Muhlenberg College is committed to protecting the safety, welfare, rights and privacy of all persons who participate as subjects in research projects conducted under its auspices by faculty, staff and students. It is also committed to ensuring that the subjects of such research are fully aware of their rights and the protections available to them. In addition, the College is obligated by law to assure the federal government that such safeguards are being provided and implemented. These safeguards are derived from the following ethical principles, first articulated in the Belmont Report issued by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1979:
Respect for persons: recognition of the personal dignity and autonomy of individuals and special protection of those persons with diminished autonomy or particular vulnerabilities, including prisoners, children, those who are mentally or cognitively disabled, pregnant women or economically or educationally disadvantaged persons. Human subjects should enter into research voluntarily and with adequate information.
Beneficence: the obligation to protect persons from harm by maximizing anticipated benefits and minimizing possible risks. Possible risks to human subjects should be weighed against possible benefits to the subjects, as well as against the possible improvement of knowledge.
Justice: fairness in the distribution of research benefits and burdens. In selecting human subjects for research, researchers should ensure that no group of participants is either consistently selected to participate in research or consistently deprived of the opportunity to do so. When research participation is a course requirement or opportunity for extra credit, the prospective participant is given the choice of equitable alternative activities.
Research in which human beings participate as subjects conducted under the auspices of Muhlenberg College, by its faculty, students, and staff, is subject to review by the College's Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB is the body charged with reviewing, prior to its commencement, all research and experimental activities in which human beings participate as subjects as well as research by external researchers seeking to use Muhlenberg College students or personnel as research subjects.
| Faculty serving for the current academic year |
|---|
| Greg Collins (ss) |
| Kimberly Heiman (s) |
| Kim Rohrbach (ss) |
Contact the IRB at [email protected]
The IRB will review applications on a rolling basis. We are committed to completing reviews within a 2 week time frame during the academic semesters. On college breaks, please expect reviews to take a little more time by no longer than 4 weeks.
