Institutional Review Board

The IRB at Bard

Institutional Review Boards function in three ways:

1. by educating the community about commonly accepted standards for the ethical treatment of volunteer research participants,
2. by fostering discussion about how those general principles apply in particular cases and the balance between the risks to research participants and the long-term benefits of the research, and
3. by reviewing ongoing research to ensure that it complies with commonly accepted practices and standards.

Intellectual activities that are governed by IRBs are only those which meet ALL three of the following criteria:

1. Research that produces generalizable or universal knowledge;
2. Research that involves human participants;
3. Research involving human participants that is required to be reviewed under existing IRB procedures.

If you aren’t sure whether your research must be reviewed by the IRB, please check out the Frequently Asked Questions page.

All research carried out by Bard College faculty, staff, and students for which people are research participants must be carried out in accordance with Bard College IRB policies.  The IRB will not consider proposals for research that has already been conducted.
 

• Faculty research
• Senior projects
• Research conducted outside of the classroom (e.g., independent projects)
• Class projects that serve as pilot studies

When a project is approved, the consent forms will be given a date stamp including the duration of approval (1 year, renewable). Once a project is approved, the content of the consent form and the experimental procedures should not be altered. If subsequent changes are necessary, an amendment must be filed specifying the changes. Approval for the changes must be received by the researcher before data collection can resume. To submit such a revision, email [email protected] the revised protocol with changes highlighted and a cover letter explaining the general scope and rationale for the revisions.