I think we could start a whole separate blog about IRB issues. I'm thinking that you're not at my institution if your exempt forms only add up to about 10 pages. OUCH. Yeah, that's my plight. I think ours is more around 15-20. On the one hand, I can see how they would want to check about exemption to some extent, but you're absolutely right to ridicule the issues associated with exemption being linked to an elaborate process of approval.
One point about your proposed alternate questions. While I can see how they can be seen as funny, if you want to hear the absolutely ridiculous IRB twist on them, here ya go. An IRB that considers itself qualified to determine the scientific value of whatever project to which they have no professional ties and so can actually deny you the right to run a project because they happen to think that it's not worth subjects' time. This hasn't happened to me, but the mere idea that I have to justify in fifty thousand ways why my project matters to people who don't have PhDs in my field really annoys me.
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Posted by Orange Ina to academicsecret at 9/29/2006 03:04:45 PM
