Membership

There are six people on the MU IRB, representing a mix of expertise inside and outside of science.

• Dr. Mark Sheskin (chair) is an Associate Professor of Social Sciences and an expert in self-report and behavioral measures, especially with children. He is affiliated with TheChildLab.com at Yale, Lookit at MIT, and large cross-university collaborations to create next-generation infrastructure for online research with families (for more information, see Sheskin et al., 2020).
• Dr. Jon Wilkins (co-chair)
• Dr. Katie McAllister
• Dr. Levy Odera
• Dr. Jason Lindo
• Community Member Nicole Calandra

Mission

The mission of the Minerva University Institutional Review Board (MU IRB) is to ensure that MU, and people acting on behalf of MU, comply with both governmental requirements and social responsibility requirements associated with research and other investigations with people.

It is essential to pay attention to both of the above categories: often, legal requirements and ethical requirements will overlap, but sometimes an investigation may be disallowed because it is against policies (without necessarily being immoral) and other times an investigation may be disallowed because of ethical concerns (without necessarily being against governmental policies). Topics include the rights, welfare, and safety of people involved with research or other investigations. The scope is wide, including selection of participants, information provided to participants and documentation of consent, the content of experiments or interviews, and the treatment of information once it is acquired.

Notably, the MU IRB will provide guidance beyond “merely meeting standards” and will also help MU affiliates refine research plans towards the best possible ethical implementation. This includes a review process before any investigation starts, continued monitoring and support during any investigation, and documentation of the conclusion of research projects.