Institutional Review Board

Institutional Review Board

The following archival collections require an Institutional Review Board (IRB) project approval letter for access because they contain personally identifiable information (PII) about human subjects. According to 45 CFR 46, a human subject is “a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research obtains data through intervention or interaction with the individual or identifiable private information.”

HIẒB AL-BA'TH AL-'ARABĪ AL-ISHTIRĀKĪ IN IRAQ [BA'TH ARAB SOCIALIST PARTY OF IRAQ] RECORDS

INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE RECORDS

PII includes information which can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as his or her name, address, personal email addresses and telephone numbers, social security numbers, family member names, biometric record, etc. alone, or when combined with other personal or identifying information which is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.

An IRB is a committee that has been formally designated to approve, monitor, and review research involving human subjects and personal information per federal guidelines. Universities generally have their own IRB boards to approve research projects, and there are also independent companies that can complete an IRB approval.

Generally the IRB is made up of a faculty panel coordinated by an IRB officer.  The process includes submission of a project proposal for approval, required education and training, and cooperation with the IRB committee staff to complete the proposal approval. Although every University or company is different, here at Stanford the IRB process generally takes about four to six weeks, with communication back and forth with the IRB office throughout. Researchers based outside the U.S. will need to contact an IRB approval company.

You must present an IRB approval letter for your research project from your own University or an authorized IRB company for access to the records. In your application you must communicate to your local IRB office that the collection you will be using contains PII. Including the above language in your application is usually sufficient, but we can provide you with additional information if required. All research assistants for the project must also be named in the letter to have access to the records and all must be working directly on the same approved project. Generally, we prefer each researcher to have his or her own IRB letter.

Your IRB approval letter must clearly indicate

• The name of the collection you will be using at the Hoover Institution Archives
• That there is personally identifiable information on human subjects in these collections

Present the project approval letter from the IRB when registering to use the HIẒB AL-BA'TH AL-'ARABĪ AL-ISHTIRĀKĪ IN IRAQ [BA'TH ARAB SOCIALIST PARTY OF IRAQ] RECORDS or the INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE RECORDS.  

If you have questions, contact hooverarchives@stanford.edu or 650-723-3563.

Resources:

Stanford University IRB (only for Stanford affiliates)