Regulating Human Research IRBs from Peer Review to Compliance Bureaucracy

Sarah Babb, "Regulating Human Research: IRBs from Peer Review to Compliance Bureaucracy"
English | ISBN: 1503611221 | 2020 | 184 pages | PDF | 3 MB
Institutional review boards (IRBs) are panels charged with protecting the rights of humans who participate in research studies ranging from biomedicine to social science. Regulating Human Research provides a fresh look at these influential and sometimes controversial boards, tracing their historic transformation from academic committees to compliance bureaucracies: non-governmental offices where specialized staff define and apply federal regulations. In opening the black box of contemporary IRB decision-making, author Sarah Babb argues that compliance bureaucracy is an adaptive response to the dynamics and dysfunctions of American governance. Yet this solution has had unforeseen consequences, including the rise of a profitable ethics review industry.