The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is an independent ethics committee which exists to protect and ensure the rights of human subjects who participate in research conducted at Modul University and/or MODUL Research. The IRB facilitates this objective by reviewing and/or modifying and ultimately approving or rejecting the data collection procedures and instruments submitted by researchers, lecturers, and students. No data collection from human subjects shall take place before gaining approval from the IRB, which is based on compliance with relevant Austrian and EU laws and regulations1 as well as the Belmont Report2 for international purposes.
Researchers can actively approach the board if they need support and advice concerning ethical problems in their research and teaching projects.
Research that needs approval:
Approval must be sought from the IRB before conducting research projects based at Modul University Vienna and/or MODUL Research that collect data from human subjects.
This includes:
- Student research at Bachelor, Master, or PhD level
- Internally funded faculty research
- Third-party funded projects based at Modul University Vienna
This excludes:
- Research that does not collect data from human subjects
- Research that collects data from human subjects but is based at another university or falls under the jurisdiction of a specific ethical committee outside the university
- Procedure for obtaining approval:
Before collecting data from human subjects, researchers must submit the following to irb@modul.ac.at for approval:
- The finalized data collection documents, such as the survey (in text form for face-to-face administration or as a link for online data collection), interview guide, or observation protocol
- Any invitation and/or introductory text and/or instructions
- The device used to obtain explicit consent from participants regarding their participation and the storage of the data they provide
Evaluation criteria:
Students must get the measurement instrument and all above documents approved by the supervisor before sending them to the IRB. The supervisor is also to be included in the email to the IRB.
The IRB will evaluate the research project according to the following aspects:
- Is the participant informed about the purpose of the study, risks, benefits and the use of their data?
- Is the responsible researcher clearly identified with contact details provided?
- Can the participant withdraw at any time?
- Do participants explicitly consent to their participation and the storage of the data they provide?
Good practice also suggests that the researcher communicates:
- How will the data be safely stored?
- Who will have access to the data?
- Will the data be deleted after the analysis?
- Can the study be conducted with participants remaining anonymous?
Contact
- irb@modul.ac.at
