A graduate student plans an interview study with store owners about stock and sales, with no identifiers collected. This study would be subject to which type of IRB review?

A graduate student plans an interview study with store owners about stock and sales, with no identifiers collected. This study would be subject to which type of IRB review?

• A. Not Human Subjects
• B. Exemption
• C. Expedited
• D. Full Board

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is whether the activity counts as human subjects research under IRB rules. If no identifiers are collected and the information gathered cannot be linked to any living person, the activity isn’t considered human subjects research, so no IRB review is required. In this scenario, interviewing store owners about stock and sales but not collecting any identifiers means the responses cannot be linked to the owners themselves. Because there’s no data about a living person that can be tied back to them, it falls outside human subjects research. If identifiers were collected or the data could be linked to a specific person, then it would involve human subjects and would require IRB review (potentially exempt or expedited based on risk and the nature of the data).

The main idea here is whether the activity counts as human subjects research under IRB rules. If no identifiers are collected and the information gathered cannot be linked to any living person, the activity isn’t considered human subjects research, so no IRB review is required. In this scenario, interviewing store owners about stock and sales but not collecting any identifiers means the responses cannot be linked to the owners themselves. Because there’s no data about a living person that can be tied back to them, it falls outside human subjects research. If identifiers were collected or the data could be linked to a specific person, then it would involve human subjects and would require IRB review (potentially exempt or expedited based on risk and the nature of the data).