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Case 3c :

Human Subjects Compliance: "It's just a classroom survey!"

Jamie was pacing the office floor quickly, chattering excitedly to Jen,

"We have these two high enrollment introductory courses and they are the perfect population for this survey. And, we have to get this done in the next three weeks if we're going to present this at the conference. All we need is a reasonable sample size and suitable variation. They're a reasonable sample size. We have a pre-validated survey. Let's go print them now".

Jen responded, in a tone equally as excited,

"Do you think we should put the surveys out in lectures or in tutorials? Maybe the small group setting will put less pressure on them to complete it and they will give more thoughtful answers. Also, if we use the tutorial sections, we can know who has completed and who hasn't and we can reduce the possibility of duplicate surveys. I can make myself available to run the surveys in tutorials this week. Anna is quite a good tutor and she can help us catch any that didn't get it done the first time".

Two weeks later, Jamie and Jen were compiling their data, pleased with the preliminary analysis of their findings. Then came a knock on Jamie's office door from Professor Lam, the head of Jamie's department of study,

"Jamie, may I speak with you for a moment?"

Jamie replied,

"Certainly, have a seat. Jen, can we talk later?"

After Jen closed the door, Professor Lam pulled a few sheets of paper out of the folder in his hands and asked,

"Jamie, what is this? A student of mine came to me to ask if she could use the data from a survey she took in her tutorial class. See, the students in my social science research methods course must do analysis of "real" data for their papers and this student thought perhaps she could use the data from the survey she just took. Imagine my surprise, though, to find a survey had been conducted with students in this department without my knowledge. You see, all classroom based research has to be approved by the Ethics Committee and I have to sign all of those forms. I have not signed one this year. I remember you were in the workshop for new faculty about the ethics requirements here. Can you explain this please?"

Imagine you are Jamie:

• How do you defend your actions?
• Taking a step back, how would you advise Jamie in the first place in conducting the research?
• Is there anything that she could have done to avoid breaching any research ethics rules?

 

Imagine you are Professor Lam:

• What actions do you believe you ought to take with Jamie?
• Jen is not in your department, but they are collaborative researchers. What ought you do with respect to Jen's involvement with this case?