Human Research

Photo by Sydney King '17, Office of Undergraduate Research

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

The mission of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to protect the rights, privacy, and welfare of human participants in research conducted by Princeton University faculty, staff, and students. The activity has to be research and has to involve human subjects for the IRB to oversee it. Some examples of human subjects research follow:
 
If you will obtain private identifiable information about individuals for research purposes, the activity is human subjects research though you will not interact with anyone. “Obtains” includes using, studying, analyzing, collecting, gathering, and viewing. Even if you are not recording private identifiable information, if you are obtaining it for research purposes, the activity is human subjects research.
 
If you are obtaining data through intervention or interaction with an individual for research purposes, the activity is human subjects research, though the data is not private and identifiable.
 
If you are unsure whether your proposed activity is human subjects research or you would like IRB training, please contact the IRB at [email protected].

Quick links to the Institutional Review Board: