Fun question: If I am unaffiliated and I want to do a survey of people's experiences of the eclipse from a birding perspective, what do I do to pass IRB before thinking about publication, or do I just... skip that step?
@richlitt Edited, misread this at first. If you're unaffiliated with an inst at all, then I don't think you have to (can do) IRB. If you're staff & unaffiliated w a dept, I would do the IRB process for the institution
But doesn't that mean that, as an independent researcher, it's possible that my work will be unethical? Am I the only blocker to that work happening, or is the peer review process supposed to catch that or something?
@richlitt So, IRB & "ethical research" are not exactly synonyms. I'd include a description of methods in the paper, & explain how you thought about ethical considerations. If your after-event survey is unlikely to cause harm to participants who consent to being surveyed & can withdraw consent if they wish, it can be considered thoughtful & ethical research without IRB having been involved. That's how I'd look at it as a reviewer. (IRB is actually there to protect institutions more than subjects)
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