St. Edward's University has created a new committee, the Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB), whose primary purpose is to insure that the use and treatment of human subjects participating in research at this University is ethical and in compliance with established standards.

Although researchers are ultimately responsible for the ethical treatment of their human subjects, it is the policy of St. Edward's University that all Full-Time, Visiting, and Part-Time Faculty conducting research at this University involving humans must present their research plans by completing the necessary forms provided by the HSRB and obtain approval from the HSRB before commencing their projects or beginning data collection. This policy also applies to student researchers who are collecting data under the supervision of a faculty member. Students engaged in projects for Honors Theses, independent research courses, or faculty-student collaborations which utilize participation by human subjects should seek approval through their faculty sponsor.

Principal investigators or co-principal investigators who are formally affiliated with SEU and conduct research associated with other institutions are also required to seek approval from the HSRB, unless they have received approval from an approved Institutional Review Board (IRB) at their host institution. In this case, a copy of the approval form must be sent to the Human Subjects Review Board at St. Edward's University.

The task of the HSRB is not to evaluate the soundness of the research, the merits of the research design, nor the contributions of the research to the larger scientific literature. Rather, the Human Subjects Review Board is charged with evaluating a project's compliance with ethical standards in regard to issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, use of deception, and potential risk to participants. (These standards are addressed in forms available from the HSRB.)

"Research" is defined as "work which contributes to generalized knowledge about a subject." Work undertaken as part of a course for the purpose of illustrating a particular technique or methodology is not considered research and therefore does not require approval by the Human Subjects Review Board. Similarly, research using laboratory animals, online databases, or other forms of archival research (i.e., research pursuits that do not require eliciting responses from, taking measurements of, or otherwise studying human participants) are not reviewed by the HSRB. (An exception to this general principle occurs when archival research presents the possibility of lack of confidentiality, risk to human subjects, or lack of informed consent. For example, if medical or insurance records of identifiable patients are examined for research purposes there would be some question about the protection of the human subjects who provided those records.) It should be noted that several categories of research are exempt from the review process, including questionnaire or survey research with adults which does not involve sensitive topics.

Researchers should generally expect up to two weeks of processing time, although projects which meet all the necessary criteria may be processed within a few days. Faculty who have specific deadlines for courses involving research (e.g., research practica or theses) or for grant proposal submissions should inform the Chair of the HSRB of these deadlines at the beginning of the relevant semester, preferably within the first two weeks. Every effort will be made to accommodate these needs. Should research involving human subjects be undertaken without the HSRB's prior approval, the University may terminate, suspend, or postpone the research project.

Deadline for submissions: Research proposals must be submitted during the first week of each month in order to be reviewed by the HSRB. The Board does not accept proposals for review in the month of December or in the summer.