First, Do Some Harm, Part IV: Fake Submission to Fake Conference Yields Fake Charge of Misconduct

Professor Jim Vander Putten, who spent six years as chair of the University of Arkansas Little Rock (UALR) IRB, is now charged with violating university rules by conducting research without that board’s approval. The case highlights several problems with the current system, most notably its failure to provide standards for studies designed to expose misbehavior.

[Peter Schmidt, “A Scholar’s Sting of Education Conferences Stirs a Hornet’s Nest,” Chronicle of Higher Education, March 14, 2016, paywalled.]

Could Retrospective Review End Nitpicking?

Robert Klitzman and Paul Appelbaum, both of Columbia University, suggest that shifting research oversight to the retrospective review of a subset of projects, rather than prospective review of proposals, could reduce the "variability and subjectivity across IRBs" that now characterizes ethics review.

[Robert Klitzman and Paul S. Appelbaum, "To Protect Human Subjects, Review What Was Done, Not Proposed," Science 335 no. 6076 (30 March 2012): 1576-1577,
DOI: 10.1126/science.1217225.]

Would ANPRM's Audits Require Massive Record-Keeping?

Part of the ANPRM's proposal for a new category of Excused research is an audit regime for projects that researchers declare eligible for Excusal. An observer asks whether this requirement would impose inappropriate burdens on researchers. I am hopeful that it would not, but commenters on the ANPRM should be aware of this possibility as they answer question 21.