Is IRB a recognizable abbreviation?

[Hierophant]

Should I spell out "institutional review board" in a secondary essay? It feels a little pedantic spelling it out like that, but I want to make sure anybody reading it knows what I mean by "IRB approval".

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[jqueb29]

Should I spell out "institutional review board" in a secondary essay? It feels a little pedantic spelling it out like that, but I want to make sure anybody reading it knows what I mean by "IRB approval".

I'd wait til an adcom replies definitively, but my opinion is yes, everybody will unfortunately know exactly what IRB stands for.

 

[Lost in Translation]

I have less than a full year's worth of lab research under my belt and I know what IRB stands for. Seeing as most adcom faculty will have had at least that much exposure to research (be it clinical or wet lab), IRB is a pretty recognizable acronym.

 

[darkjedi]

IRB is a pretty universal acronym in the medical/research/science community. It's fine.

 

[Catalystik]

IRB is a pretty universal acronym in the medical/research/science community. It's fine.

It's hard to believe, but there are older community physicians, who help with admissions interviews, that won't necessarily recognize the abbreviation.

 

[LizzyM]

It's hard to believe, but there are older community physicians, who help with admissions interviews, that won't necessarily recognize the abbreviation.

I would disagree. I think that IRB has been around long enough (well established prior to 1985 when I first heard of it) that even some of the older community physicians are likely to have heard of it during their training or can easily google it.

 

[WedgeDawg]

I think you're fine with IRB.

 

[Hierophant]

Thanks for the feedback everybody. I'm going to use the abbreviation. If the reader doesn't recognize it, hopefully the context clues or googling it will make it a non-issue.

 

[kamakazi5]

That feeling when you have to look up something supposedly very common...