University of Denver Writing Program

IRB Introduction and Research Limitation for WRIT Courses

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Denver (DU) is responsible for protecting the rights and
safety of individuals participating in research projects that involve human participants. Currently, the IRB requires
training and board approval for any project that is intended to be published outside of the classroom setting and that
identifies a subject/participant by name or that involves manipulating a subjects environment.
For the purposes of this class, you will be limited in the field research you conduct. The first limitation is that the
research that you conduct is limited to interviews, observation, and/or anonymous surveys. The second limitation is
that the research that you conduct is at the discretion of the instructor. This means that research questions and
procedures need to be approved by your instructor before you administer them.
You must abide by the following guidelines at all times. Your questions or observations related to this research
cannot include anybody who cannot provide legal consent including those under institutional care; those less than 18
years of age; or those who are mentally or physically disabled. Additionally, you cannot target or ask about certain
participant behaviors or traits:
Sexually explicit materials or questions
Questions about sexual abuse
Questions about drug use
Questions about illegal behavior
Questions about suicide or suicidal thoughts
Finally, you cannot conduct an observation, interview, or survey in which the risks of harm anticipated in the
proposed research are not greater, considering probability and magnitude, than those ordinarily encountered in daily
life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests (IRB website, DU).
In order to ensure the policies set forth by IRB, any research project involving interviews or case studies will have to
include signed IRB Interview Permission when the project is handed in, or the project will not be accepted. For
research involving surveys, questionnaires, or polls, an IRB Survey/Questionnaire/Poll Statement must be
included on all survey/poll/questionnaire instruments, or the project will not be accepted.
You may also conduct field research using the Internet for participant recruitment, survey administration, data
mining, or online conversations. If the data is obtained from a public forum or open deep web space (e.g., public but
non-indexed discussion boards or forums), you will not have to obtain any special permission. Data mining
activities involve collecting data from public profiles, posts, or other public expressions, and they will not involve
the interaction or communication with the author of that information. However, if you collect data from email
conversations, instant messages, closed deep web forums, or where participants assume any measure of privacy
(e.g., posts only to friends on Facebook), you need to obtain consent from the authors of that data. For private,
online interactions, including those interactions only visible to friends or semi-private audiences, please use the IRB
Online Interview consent.
Not only will you be responsible for following the limitations to research, but you will have to abide by the
University of Denver Code of Student Conduct. Thus, in any research endeavor, you are representing the University
of Denver, and you will be expected to be civil, responsible, and maintain integrity.
If at any time you observe a violation of these procedures, you should contact your instructor, or Paul Olk, Chair,
Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects, at 303-871-4531, or you may contact the Office of
Research and Sponsored Programs by email, du-irb@du.edu, or call 303-871-4052 or write to the University of
Denver, Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, 2199 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80208-2121.

IRB Survey/Questionnaire/Poll Statement

The following passage must be read or printed on every survey or poll you conduct:
By completing the following questions, you are also granting consent for this information to be used as part of a
research project that I am completing for a course at the University of Denver. Your participation is completely
voluntary. The information you provide may be used in a project and may be published online and/or in print, but
your identity will remain anonymous. While profile information you volunteer in this survey may be included in my
writing project (i.e. your age, sex, class standing, etc.), your name and identity will NOT be used or reported. If at
any time you do not want to answer a question, or do not want to complete the questionnaire, you do not have to.
IRB Interview Permission
The following consent form must be signed and handed in with each project that includes any interviews you
conduct as part of your research. Furthermore, permission must be attained for any observational data obtained from
spaces the public is not normally allowed:
By signing, you are granting consent for this information to be used as part of a research exercise that I am
completing for a course at the University of Denver. Your participation is completely voluntary. The information you
provide may be used in a class project and/or published in research writing that I am doing, but your identity will
only be known by me and my professor. Although profile information may be included in my project, your name
and the name of the organization will NOT be used. You may further agree or disagree whether to be recorded via
audio/video for research purposes.
_____ I agree to be recorded via audio with the understanding that the recording will be destroyed after the
research is completed.
_____ I agree to be recorded via video with the understanding that the recording will be destroyed after the
research is completed.
_____ I do not want to be recorded via audio or video.
_____________________________________
(signature)

______________
(date)

_____________________________________
(phone / email)
IRB Online Interview
The following informed consent should be used when conducting online interviews:
By typing your name, you are granting consent for this information to be used as part of a research exercise that I
am completing for a course at the University of Denver. Your participation is completely voluntary. The information
you provide may be used in a class project and/or published in research writing that I am doing, but your identity
will only be known by me and my professor. Please type your name and date to indicate that you understand and
grant consent: