Even though analysis of existing, public-use, de-identified data is typically exempt from review, it is critical to understand the considerations of an institutional review board (IRB) for research with human subjects.
The IRB proposal will be an important opportunity to review your group’s procedures for protecting data and confidentiality of participants.
First, read the process to apply to the Smith College IRB are here.
Next, read how to write a proposal to the Smith IRB.
Then download and complete the template for the Smith IRB application. The main points your group will need to consider are:
- A summary (1 paragraph) of the purpose of the research. This should be a summary of your research question, hypothesis, etc. to someone who doesn’t know about your project at all.
- The # of people who will be included in your analysis.
- Eligibility criteria for inclusion into both the study that collected the data AND into your study. For the former, you’ll need to consult the original study materials – this information should be available on their websites.
- If you are including minors (age<18), a justification for why they’re necessary to this question.
- The benefits to the researcher, the participants, and society for this research. Note, there likely are no direct benefits to the particpants at this point, since they cannot be identified - that’s fine to say.
- Intended use of the data, where you should be able to describe how the data will be analyzed and stored.
- A list of your groups’ CITI training completion dates.