Some participant populations and archival data sources require additional permissions to access. For example, you may be required to receive permission from a school’s district in order to conduct a study at that location. As another example, you may be required to obtain permission to use a social media platform to conduct research. If additional permissions are required to conduct a study, describe the requirement here and upload any supporting documents (if available).
How to complete this section:
- Upload a “Proof of Permission” document in the “Proof of Permission” section.
- In the “Permission to Access Data Source and Participant Group Section” complete the first question. If there are rules and/or restrictions to accessing a data source or participant group, select “yes” to the first question. If there are no rules or restrictions, select “no” and go on to the next section (skip the steps below).
- Describe the rules and your process for navigating the rules in the next text box.
- Select “edit associations.”
- On the “Edit Associations” page, your data sources and participant groups will be listed with all available “proof of permission” uploads below each (if you haven’t uploaded a “proof of permission” this option will not be available). Select the check box next to the proof of permission to indicate the association.
- Once you done, select “Continue.” You will you receive a confirmation that the action is complete. Select “return to protocol” to continue editing the protocol.
Depending on your study, you may want to enroll from a specific participant population that has a group associated with it. Prior to enrolling individuals from that specific participant population, the IRB may ask you to get permission (or acknowledgement) from that group.
For example, if you are targeting LGBTQ+ students at UVA to enroll in your study about gender identity and relationships, you may be asked by the IRB to get permission (or acknowledgement) from the LGBTQ+ Student Services group.
To help you get this type of permission (or acknowledgement) from a group associated with a specific participant population, the IRB has created a template letter for your use which can be accessed here.
If using the template letter, the study team should complete the top half of the document (above the dotted line) and then send the letter to the group to review and complete the bottom half of the document (below the dotted line). The completed form should then be uploaded into iProtocol under the appropriate study number for IRB review and approval.
Sometimes investigators are interested in studying a class that they are teaching.
This template letter would go to the Dean’s Office in the department that oversees the class studied or students recruited. Please use the letter to provide information about a study where participants include UVA students. The letter is an example of how you can approach obtaining permission (notification, acknowledgement) from the department and some general topics to cover, but use of this specific template letter is not required. However, some type of letter that documents permission from the Dean's Office of the department that oversees the class is required if this is asked for by the IRB during the study review.