Upcoming Event

Please join UM’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) for an on-site webinar titled Online Research, Social Media, and the IRB: Assessing Ethics, Norms, and Risks which will take place on Tuesday, March 12 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM MST in Todd 204 (we only have one connection and will log-in together as a group). Note that we will only be hearing the speakers via a live feed, and we will be only viewing their PowerPoint presentation.  Hard copies of the PowerPoint presentation will be available at the event for all who pre-register.

There is no cost to attend, but you must pre-register.  Seats are limited and will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.  Please RSVP by email to: irb@umontana.edu. Questions?  Contact Paula Baker at 243-6672.

Description

The landscape of research is constantly evolving, and this is especially pertinent in the rapidly expanding and diversifying domain of internet research. The emergence of online communities and research on and through social media presents new opportunities for scientists to conduct research with human subjects—and poses new challenges for IRBs tasked with assessing novel recruitment methods, data collection techniques, and diverse forms of risk. 

• The specificity of social media as it relates to online research
• Different types of social media used in human subjects research
• Tips for evaluating what qualifies as appropriate recruitment and data collection techniques in diverse online spaces
• Relevant issues and important considerations for IRBs regarding social media research
• Techniques for IRBs to address questions of social norms in online communities and social media fora
• Strategies for how IRBs can estimate baseline risks to subjects, and specifically, what constitutes risk and what constitutes more than minimal risk in online research.

Elizabeth Buchanan, PhD, and Joseph Konstan, PhD, will share their expertise through an in-depth examination of social media as a subset of internet research. Using a case-based approach, the presenters will discuss IRB review of online social science/behavioral research.

Audience