Institutional Research, Planning and Effectiveness (IRPE) Office Institutional Review Board
Chesapeake College encourages and supports the scholarly endeavors of students, faculty, and staff of Chesapeake and other institutions.
The Institutional Review Board (IRB) advocates for the rights and welfare of human research participants and promotes quality research by fostering an institutional culture embodying the highest ethical standards of research.
The Role of the IRB
The IRB at Chesapeake has the responsibility of overseeing procedures for carrying out Chesapeake's commitment to protect human subjects in research. The role of the IRB is
- to review proposed research projects that involve the use of human subjects;
- ensure that the individuals involved in the project are treated ethically;
- ensure that all subjects are provided with substantial information about the study and consent to be a subject in the study;
- and that all private information will be handled with anonymity and confidentiality.
IRB Guidelines (PDF)
The IRB can review, approve, and require modifications in, or disapprove research activities conducted by or through Chesapeake using human subjects. The IRB is charged with evaluating each project's compliance with standards in regard to issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, and any risk to participants, values to Chesapeake, and compliance with Chesapeake procedures.
Application Form
For IRB approval, please complete the IRB Application and send to the IRPE office.
Policies
If the request involves administering a survey to any Chesapeake College population (current or former students, employees, or affiliated groups) our policy forbids the release of contact information to the requestor. Instead, we would have you compose a message containing the survey link, forward it to an appropriately selected Chesapeake College staff employee. That individual will act as an intermediary to ensure that our cooperation and other aspects are clearly spelled out and will pass along requests for participation. Any communications to prospective participants will emanate from that employee and written to indicate such. This has the benefits of protecting their e-mail addresses plus they would be receiving a message from a known source, which is more likely to get a response.
In addition, to ensure complete anonymity, we insist that survey tools explicitly not collect personally identifiable information (name, e-mail, or IP addresses) from respondents unless it is a condition for receiving direct compensation for participation or being entered into a randomly selected drawing for compensation.
All proposed surveys must include a consent form that includes the following:
- Purpose: A brief explanation of the study purpose and the selection criteria are provided.
- Duration: The length of time required for participation is included (e.g., how long a survey typically will take to complete).
- Procedures: Tasks and procedures are explained from the participant’s point of view including what s/he will be expected to do.
- Risks: Risks of participation including physical, psychological, societal, and/or economical are stated.
- Benefits: Benefits of participation including benefits to society and/or the participant are stated.
- Confidentiality: Clearly explains where and how data will be stored and who will have access to these records. Information security protocols to protect participants' identities, including that neither e-mail nor IP addresses will be collected
- Potential use of individuals comments, name, organization affiliation
- Right to Decline or Withdraw: Section contains the correct wording from the informed consent template.
- Contact Information: Names and contact information for all investigators are provided. Contact information for the IRB is included.
- Compensation (if applicable): If participants will be compensated, this section must be included in the consent form to explain the type of compensation participants will receive (e.g., extra credit, payment, etc.).
- Statement of Consent: A statement for prospective participants to acknowledge that they understand 1) the nature of the study, 2) the possible risks, and 3) how their identity will be kept confidential and anonymous; and that 1) they are of legal age (18 years old or older) and 2) that they volunteer as a participant.
Summary data: Chesapeake College reserves the right to suppress disclosure of data (e.g., from a cell or a row in a table) to prevent the identification of individuals in small groups or those with unique characteristics. This policy may result in additional suppression of non-sensitive data to ensure adequate protection of personally identifiable information (e.g., complementary suppression of one or more non-sensitive cells in a table so that the values of the suppressed cells may not be calculated by subtracting the reported values from the row and column totals).
For more information or questions on the IRB, please contact the IRPE office, 410-827-5859.
Christopher Hall, Director
(410) 822-5400, ext. 2376
chall@chesapeake.edu