Institutional Review Board (IRB)
We apply this framework and methodology of the Community of Competence™ to our research
endeavors by assembling a panel of experts–most are Sigma Xi members with doctoral
degrees and extensive research and academic background–to perform scientific review
of and evaluate our research projects to ensure and maintain utmost ethical conduct
for the protection of human research participants, optimal stewardship of funds,
safeguard of intellectual properties (e.g., copyrights, patents, trade secrets),
proper use of effective study design and methodology, appropriate data collection
and management, planned analysis and reporting of scientific findings. Each IRB
panel consists of at least 5 members including content experts, a targeted community
representative, and a non-scientific member for voting and final determination of
the review.
Experts are invited according to their research expertise, experience and competence
required to review any proposed study. We accept external study proposals by contract
and strictly apply our standards in evaluation, audit and final determination for
approval or disapproval. Several experts have already been certified for such review
by NIH for human subject protection and research ethics.
If you have a proposal for medical device evaluation, survey, interview or observational
study that may involve human participants and personal identifiable information,
contact us for a comprehensive independent scientific review and evaluation. At
this time, we do not accept any proposal dealing with clinical trials or other intervention
studies involving human experimentation.
