Imposter Participants: Fake Participants Causing Real Problems

Fraudulent participation in social and behavioral research is becoming more sophisticated and more common. This blog explores how imposter participants threaten data integrity, the ethical challenges of screening methods, and how IRBs can help researchers strike the right balance between rigor and participant protection.

5 Common Errors in the Informed Consent Process

Informed consent is the foundation of ethical research; ensuring participants are fully aware of what they’re agreeing to before participating in a study. After reviewing consent forms for the past decade, here are the 5 most common errors that we (an IRB) encounter....

Improving Exempt Submissions: 7 Tips to Reduce Revision Requests

When evaluating exempt protocols, we often get the comment, “Hey! This study is super simple, and obviously exempt. What’s the deal with the revisions?!”. While this is often very much the case, the IRB must evaluate what is presented against what is required by...