There are times when a Minervan does research with an external partner, such as a student doing an internship or a professor collaborating with professors at another institution. When this happens, there are exactly two possibilities:

1. The Minervan is acting as a member of the Minerva community, and must work with the MU IRB.
2. The Minervan is acting as a member of the external organization, and may consult with the MU IRB if they want.

It is important that you know which you are doing, especially so that you work with the MU IRB if it is required. Here are some examples:

• (Example of #1, "acting as a member of the Minerva community") A Minerva student does a capstone/thesis project that includes survey research with people who attend musicals and plays at a specific theatre. Although the community theatre welcomes this project, discusses it with the student, and is interested in the results, it is not something "they" are doing.
• (Example of #2, "acting as a member of an external organization") A Minerva student does a summer internship with a theatre, and works closely with one of the employees who is designing survey research to do with the people who attend the theatre. Even if the student later submits this experience for IL199 credit, the student is acting as a member (intern!) of this theatre and the project is being done by the theatre.

There are, of course, many other examples that are possible; the above pair is just meant to illustrate some ideas by choosing a nearby comparison (in both cases, a Minerva student is doing survey research with people who are attending a theatrical performance).

Notably, when you do research as a member of an external organization, they may or may not have something like an IRB. For example, a Minerva undergraduate who does a summer internship at a Stanford psychology lab would likely be working on projects that are supervised by Stanford's IRB; but a theatre likely doesn't have an IRB. That is also true for (e.g.,) if you were doing an internship with a large company and doing internal employee research with their HR department. This is totally fine! You should learn the standards used in the context in which you find yourself, and something like (e.g.,) HR surveys within a large company are different from scientific research being done for publication. With that said, you should (as a human!) still be aware of #ethicalconsiderations, and you are very welcome to consult with the MU IRB if you have any questions or concerns about a context in which you find yourself!

Note that "civic projects" have their own page on this site because they are both common and have some important features to navigate. Please see that specific page for more information.