Scholarly and journalistic activities
Description
"Scholarly and journalistic activities (e.g. oral history, journalism, biography, literary criticism, legal research, and historical scholarship), including the collection and use of information, that focus directly on the specific individuals about whom the information is collected" and not on generalizing the information or findings to other individuals have been "deemed not to be research" when all conditions are met. [45 CFR 46.102(1)(1-4)]
"OHRP draft guidance explains how scholarly and journalistic activities must be conducted solely for the primary intent of the activity in question to not be considered human subjects research. For example, an oral history project being done solely for collecting oral history interviews for archiving in a repository to be made available to the public for future use and historic preservation would not be considered research. However, a project that is designed to contribute to generalizable knowledge that happens to involve the use of oral histories and is being conducted for both purposes (i.e., contributing to generalizable knowledge and collecting oral history interviews), whether the interviews will be depostied into an archive, may still meet the definition of research and require IRB review (DHHS, 2018a)".1
OPRS is currently working on providing additional guidance for the UIUC campus and its researchers. Until the UIUC-specific guidance and policies are provided, please review the information above and contact OPRS with any questions.
1Bankert, E.A., Gordon, B.G., Hurley, E.A., Shriver, S.P. (2021). Institutional review board: Management and function (3rd ed.). Jones and Bartlett Publishers.