Independent Research

[Chris82362]

Hey guys,

First I want to say, that's funny there's a search feature for your topic. Secondly, I perused this forum a lot when I was considering what direction to take my career with regards to academics. It helped out a lot being able to look at peoples grades and seeing, somewhat, where they would rank in the system. (Though it pales in comparison to LawSchoolNumbers, seriously, we need to copy them). Anyway, it's great to have this site.

I'm looking at doing some independent research in an area that interests me. This is completely independent of professors and accredited institutions.

Basically, I already know what I want to study, and digging through Google Scholar I can't find any similar work besides one study in a third world country.

So I had a unique experience in a summer class that let me learn about the IRB and the research proposal (we made one) and certified me with CITI. The next step is figuring out how to apply to the IRB independently (or get approval in general) and set up the study in a professional manner.

My question is, how does one get board approval independently and set up the study in a professional manner (pay, renting a place, advertising)? I'm generally looking for people to answer who had prior research experience and either saw or put together these things. My goal overall is to learn.

Thanks!
Chris

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[Lya]

I am not sure if I understood your question correctly but I'll give it a try.

I don't know if it is possible for a student to do a completely independent, stand-alone research with your name as a PI in IRB without any academic affiliation. Usually, even if you go abroad and neither professor nor academic institution have anything to do with it, I had to still include my mentor/adviser's name as a PI (even if all he did was responding to my emails) and still include the information about my current institution (even if I did not use any resource from this institution).

In other words, from my experiences with IRB for my overseas research project, I think that you still need to find a mentor for your PI and include information about your affiliated institution. It does not matter if 100% of work is done by you independently--you still need to find an adviser who agrees to be your PI for this particular project. He or she can help you more in depth about how to get an approval for IRB.


A simple rule for filling out the IRB is: Be as thorough as possible, and it is better to write and explain more if in doubt, and be crystal clear on how you go about your project every step of the way, no matter how small or trivial you think it seems.



Edit: About the pay, you can either pay or give something (gift card, for instance) to every participant, or mention that you will do a lottery and give only a few participants gifts or payments. Advertising can be done through simple flyers or go to a common place and ask anyone who could volunteer for, say, a survey. Renting a place for what? Usually, if it is the place for doing an interview or survey in a close environment, there should be such a room publicly available in your institution to sign up and use the room accordingly. All these details can be clarified as you work with your PI (professor).