Toward the development of a perceived IRB violation scale

Area of Science:

• Research Integrity
• Academic Administration

Background:

• Assessing researcher adherence to Institutional Review Board (IRB) regulations is crucial for maintaining research ethics.
• Understanding faculty perceptions of IRB violations can inform institutional support and training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate survey items for assessing the perceived prevalence and seriousness of IRB violations among researchers.
• To evaluate faculty perceptions regarding specific IRB infractions at research-intensive universities.

Main Methods:

• Survey data collected from tenured and tenure-track faculty at research-intensive universities.
• Descriptive statistics and exploratory factor analyses were used to analyze the data.
• Items assessed perceived prevalence and seriousness of various IRB violations.

Main Results:

• Failure to properly store data and maintain project records were identified as the most prevalent IRB violations.
• These data management issues were also perceived as relatively serious infractions.
• Factor analyses confirmed the unidimensionality of prevalence and seriousness scales.

Conclusions:

• Findings support the provision of enhanced data storage and record-keeping services for researchers.
• The developed IRB violation scale can be utilized by research integrity professionals to assess faculty perceptions.
• Institutional support for data management practices is essential for promoting research integrity.