Sociobehavioral Research\Minimal Risk Studies

The majority of socio-behavioral studies will fall into expedited or exempt categories. However, the IRB may also determine that a project is actually public health practice, educational practice, oral history, or journalism. See this page if you think your project may not be "designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge." 

Classroom/Educational Research 

Research on educational practices generally is given an Exemption by the IRB if it:

  • is conducted in established or commonly accepted educational settings, and
  • specifically involves normal educational practices that are not likely to adversely impact
    • students' opportunity to learn required educational content, or
    • the assessment of educators who provide instruction

Examples of Exempt educational research settings:

  • Medical student/resident/trainee education
  • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects (SoTL)
  • Does not need to be done within a School building
  • NOTE on Quality Improvement: If you plan to evaluate a new teaching method in your own classroom, but your work is not "designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge," IRB review would not be required. 

Informed Consent when an educational activity involves a whole class/group: Generally, you must obtain consent to use each student's data for research analyses, even if all students are required to undergo the educational activity being studied (i.e. when it is not reasonable for individual students to opt out of the group intervention).

School-based research: you must work with the relevant School or School System to determine what permissions are needed, and provide documentation to the IRB. If the School/System reuqires Emory IRB approval before issuing their own approval, inform the IRB analyst. Parental permission (not just opt-out) is generally required for minors; exceptions may be made in certain situations. 

FERPA/PPRA: Research that makes use of student academic or health records is usually governed by FERPA and/or PPRA regulations. These regulations have special consent requirements. Please see the Emory IRB Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Guidance and Worksheet (DOCX).

Recruiting your own students: To avoid possible coercion or undue influence, ensure that students know their grades/evalautions will not be affected by their decision to join the study. Some options:

  • Use general announcements/post flyers instead of reaching out to individual students for recruitment
  • Use TA's or teachers of other sections to recruit students from your own section
  • Include explicit consent language on how their choice will not impact their evaluations
  • Conduct data collection anonymously when possible
  • Offer alternatives for course credit if the research includes course credit

Access additional links to other Emory Offices' FERPA policies

Anthropology/Ethnography


While projects in this field are often examinations of quite unique places and cultures, the work is usually done in order to gain knowledge about human behavior more generally, to generalize to a larger theory, to contribute to the academic field. While they may be exempt, they usually require at least an initial IRB submission.

International Research

View the International Research page

Psychology Student Recruitment Pool (SOMA)

It's prohibited to offer course credit to students for research participation without offering an alternative way to earn credit. 

Oral History and Journalistic Activities

Per OHRP's draft guidance (July 19, 2018), oral history and journalistic activities do not require IRB review if objective of the activities is to provide an accurate and evidence-based portrayal of the individuals involved, and not to develop generalizable knowledge. In contrast, if the activity involves collecting and using information about individuals for the purpose of drawing generalizations about such individuals or a population of which they are members, then it will be considered "research" and may need IRB review or an exemption determination. Note that (also per the guidance), "It is not the particular field that removes the activity from the definition, but rather that the purpose and design of the particular activity is to focus on specific individuals and not to extend the activity's findings to other individuals or groups." The Emory IRB tries to work with the particular characteristics of oral history research, including the fact that projects often involve open-ended, conversational interviews for which specific questions cannot be submitted in advance to the IRB; also that identifiers often need to be retained, topics can be emotional in nature, and interviewees, when adequately informed about the nature of the project, can decide if their identifiable responses may put them at risk in some way.

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