IRB Determination Tool

If you are a Gallaudet student, faculty, or staff member, please use our IRB Determination Tool to help find out if your research project requires IRB review.

Go to Tool

All Human Subjects Research (meets sections E and L) conducted by students, faculty, or staff of Gallaudet University must be approved by the Gallaudet IRB. If you see a Gallaudet research project involving human subjects that does not have Gallaudet IRB approval, please report it to us immediately using the web form below.

Research without IRB approval can never be used as the basis for a publication, and IRB approval cannot be granted retroactively. So, IRB review is highly recommended if it is possible that the research might be used in a future publication.

IRB review is generally not required in the following situations:

Classroom Research

Student research projects involving collection or use of data on human subjects do not require IRB review if it:

• Will not create generalizable knowledge (e.g., will not be published or presented at a conference)
• Does not involve children, prisoners, pregnant women, or handicapped or mentally disabled persons
• Poses minimal risk to the participants, meaning the harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests

Students who do independent research (e.g., independent study, capstone, thesis, dissertation, etc.) and their faculty advisors are recommended to submit an application for IRB review.

Data Sets

The analysis of de-identified, publicly available data is not human subjects research as defined in federal regulations and does not require IRB review.

Oral History

Many oral history projects aim to provide a deep understanding of specific historical events and actions and therefore are not “research” per the federal regulations that govern the IRB process.

However, oral history projects that do seek to contribute to generalizable knowledge or pose greater than minimal risk to participants must be submitted to the IRB. Also, funding agencies may require IRB review even if your oral history project meets the criteria for exemption.