4 ms·

"It's just software" IRBs are typically more equipped for biological/psychological research and likely wouldn't have the technical chops to see past the softwa

• gumby 5y ago
  I’ve only used IRBs in medical research but my gf routinely seeks approval for her sociological research. Did they evens seek IRB approval? Being from the CS department they might not have even considered it.
  • mbauman 5y ago
    Right, my point wasn't that what I listed was the universe, but rather that "software development" could be outside their wheelhouse and could easily be presented poorly to them. I'm sure they'd do a fine job identifying HCI as human subjects research, too (and likely regularly do so).
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
• abeppu 5y ago
  Also, aren't IRBs normally mostly focused on the ethical implications for immediate subjects? Like, obviously if you have human test subjects, the ethics for those participants are considered. But the ethical issue in this research is not about the project maintainers that are directly involved, but about the downstream users who are impacted. It's more difficult to have a process to review/approve impacts of this sort, because they're typically not observable.