When I wrote, I was dealing with the practice at the University of
Texas-Austin, which is in compliance with federal law.  I understand,
however, that some universities may have policies stricter than federal
law.  Nothing's simple.

John Allison


At 01:54 PM 10/20/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I defer to those of you from the US re the law here. However, I suggest that
>irrespective of the law itself, there are also university wide policies. At my
>University for example, all surveys require human subjects approval. I have
>always operated on the basis that I would much rather err on the side of the
>cautious here. If nothing else, it would be the height of embarressing to get
>hauled over the coals on something like this. I have even gotten approval
where
>I am doing something entirely for an outside body but my name remains
>associated with U of W. Neither the Office of Research nor myself knew whether
>it was necessary, but it certainly did not hurt going through the motions.
>
>Since the object of these rules is the protection of the subject (particularly
>for children and for any kind of intrusive physical investigation eg medical)
>and since informed consent is at the heart of this particular execise, I
cannot
>imagine that going through this process will be anything other than pro forma.
>But check this out anyway as there may well be variations between schools.
>
>Sally