A-Senate: IRB efficiency under scrutiny from A-Senators
Provost Michael Gealt said the Central Michigan University Institutional Review Board is working hard to respond to every application for research that it receives.
"We are becoming more efficient at processing the applications," Gealt told Academic Senators during Tuesday's meeting. "We have more data, like the time it takes to process the applications, too."
IRB has increased efficiency in processing from 39 percent to 76 percent from March to July.
Although they have increased their efficiency, some A-Senators were skeptical. David Smith, a philosophy and religion teacher, said the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences has had issues getting their applications processed.
"People in my college were told non-statistic research would not be reviewed," Smith said. "Some journals won't publish research that has not been reviewed first."
Gealt said IRB has to determine what applications to review and what not to review based on recommendations from other universities. Most of the CHSBS applications were reviews of oral histories, Gealt said, and most are an ethical issue.
"We'll discuss this at the Dean Council meeting on Sept. 30," he said. "It's really whether IRB is the right vehicle to judge ethics."
