All changes or decisions regarding research projects must be discussed with the primary advisor BEFORE any action is taken.

All research must be approved by the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB; also sometimes referred to as human subjects review committee). You may not conduct any research prior to approval, or after approval has expired. This includes analyzing existing data. (Therefore, you cannot allow your IRB approval to expire just because you have finished testing participants.) This also includes any data that will be collected off-site (not on campus). The department has developed an IRB/PAS Student Manual, available on the department’s website and from the main office; it is the student’s responsibility to be familiar with and to follow all IRB rules.

All changes to research protocol must be approved by the IRB; you cannot change the way a study is run, the way participants are recruited or where they are recruited from, or any paperwork associated with a study (i.e., consent forms, questionnaires, posters, etc.) without prior approval. (Note that some procedural changes do not affect IRB; thus, for example, most IRB proposals do not specify exact details of studies, such as the words presented as stimuli; these types of changes can then be made without an official modification. But any changes to paperwork, or any changes that result in the procedure no longer matching the IRB proposal, must be approved.)

Participation in research is confidential. As a student researcher, you are required to maintain that confidentiality. Both the fact that an individual participated, and the results of that participation, are confidential. (As an example, if Sarah happens to test her fellow student John in a research study, she cannot later tell her friends what an idiot John is because he did so poorly at the task…)

Participation is always optional. Participants may leave a study whenever they feel like it, and they still receive compensation for participation; you can not tell a participant that they are required to complete the study. Moreover, participation cannot be coerced. Researchers need to avoid even the implication of coercion. (Thus, an instructor for a class cannot imply that students will be looked on favorably for participation in his/her study, and clinicians cannot suggest to their clients that the clients should participate in the clinician’s research protocol; instructors and clinicians are by definition in a position of authority, and the risk of implied coercion can be quite high).

For non-dissertation research: In general, data from research projects belong to the lab director/advisor; for master’s or undergraduate honor’s theses, data may belong to the student in whole or in part, but this must be a point of discussion between the advisor and the student. In general, conducting a study under a faculty member’s mentorship does not grant a student exclusive rights to the data, and may not necessarily grant the student any rights to the data. If you work on a mentored research project, you may not take the data with you when you leave the lab, and you may not submit the data for publication or conference presentations without approval of the laboratory director. Along related lines, authorship rules will likely vary among labs. But in general, journal article authorship requires intellectual contributions to the design and interpretation of the research. Recruiting and/or testing participants does not generally merit authorship, although it does merit acknowledgement. For more information on this issue, see, for example: http://www.apastyle.org/authorship.html, http://www.icmje.org/index.html#author, OR go to http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/ and look up student authorship.

For dissertation research: In general, data from dissertation projects will belong to the student. But while this is expected to be the case for Ph.D. dissertations, it may not be the case for all Au.D. dissertations. Instead, ownership rights may vary depending on whose idea it was, the source of funding, and other issues. While students will always have some ownership rights in a dissertation, they may not have sole rights. In some cases, the project may be jointly owned, with students having partial, but not sole, ownership of the data for publication purposes. In these cases, faculty members may have the right to pursue publication of the work themselves (with the student as an author) if the student elects not to publish in a timely manner. Students are encouraged to discuss these issues with their mentor in advance of the project.

Decision making. Research is generally a group effort. Thus, students may not make unilateral decisions regarding research projects (such as making procedural changes, recruitment changes, etc.) without consulting with the other members of the research team. Likewise, students may not submit conference abstracts, withdraw abstracts, or give conference talks without prior discussion with the research team.

Student use of laboratory equipment/materials/funds. Students may not remove or borrow laboratory equipment, laboratory materials, or laboratory funds without explicit approval from the laboratory director. If the laboratory has a phone, it cannot be used for personal long-distance phone calls. Likewise, laboratory supplies cannot be appropriated without permission. In addition, some laboratory equipment may need training and/or supervision for its use; students may use such lab equipment only with the permission of the lab director. Students are responsible for inquiring about and following the rules for equipment use in their lab.

Storage of lab materials. All laboratory paperwork, videotapes, audiotapes, etc., must be stored in the laboratory itself; students doing dissertations and theses may wish to take paperwork to their home temporarily to work on, but all materials must be permanently stored in the department, in the location specified in the original IRB proposal.

Student researchers are expected to act professionally. People willing to be participants in our research studies are incredibly valuable; as such, it is crucial that they be treated with respect so that they’ll consider returning in the future. This means you need to go out of your way to be considerate, grateful, and professional in your conduct, both in person, and over the phone.

Dress codes. Dress codes differ from lab to lab, and students are expected to check with their lab regarding the required level of formality in their attire. But in all cases, students should make an effort to dress responsibly, and in good taste. Please be aware that many clients & research participants may be significantly older (and more conservative) than other college students; as a result, it is important to dress in a way that would not offend them, not just in a way that would be appropriate with your friends. You need to be careful both not to dress too casually, and not to dress too conspicuously/revealingly. A good rule of thumb: if your grandparents would think you look like “such a nice young man/woman”, you’re dressing appropriately.