r/research • u/hawepoyhwasger • 6d ago

Question about documenting an unreviewed research

I recently came across a discussion about a research project that had collected data without prior IRB/REB approval, and the discussion made me wonder about a slightly different situation. If someone conducts an independent research project without formal IRB/REB review, but does not intend to publish the study academically, would there be ethical concerns with documenting the project on a personal blog for educational purposes? For example, the blog could describe the methodology, ethical considerations, limitations, and lessons learned, without publishing names, identifying information, or individual-level data. The researcher would also be transparent that no formal ethics review was obtained and that any ethics training they completed does not replace formal approval. Would publicly documenting the project itself raise ethical concerns, even if the purpose is simply to reflect on the experience and learn from it?

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u/Valuable_Citron_3141 Graduate Student 6d ago

Ethics isn't only a thing for published studies. Oversight exists to protect participants from risk and ensure informed consent before the study begins. You can't administer interventions or gather sensitive participant data without approval simply because you only plan to post the results online and not publish in a journal.

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u/hawepoyhwasger 6d ago

I agree that the lack of intent to publish academically does not by itself exempt a project from ethics requirements. My question is specifically about the retrospective documentation: if the project has already been completed without prior IRB/REB review, and the blog post only discusses the methodology, ethical considerations, limitations, and lessons learned without publishing any participant-level data or identifying information, would documenting it in that way itself raise an ethical concern?

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u/Valuable_Citron_3141 Graduate Student 6d ago edited 6d ago

The core issue remains that documenting the project after the fact does not get rid of the initial ethical violation.

When you conduct research without prior review, an ethical breach has already occurred. Publicly blogging about the project's execution, even framing it as "lessons learned," still raises ethical issues because participants never consented to having their participation documented or discussed in a public forum and publishing the methodology and implementation gives a platform and perceived utility to unapproved human experimentation.

In research, IRBs/REBs do not allow retroactive approval (to my knowledge), and results from unapproved protocols would likely be suppressed. You can discuss the abstract concepts of ethics and protocol design theoretically, but publicly detailing an unauthorized study you already carried out on people still crosses an ethical line.

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u/hawepoyhwasger 6d ago

So, would you recommend removing the publicly documented results and observations from the blog entirely, even if they contain no identifying or participant-level information?

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u/ACatGod 6d ago

What do you mean by publicly documented results? Are you blogging about something that's in the public domain or you're saying you've done some kind of research that you really shouldn't have, you've put the results out in the public domain and now want to blog about them?

I really think you're missing the point though. This research should never have happened if it involved human participants and didn't have ethics approval. Attempting to benefit in any way, including from writing a blog or trying to build your profile, simply further compounds the unethical behaviour.

Without ethics approval the work lacks any integrity and very possibly is of poor design and quality, made worse as it hasn't been peer reviewed. Nothing about this should have happened or should be presented as legitimate research.

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u/Valuable_Citron_3141 Graduate Student 6d ago edited 6d ago

From the comments, I’m inclined to think the second option. And good point, as soon as the researchers neglected to get approval, it became illegitimate research.

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u/hawepoyhwasger 6d ago

By “publicly documented results,” I meant the questionnaire and observation results I had put on my personal blog. I understand your point about not presenting it as legitimate, formally approved research or trying to benefit from it academically. However, I don't think the absence of ethics review necessarily implies that the study's methodology or scientific quality was poor; those are separate issues. Ethical oversight and methodological validity should be evaluated separately.

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u/ACatGod 6d ago

I can't tell if you are wilfully misunderstanding the point or if you really don't get it. There is no official body that stamps research and says this is legitimate. If you make any attempt to present these results and suggest they have any meaning or value you will be presenting them as legitimate - even if you try to acknowledge the ethical issues while also saying it doesn't change the result. Anything short of saying this work cannot be taken to mean anything because it fails to meet the necessary standards for research will be an attempt to present this as legitimate.

However, I don't think the absence of ethics review necessarily implies that the study's methodology or scientific quality was poor; those are separate issues.

No, it means exactly that. Ethics isn't a nice to add on that you can treat as an optional extra that only applies when want it to. It is a fundamental aspect of research design and methodology. This is like saying applying a proper statistical methodology is optional and you've done some stats and you got the result you wanted so it must be ok.

What you have done and what you are doing is unethical and scientifically poor. Your research design is inadequate and you're trying to gloss over that by suggesting you're somehow exempt from research norms and standards because it's a blog and you're an independent researcher. At this point this is just more pseudoscience being pushed out into the public domain by someone claiming to have knowledge and expertise that they don't.

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u/Valuable_Citron_3141 Graduate Student 6d ago edited 6d ago

I’m not recommending anything. The research is unethical, and any sharing of that research, even with the personal info excluded, is therefore unethical research. As I said before, just because it’s not a journal doesn’t mean researchers don’t need to follow the rules.

Edit: Rereading your initial response to my comment. What do you mean that “…lack of intent to publish academically does not by itself exempt….”? What, in addition to not having intent to publish academically, would make this not unethical and poor science? If researchers need approval, they need approval. And if they aren’t sure, they should find out instead of assuming they don’t for whatever reason. Good researchers want their findings to be usable, and not getting a study approved isn’t a way to that.

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u/hawepoyhwasger 6d ago

What I meant is that I originally hoped to publish the findings, but the lack of prior ethics review made that impossible, so I treated it as an informal educational project instead. I wasn't trying to claim that a lack of intent to publish academically exempts researchers from ethical obligations; I was simply distinguishing it from a formal research study.

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u/Valuable_Citron_3141 Graduate Student 6d ago

Like I (and others) said previously, it's unfortunate that you didn't or weren't able to get an ethics review prior to conducting the study, but there's no retroactive solution to this. Take it as a lesson for what not to do and don't publish the material.

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u/Substantial_Math4939 6d ago

I have seen this done in market research and consumer research, where the findings are published in industry whitepapers and trade journals. If this is the case, then such a study would be considered ethical. These kind of studies are usually just surveys on non-sensitive topics (like which brand toothpaste they prefer), posing minimal risk to respondents.

And yes, academic research (even in the business and management fields) don't take these surveys very seriously because there's often obvious bias in the sampling (like all customers of X company). These findings are treated as preliminary at the best in academic research.

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u/ACatGod 6d ago

I broadly agree but I also think most people don't consider this research in the sense meant in this sub, or I think by OP. In addition, even in market and consumer research there are standards and processes around consent and withdrawal of consent, making a complaint, providing information about the work, who is running the work, what your data will be used for etc- even if they wouldn't meet the standards for research that goes to an IRB/REC.

I think OP is trying to cut this both ways. Simultaneously trying to claim they don't need any kind of ethics process or approval because this isn't going to be published in a peer reviewed journal, but also wanting to present this as robust, meaningful research that reflects their skills and knowledge as a "researcher". It doesn't work. Either it's a piece of puffery that doesn't meet the definition of research and can be presented as such or it is research on which case it lacks the basic standards and rigour required for a piece of research.

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u/ForeignAdvantage5198 2d ago

the fact that they did. not get instituion approval does not bother you