From: Times Higher Education
By Paul Jump
Suggested changes to ‘common rule’ raise issues on research with human subjects
Transatlantic moves to lighten the burden of regulation on social scientists should be accompanied by greater emphasis on professional integrity, two senior figures have said.
The comments came in the wake of last week’s publication by the US National Research Council of suggested amendments to the so-called “common rule” that governs US research with human subjects.
The suggestions include a tighter definition of research with human subjects that would exclude the use of existing, publicly available personal data where the researcher had no direct interaction with the subjects.
The amended regulations – which cover both social and biomedical research – would also “excuse” from ethical review those projects that involve only minimal “informational” risk, which could be mitigated by, for example, a data security plan. This would include the use of publicly familiar methodologies such as educational tests or surveys.
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