Avoiding Coercion of Subjects

Avoiding Coercion of Subjects

Login: Guest
A subject's participation in research must be completely voluntary. Great care should be taken by investigators to avoid even the appearance of coercion or undue influence when recruiting potential study subjects. For this reason, the Human Subjects Committee (HSC) is required to review and approve all subject recruitment procedures and materials to make sure they do not downplay serious risks, give the impression that participation is mandatory, or emphasize financial inducements. Also, to reduce the potential for real and apparent coercion of study subjects, UCSB discourages investigators from direct solicitation of students in their own classes and employees in their own department. An investigator may recruit students or personnel from their department with general recruitment advertisements (such as a poster hanging in a lounge) or additional safeguards protecting subjects from actual or perceived coercion must be added to the protocol.
Question # 1 (Select one only)
To reduce the potential for coercion during recruitment of UCSB-affiliated human research subjects, investigators should:

Avoid directly approaching or soliciting employees, students or staff in their own classes and departments

Completely exclude UCSB faculty, students, and staff from participation in research

Require participation by only those employees, students, and staff in their own departments

Use general, public recruitment tools (such as posters, fliers and other advertisements) to recruit off-campus audiences only