A National Perspective for Improving Working Relationships Between Educational Researchers and Institutional Review Board Members

The purpose of this article is to set forth some fundamental guidelines for educators to develop a working relationship with Institutional Review Board members. The authors identify ways to prevent a strained environment from developing so that positive relationships can be established among key players whose role is to ensure that educational research proceeds in a manner that respects the rights of human subjects. he role of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) has grown dramatically in its oversight of ethics in educational research conducted within federally supported institutions since its introduction in 1976. This role remained largely symbolic and monitoring was based on ensuring that the proper paperwork had been filled out prior to research. This changed in 2001 when three major research universities saw all research activities suspended due to lack of compliance with federal IRB. Since that time the IRB has assumed a vastly expanded mission in most universities leading some critics to claim that the IRB process has done its job too well. In an effort to be diligent in protecting the interests of the university, human subjects, the researcher, and the reputation of research in general, many disputes and