Exempt Research

All research activities involving the use of human beings as research subjects must be reviewed and approved by the University of New Orleans Institutional Review Board (IRB). Investigators may not make their own determinations of exemption.

A determination that research is exempt does not absolve the investigators from ensuring that the welfare of human subjects participating in research activities is protected, and that methods used and information provided to gain subject consent are appropriate to the activity. Investigators may not solicit subject participation or begin data collection until they have received approval from the appropriate Institutional Review Board OR written concurrence that research has been determined to be exempt. Exempt research is generally short term in nature. It usually is performed "as written," i.e. the investigators do not plan to make changes in the research design, the selection of subjects, the informed consent process, or the instrumentation during the course of the study.

Examples of human subjects research that may be exempt include anonymous surveys, (non-sensitive) interviews, or observations of public behavior, and study of existing data, records, or specimens, when the information is recorded by the investigator so that subjects cannot be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects. Research involving prisoners, fetuses, pregnant women, or human in vitro fertilization is not exempt. Surveys or interviews involving children are also not exempt. Neither is prospective examination of records or specimens, or use of coded (or linked) data or specimens; this type of human subjects research requires IRB review. See categories for exempt research. All investigators conducting research believed to be exempt must contact the IRB Chair, Dr. Robert Laird.

See Criteria for exempt research