Thursday, May 26, 2011

Sex Researcher Calls for "An Evidence-Informed Process"

Brian Mustanski, Associate Professor, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, calls for "moving the IRB process of risk/benefit assessment from being entirely subjective to being evidence-based."

[Brian Mustanski, "Ethical and Regulatory Issues with Conducting Sexuality Research with LGBT Adolescents: A Call to Action for a Scientifically Informed Approach," Archives of Sexual Behavior, published online 29 April 2011.]

Friday, May 13, 2011

Australian Political Scientist: "Causing Harm . . . May Be the Whole Point"

Anthony Langlois, Associate Professor in the Department of International Relations at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, and a former member and chair of that university's Social and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee, finds that Australia's 2007 National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research is an improvement over earlier policies, but that it still leaves an "ill fit between the requirements of [the medical] model of research ethics review and the nature of humanities and social sciences research."

[Anthony J. Langlois, "Political  Research  and  Human  Research  Ethics  Committees," Australian Journal of Political Science 46 (2011): 139-154, DOI: 10.1080/10361146.2010.544287. Also available as a preliminary preprint. Thanks to Professor Langlois for mentioning the essay on socialsciencepsace.com.]

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Bersoff Reviews Ethical Imperialism

Donald N. Bersoff, a professor of psychology and law at Drexel University, has reviewed Ethical Imperialism for PsycCRITIQUES, the American Psychological Association's online database of book reviews.

[Donald N. Bersoff, "Common Rule or Common Ignorance? A Review of Ethical Imperialism: Institutional Review Boards and the Social Sciences, 1965–2009 by Zachary M. Schrag," PsycCRITIQUES 56, Release 18 (4 May 2011), Article 3.]

Sunday, May 1, 2011

My Comments to the Presidential Commission

I rather belatedly learned that the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues was seeking public comment on the Federal and international standards for protecting the health and well-being of participants in scientific studies supported by the Federal Government. The deadline for comments is tomorrow, May 2.

Here are my comments, hastily cribbed from the conclusion of my book:

University of Iowa: Ask IRB Before Reading Poetry

I recently reported on the University of Iowa's Stanley Graduate Awards for International Research, whose information page seems to require applicants to contact the IRB, even if they are studying twelfth‐century church records, ancient Greek and Roman houses, or Neanderthal worked bone technology.