By Zayden Orenstein 

On 10/31/2024, the first deadline passed for IA and Honors Research students to submit their pinnacle project applications to the Institutional Review Board (IRB). But what is the IRB, and what does it do? 

“The IRB is a board that we have set up here at IA that allows us to do a much more thorough vetting process for our research projects,” explains Mr. Proctor, a former IA IRB member and Music Tech and Research teacher. “It’s something that very few high schools have, but is very common in the college level. Since we’re asking [the students] to do research that is more and more interesting every year and at a higher and higher level every year, it only makes sense that we should add in this precaution, basically, to help us as a school know what’s going on, and to help… students who may not be aware of all the potential ethical ramifications of research, or even just the setup of a good methodology.” 

“So, in short,” he continues, “it’s a board made up of teachers, admin, and just other adults in the building that are knowledgeable about the material, and our main goal is to make sure we safeguard from any ethical violations and protect basic student safety, and then… [help] make student’s projects that much better by critiquing methodology, looking at sources, and just making sure that [the students] are set up to do the best research [they] can do.” 

IRB applications are necessary for any projects involving hazardous materials or living participants (which include humans as well as any other animal). Any application contains the actual application (with their research question, abstract, background and methodology), though additional submissions are required for the different types of IRB submissions; the use of hazardous materials requires additional questions to be answered regarding the hazardous materials that are planned to be used, while the use of human participants requires all planned survey questions and minor consent forms to be submitted as well. Human subjects include any research that involves “any potential impact on people or animals.” Hazardous materials include “even materials you wouldn’t normally think of as hazardous, but could potentially be hazardous if not handled correctly… and the majority of the hazardous materials [are] checking processes, really just making sure you’re acting responsibly with the materials: washing your hands, using eye protection when necessary, that sort of thing.” For instance, a student studying pond water had to fill out a hazardous materials application. Though they were unlikely to purposefully splash water in their faces, exposing them to the contaminants, “If you’re not showing the basic level of care, an accident could happen.”  

“The majority of applications,” Mr. Proctor says, “are typically going to be accepted.” 

There are a few different types of acceptance, though, as Mr. Proctor clarifies. Most of these, he says, are accepted with modifications. Accepted with modifications means that the student’s application is accepted, under the condition that they modify one or more components of their project. When their research teacher affirms that they have modified this satisfactorily, their application is fully approved. “Part of that is because, unlike a college, we don’t have research that is going on any time span; we have to do research that’s done by the end of the year, and so that means that students should really ideally be starting the research in January or earlier.”  

There are two rounds of IRB application deadlines. The first, as mentioned earlier, is due on the 31^st of October – that deadline has already passed for current research students. The second is due December 3^rd, so, if students miss the first deadline or their application is denied, they have another chance. For students who did submit by the first deadline, though, applications are returned rather fast. 

“We are looking to get the feedback back as quickly as possible, but ‘as quickly as possible’ does depend on a couple of factors, one of which is the availability of the [IRB] participants. From what I understand, we’re able to do about a weeklong turnaround, at the latest, for this first submission process. And part of that is we had fewer people submitting, and we had several days taken off by Mrs. Reid and other people on the IRB to really focus in on that, which they are planning on doing for the next one as well.” 

For those submitting on that December 3^rd deadline, though, Mr. Proctor “…would expect a longer amount of time there, not because we don’t want to get you your feedback as quickly as possible, but because the vast majority of research students are going to be turning theirs in at that later deadline… it looked like at least three-quarters of the research students still need to submit theirs to IRB, and so that next one is going to be more intense, take a lot more time, and it’s also at a busy part of the school year because it’s in December, so it could be longer than that, but it will certainly be before the semester ends – before the next semester begins – because, again, we’d love to get everyone started in January, if not before.” 

Most research students submit IRB applications – Mr. Proctor notes that “…all but three of my students are submitting IRBs this year. Part of that is we have broadened the scope of what the IRB covers to include not only human participants but animal participants, and then also the hazardous materials – again, you may not think what you’re working with is a hazardous material, but we want to safeguard against any potential risks because we don’t want to ask a student to do something and they get hurt as a result.”  

Finally, he states: “Don’t be scared of [the IRB]. The IRB may sound scary – it’s something else to do… but just know that much of what you’re going to be doing there will also result in work for your other assignments as part of your regular research class… So, don’t think of the IRB as extra work – it’s work that you would have to do anyway – and don’t think of it as extra stress; really, what it is is an opportunity for much better feedback, and feedback from a wider variety of intellectuals from the building to help you out with that.” 

Good luck to all IA and Honors Research students with their IRB applications, whether currently submitted or not!