The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Gainesville State College is responsible for reviewing and approving all research involving human participants, including faculty and staff projects, outside research interests (including master theses and doctoral dissertations). Student projects, when for course-directed research, do not have to come through the GSC IRB . The main function of the IRB is to protect human subjects and ensure, to the best of its ability, that all research with human participants is conducted in accordance with certain ethical principles. The three major concerns of the IRB are:
- whether legally informed consent is obtained from research participants;
- whether the benefits of the research outweigh the risks to the participant; and
- the extent warranted for confidentiality or anonymity of research information.
For further information regarding services of Institutional Review Boards see the following resources: