Formative evaluation using checklists to improve research proposals

Developing research proposals that protect human participants and understanding the institutional review board (IRB) approval process require high-level application of many skills. The purpose of this article is to describe how faculty can use formative evaluation techniques and checklists to guide students to build skills in writing research proposals for studies that involve human participants or their data. Formative evaluation, the process of critically reviewing work to improve it, is emphasized, and checklists that summarize IRB criteria and standards and present the critical content of research proposals for studies involving human participants are provided. Teaching principles that can guide faculty in using the checklists to give feedback and help students develop high-quality research proposals are discussed.