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.]

Political Scientists Complain about Lost Exemption

Political scientists and law professors are protesting the proposed elimination of the current exemption for research about public officials and candidates for office. The drafters may have eliminated the exemption by mistake, thinking that such research was exempted by other provisions of the proposed rule, which turns out not to be the case.

Protecting He-Man Subjects

After frustrating encounters with IRBs concerning two research projects, sociologists Liberty Walther Barnes and Christin L. Munsch argue that “IRBs are gendered institutions in which members base their decisions on culturally dominant, normative images of women and men.”

[Liberty Walther Barnes and Christin L. Munsch, “The Paradoxical Privilege of Men and Masculinity in Institutional Review Boards,” Feminist Studies 41, no. 3 (2015): 594–622, doi:10.15767/feministstudies.41.3.594.]

Montana Political Scientist: IRB Process Is "Cumbersome, Inadequate" for Political Research

The Montana Commissioner of Political Practices (COPP), Jonathan Motl, has determined “that there are sufficient facts to show that Stanford, Dartmouth and/or its researchers violated Montana campaign practice laws requiring registration, reporting and disclosure of independent expenditures” in October 2014, when they mailed pre-election postcards to 102,780 registered voters. The postcards were part of an effort to see if certain claims about candidates’ place on an ideological spectrum would affect voting patterns.

As part of the investigation, Motl engaged Carroll College political science professor Jeremy Johnson to determine whether the Stanford and Dartmouth researchers had violated IRB requirements. Johnson finds that they did, but also that the Dartmouth IRBs could have approved the studies without addressing the most serious ethical issues they raised. “The fundamental problem with the IRB process,” he writes, “is the narrow focus on protecting the individual subject. Concerns about human subjects in the aggregate often do not even occur to researchers, faculty, and staff involved in the IRB.”

[McCulloch v. Stanford and Dartmouth, Commissioner of Political Practices of the State of Montana, No. COPP 2014-CFP–046, Decision Findind Sufficient Facts to Demonstrate a Violation of Montana’s Campaign Practice Laws, 11 May 2015. h/t Chris Lawrence.]

University of Queensland Punishes Researchers, Won't Say Why

The University of Queensland demoted a professor and blocked him and another researcher from publishing findings, based on charges that they had not obtained necessary ethics clearances. But the university will not explain its conduct.

[Jorge Branco. “UQ Suppressed Bus Racism Study: Academics.” Brisbane Times, February 27, 2015. Thanks to Michelle Meyer for tweeting this to my attention.]

Sociologists Call for IRB Moratorium

To close out the year, I briefly note a piece that appeared online at the start of 2011, but which I came across only recently. Three sociologists call for a "moratorium on IRB review for social scientific audit research involving non-institutionalized, mentally competent adult subjects," but their reasons are unclear.

[Hessler, Richard M., D. J. Donnell-Watson, and John F. Galliher. "A Case for Limiting the Reach of Institutional Review Boards." American Sociologist 42, no. 1 (January 29, 2011): 145–152. doi:10.1007/s12108-011-9122-5.]

SBS White Paper Calls for Drastic Reform

Weighing in at 72 pages, the "Social and Behavioral Science White Paper" is the most detailed response to the ANPRM from scholars in the social sciences. The paper presents a grim picture of the state of IRB review and is generally supportive of the ANPRM's goal of reform. But it offers detailed, helpful warnings about the potential effects of the proposed "excused" category and the adoption of HIPAA as a model for confidentiality requirements. Though it shies away from the toughest questions about the IRB system, it is a good expression of the frustrations felt by so many researchers in the social sciences and humanities.

[American Educational Research Association et al., "Social and Behavioral Science White Paper on Advanced Notice for Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), Federal Register 44512-531 (July 26, 2011); ID Docket HHS-OPHS-2011-0005," 26 October 2011.]

AAA Draft Code: "Easily Remembered" or Overly Simplistic?

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) has released a draft code of ethics, the latest step in a revision process that began in late 2008, as well as a Final Report of The Task Force for Comprehensive Ethics Review. An Executive Board subcommittee is taking comments until January 30, 2012, at ethicsfeedback@aaanet.org.

As a non-anthropologist who respects disciplinary differences, I don't mean to tell anthropologists what to do, and I do not plan to submit a comment to the subcommittee. But I can point out that while the two documents represent an impressive effort, the draft code does not reflect all the concerns of some anthropologists who have thought seriously about ethical obligations.

Researchers Deceive Thousands of Professors

Professor Andrew Gelman reports that he was sent a deceptive e-mail as part of a research project by two business professors, Katherine Milkman and Modupe Akinola. Milkman and Akinola wished to see if "students from underrepresented groups" (presumably racial and ethnic minorities, and perhaps women) would be less likely to gain the interest of doctoral faculty than "other students" (i.e., white guys). So they sent e-mails to Gelman and about 6300 other professors in PhD-granting departments at American universities. The messages, purportedly from a student planning to apply to PhD programs and wishing for a brief meeting, varied by the name of the student and by the time of the proposed meeting. When a professor answered, they replied to cancel the meeting. The idea was to see if students with white-guy names received more or fewer invitations to meet than others.

After receiving a debriefing e-mail explaining the sham, Gelman replied to the authors that "My helpful impulses toward inquiring students are being abused by this sort of study, which I think belongs in the trash heap of ill-advised research projects along with Frank Flynn's notorious survey from a few years ago when he tried to get free meals out of NYC restaurants by falsely claiming food poisoning." He later elaborated on his blog, "What bothers me is that we were involuntary participants in the study. The researchers took advantage of our time and our good nature (that we were willing to meet with an unfamiliar student). Not cool."