that your work meets applicable ethical norms and standards.

Class projects generally do not need IRB approval, but research for publications, dissertations, and sometimes even pilot studies do fall under IRB purview. You should ''not'' plan to seek IRB approval/determination retroactively. If your study may involve human subjects and you may ever publish it in any form, you will need IRB oversight of some sort.

Secondary analysis of anonymized data is generally not considered human subjects research, but I strongly suggest that you get a determination from [https://irb.northwestern.edu/ the Northwestern IRB] before you start. For work that is not considered human subjects research, this can often happen in a few hours or days. If you need to list a faculty sponsor or Principal Investigator, that should ideally be your advisor. If that doesn't make sense for some reason, please talk to me.

Research ethics are broad and complex topic. We'll talk about issues related to ethics and quantitative empirical research a bit more during class, but will likely only scratch the surface. I strongly encourage you to pursue further reading, conversation, coursework, and reflection as you consider how to understand and apply ethical principles in the context of your own research and teaching.