Complaints and Questions about a Study

If you have any complaints or questions about a study, please first contact the principal investigator (PI) directly. You can find the name of the PI from either the consent form, the debriefing form, or by going to the study description in Sona. (Access it through my schedule/research credits and click on the name of the study). If you are not satisfied with the PI’s response, you can contact the human subjects coordinator, the faculty member in charge of human subjects David Condon, or Research Compliance Services.

Human Subjects Committee Approval

Any study in which you participate will have already been approved by the University Human Subjects Committee. This insures that someone other than the researcher has determined that the procedures for a study follow strict ethical guidelines. Any risks must be revealed to you prior to your consent to participate. Despite these safeguards, there are still wide variations in people’s reactions to the different kinds of tasks they are asked to perform in research studies. If you feel that you have been mistreated by the researcher or asked to perform tasks that make you uncomfortable, remember that you have the right to leave any study at any time. If you leave a study before completing it, you will still receive research credit for the amount of your participation time up to the nearest half hour.