Date Approved

5-30-2019

Embargo Period

6-4-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A. Higher Education

Department

Educational Services and Leadership

College

College of Education

Advisor

McCombs, Tyrone

Committee Member 1

Walpole, MaryBeth

Committee Member 2

Tinnin, Andrew

Keywords

Ethics Committees, Institutional Review Boards, IRB Performance, IRB Quality, IRBs, Research Ethics

Subject(s)

Institutional review boards (Medicine)

Disciplines

Bioethics and Medical Ethics | Higher Education

Abstract

This study employed the IRB Researcher Assessment Tool (IRB-RAT) to better understand values held by IRB members at Rowan University, and piloted the use of the IRB-RAT in this institutional context. A sample of Rowan University IRB affiliates, including administrators and members (N = 11), provided ratings related to their "ideal" and "actual" IRB on this 45-item questionnaire, addressing eight areas of IRB performance. Analyses included mean calculations, calculations of mean difference, and comparisons to those provided in a national validation sample for the measure. Results indicated that, by comparison to a national validation sample, Rowan University IRB members tended to view the performance of their IRB as being more closely aligned to their vision of an ideal IRB than as seen in the evaluations of IRB affiliates in related literature. In addition, a relatively high level of concurrence was observed with regard to member ratings across items. Findings indicate the need for more work in the area of IRB performance measures, and highlight the unique information generated by using the IRB-RAT in this particular institutional setting. Further, findings highlight the need for a greater number of studies that use IRB performance measures, to enable IRB researchers to understand how these measures may be differentially useful in a variety of institutional and IRB contexts.

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