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Institutional Review Board
* FOREWORD * A first edition of the Guidebook was produced in the early 1980s under
contract for the President's Commission by Public Responsibility in Medicine and
Research (PRIM&R). PRIM&R is a Boston-based, nonprofit organization that
sponsors annual conferences on topics related to the protection of human
subjects. The present Guidebook is a revised, updated, and expanded second edition,
prepared under contract by Robin Levin Penslar, Research Associate at the
Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics and American Institutions, in
consultation with the Office for Protection from Research Risks and its numerous
advisors. The Poynter Center is an independent ethics center housed at Indiana
University. Return to Index Page
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Guidebook
The impetus for developing this Guidebook for Institutional Review Boards
(IRBs) was a finding of need by the President's Commission for the Study of
Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. In its 1981
report, Protecting Human Subjects: The Adequacy and Uniformity of Federal
Rules and their Implementation, the Commission stated that it "is clear
that researchers and IRB members desire help both in understanding the policies
and principles that underlie the regulations governing research with human
subjects, and in identifying the issues to which one should be sensitive in
designing or reviewing research proposals".
Foreward