Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences

National Academy Of Sciences, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The work of this expert panel is intended to inform the current efforts of the federal government to update the Common Rule, last revised in 1991. The discussion at the meetings and workshop plus the summary report offers potential to be transformative for policy making and policy implementation. The proposed revisions to the Common Rule are coming at a much needed time when new technologies in computing environments are presenting new opportunities, questions, and challenges with regard to risks and protection of participants' identification and privacy. They also come at a time of growing concern about the efficiency and effectiveness of our system of human research protections, in part because of the tendency to over-regulate research in the behavioral and social sciences that generally poses low risks to participants (e.g., non invasive surveys and interviews, secondary analyses, record reviews, etc.). The contribution of the NRC work will be to identify, review and assess the most critical issues; to discuss and suggest regulatory language, guidelines, and examples for implementation; and to identify areas of evaluation and study that could be undertaken to assess the appropriateness, quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of the new rules that will be put into regulation.