I just spoke with a behavioral decision theorist/cognitive psychologist who
makes his living doing behavioral research.  He confirmed what I thought:
You do not need Research on Human Subjects Approval (RHSA) for surveys or
interviews.  You do need it if you are subject people to controlled
behavioral experiments in lab settings, but not for what we are
contemplating.  You obviously must deal with the issue of informed consent,
however.

John Allison





At 11:46 AM 10/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I would check that out with the human subjects people, but I
>think that unless one is doing research, human subjects clearance is
>not required. That is, if all we're doing is interviewing people and
>writing down what they say, I doubt there is a problem. It is just
>reporting, not research. It not unusual in this college to have a
>guest speaker talk with students and report that in the college
>newsletter with quotes from the speaker. We actually do this all the
>time. What is the difference? Well, for one thing, we are not seeking
>truth here -- a telling point. We would be selecting for the
>information we want to hear and quoting the speaker as the source of
>that information. That, of course, is why it is of lower credibility
>(although possibly quite powerful in its effect).
>
>We should obtain permission of the speaker to quote him or her and
>reproduce a video or audio interview on the webpage, to safeguard
>against privacy and intellectual property claims.
>
>Others weigh in on this? Maybe others have more experience with this
>sort of issue.
>
>Ginny
>
>
>Date:
>    Wed, 20 Oct 1999 10:04:34 -0400 Reply-to:      "Academy of Legal
>Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk"
><[log in to unmask]> From:          sgunz
><[log in to unmask]> Subject:       URGENT CAUTION To:
>[log in to unmask]
>
>One of our members has pointed out an important issue that I should have
>thought of myself and I thank him: even with the anecdotal research we
>are proposing now (testimonials etc) it may well require Human Subjects
>approval at your institution (I believe by Federal law in the US). This
>ties into the issue of the importance of coordinating activities. Please
>approach Peter Shedd before moving on this  -- his email which I think I
>inadvertently omitted from mine is [log in to unmask] I imagine that
>we can also assist you with providing the kind of information you will
>require for your Human Subjects committee.
>
>FYI -- Fran Zoller's email address is [log in to unmask]
>
>Thanks.
>
>Sally