DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Appendix: Rights of Human Subjects and Permissions to Cite or Quote

The University has clear regulations regarding the rights of human subjects of research conducted by any member of the Washington University community.  The regulations are designed to protect the welfare and privacy of individuals and to respect the dignity of members of a free society. The Hilltop Human Studies Committee (HHSC) is an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that is composed of members of the faculty, a member from the General Counsel’s office, a student, and one member from the community. In addition, the Research Office Director serves as the Executive Secretary of this committee. The HHSC convenes monthly to consider Human Studies applications submitted for FULL REVIEW. To view application due dates and meeting dates, visit the web site (see below). Approval by the HHSC is for a 12-month period. Approximately two months before your HHSC approval will expire, you will receive a notice asking you to request a 12-month continuation OR to complete a Final Report.

In addition to handling FULL REVIEW applications, the HHSC accepts applications for projects that qualify for EXPEDITED REVIEW or EXEMPT STATUS. Such proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis. PLEASE NOTE: Effective June 15, 2005, ALL Washington University researchers are required to take and pass the CITI Human Subject Education Course prior to the approval of their application by the HHSC. This requirement holds true for both faculty and doctoral student researchers and for applications that are submitted for full, expedited, or exempt review. The CITI education program is available at http://aisinfo.wustl.edu/ra.html.  The course takes about 6-8 hours to complete and you may do so at your own convenience and over one or more sessions.

To determine which type of application you should submit, you will find it helpful to consider your answers to the questions in the “Application Checklist” on the web site (see below).  Those who plan to conduct funded or unfunded research of a social or behavioral nature that involves individual human subjects need to obtain approval of the Standing Committee on the Use of Human Subjects before beginning the research.  The committee meets at least once a month; dates can be obtained by calling the Research Office at 362-5866.  To obtain the forms and to be apprised of the most recent regulations, visit the university's HHSC web site.

In the case of historical or documentary research, students must follow the regulations of the particular institutions in which the documents are held.  These may range from permissions to cite to permissions to quote, requiring permissions also from the legal owners of the documents (in the case of some archival collections).  Students must ascertain these rules and comply with them before submitting a final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate School and University Microfilms International. 

In the case of oral interviews for the purpose of ethnographic or historical work, students must obtain written permission from their subjects to cite or quote material.  Ideally, this is done before the oral interviews are conducted.  In some kinds of research, including oral history interviews, it is appropriate to provide the subject with copies of transcripts, if the interviews are transcribed, or copies of quoted material, in order to obtain from the subject corrections, additions, and clarifications, as well as permission to quote.

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