Evaluation of a University’s Institutional Review Board Based on Campus Feedback: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

IntroductionMaintaining research ethics within a university and monitoring the campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) are essential responsibilities not to be taken lightly. IRBs occasionally need to be reviewed to see that they, as well as researchers, are adhering to rules and regulations on ethics through their submission and review procedures. Since there are no established measures for assessing IRB quality, it is unclear how to determine whether IRBs are achieving their intended aims. This study used the feedback and input of campus members at a newly-established, private, non-profit university within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to evaluate their campus IRB.MethodsFollowing the university’s IRB approval, and in close collaboration with the Saudi National Committee of Bioethics (NCBE), this cross-sectional study was conducted from February through May of 2019. Self-administered surveys were sent out via university emails to faculty and students at Alfaisal University in Riyadh of Saudi Arabia. The questions in the surveys included inquiries on participants’ demographics, their familiarity with campus IRB research ethics, their satisfaction with IRB procedures, the challenges encountered during the IRB submission and review process, the effectiveness of a recent IRB-coordinated research ethics campaign, and any suggestions for IRB improvement. Surveys were sent to faculty members and students at five colleges on campus.ResultsOf the campus members who were sent surveys, 8% responded (175). Of those who responded, 29.7% had submitted at least one research proposal for IRB review during the past three years (2016-2019), and more than half of this group were satisfied with the IRB submission and review procedures. For those who had submitted at least one research proposal, respondents reported the more usual challenges that researchers tend to encounter, such as time-consuming and tedious IRB review processes and ambiguous IRB guidelines and regulations. The less typical IRB challenges that were reported, and that are unique to academia, include the IRB tendency to deny undergraduate student requests to serve as principal investigators of their research projects. Concerning IRB efforts to educate and train campus members on research ethics, only 26.3% of the participants were aware of the recently performed research ethics campaign, and 7.6% of the participants attended the end-of-campaign workshop. Of those who attended the workshop, 76.9% reported that the campaign and workshop effectively met their expectations.Conclusions This study revealed several issues encountered by university faculty and students seeking campus IRB approval for their research projects. The main academia-specific challenge was over whether undergraduate students could serve as PIs for research projects, and a universal one was that they find the IRB process to be very time-consuming and tedious, which is a situation that has already been relayed in several other articles on IRB issues. About two-thirds of respondents reported a la...

Eligibility of Medical Students to Serve as Principal Investigator: An Evidence-based Approach

“…Like most other universities, the policy of Alfaisal University do not allow students to serve as PI on human subject research. Several COM students questioned the PI eligibility policy of the institution [2].…”

“…Research remains an essential pillar of most academic institutions despite the encountered challenges [1]. One of the challenges is determining the eligibility of a student to serve as a principal investigator (PI) on a study involving human subjects [2]. Another challenge is the need for more physicians to design and direct clinical research projects [3].…”

“…Similarly, Alfaisal university does not allow medical students to serve as PI without the supervision of a qualified faculty member. Over the years, many medical students have complained against the institutional PI eligibility policy [2]. The argument was that the institution uses a non-evidence-based method to select PIs for research projects that are designed to produce evidence.…”

Awareness of Medical Professionals Regarding Research Ethics in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A Survey to Assess Training Needs

“…This may have been considered a cumbersome process. In a survey by Rajab et al (2019) [39], participants reported that the review process is tedious and time-consuming and the guidelines are ambiguous. On average, the IRBs review 40 protocols of clinical trials annually, and the duration of each meeting is around 45-120 min.…”