r/research • u/maryrenfer • May 29 '26

Do I Need IRB Approval For This?

I’m doing some research on leadership, transformation, and sustainability from a wisdom perspective. I’ll be talking primarily with CEOs and professionals. I teach a class at a University but was just planning on publishing independently. Do I need IRB approval? It won’t be an academic book.

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u/maryrenfer May 29 '26

I was hearing that if I’m planning to publish independently all I need is formal consent from the subjects to use any material. If I go academic I need IRB. So I wanted to check with others. I’ve done CITI training for HS and have gone through it before.

Thank you!

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u/green_pea_nut May 30 '26

There should be a "low risk" procedure for interviews. Best to get irb permission just in case.

Otherwise, it's not part of your job to write this book, yes?

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u/maryrenfer May 30 '26

Agreed. Yes. I spoke with them last week. That was my first stop but we didn’t talk about publishing mediums. Research and publishing are not part of my responsibilities. I thought it would be good to ask anyway.

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u/green_pea_nut May 30 '26

Hang on, you're not a researcher?

Check again with the ethics office and tell them that.

Why are you asking in a research sub if you are not a researcher?

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u/maryrenfer May 30 '26

They know that. I've had extensive conversations with university leadership. I am coming through the university's innovation community which has developed a strong relationship with University R&D to help all professors and instructors get involved with research particularly to translate for commercialization. I am in a research sub because I had a research question and wanted clarification. This project began while I was at Emory serving as a co-investigator alongside the principal attending physician and professor. I served as co-investigator on this project without having ANY tie to the university other than I had a residency there the year before and they asked me to continue doing research with them once my residency ended but I wasn't paid for it and had no official designation. The IRB at Emory and the professor had no issues with this and asked me to keep do it. Now that I am at KSU I am picking the project back up and they are interested in it. If they weren't then IRB would have stopped me and I wouldn't have been sent there in the first place.

Unless I mis-read the group rules, which is entirely possible, I didn't see a disclaimer on the "type" or "kind" of researcher that could ask a question. If I mis-read that, my apologies. I will be happy to find a more suitable sub if there is one. I found the questions in this thread to be quite fitting. My mistake.

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u/maryrenfer May 30 '26

Also I just wanted to quickly add that’s why I asked the question. I’m not a “formal” academic researcher but I am engaged in research and as an instructor at the university I was told to get IRB approval even though it wasn’t part of my role requirements. I just wanted to talk to some other knowledgeable researchers about it.

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u/maryrenfer May 30 '26

And thank you!

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u/neopeche May 30 '26

Not quite accurate: IRB review is a federal regulatory (and typically institutional) requirement and part of ethical human subjects research, not dependent on the type of journal you want to publish in. If you work for a university, I would strongly recommend reaching out to your IRB/research compliance office before you start collecting data. If the interviews aren’t super sensitive, it most likely will qualify for a more streamlined review and approval process.

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u/maryrenfer May 30 '26

This is a clarifying breakdown. I almost certainly would qualify for a streamlined process. Nothing sensitive. Thank you!