- Does your work require IRB approvals…right now? At a later stage? If Yes, articulate your detailed IRB strategy. If No, explain why you don’t need IRB approval and identify situations when you might need IRB approval.
Because we are doing work that involves intervention or interaction with people to obtain data for research purposes, our work is considered human subjects research. The basis of our trip to Sierra Leone is to collect data for the development of our screener from the local people. If we hope to go to Sierra Leone this summer, then we will need IRB approval sooner rather than later. Even ignoring the (hopefully) upcoming trip, we would eventually need IRB approval anyway, as we plan to develop our screener and use it on actual people while still gathering data. To cover our bases, we will most likely want to apply for a full committee review of our research. An expedited request may also be possible for our research, but we will need more information before committing to that process.
To submit an application for IRB approval, we must submit a New Protocol via IRBNet. The link for the lehigh page with instructions for this process can be seen below.
https://research.cc.lehigh.edu/irb-submit-new-protocol
This application process will essentially involve creating a new project on IRBnet and filling out the application form before attaching it to our submission package. We will also fill out any relevant supplemental forms and attach them. The submission package must also be shared with all team members (faculty and students) so that they can digitally sign their approval for the submission. The relevant faculty member (Dr. Kristi Morin) should select their role as the principal investigator when signing the submission package. All others should select a different role from the list provided. After every team member has signed the submission package, we can submit it. We should make sure when submitting it that we list the Lehigh University IRB as the reviewing board. Once we have submitted our application, the Research Integrity Office at Lehigh will conduct a pre-review of our submission and inform us of changes or additional materials required before the IRB reviews it. Any further steps in the process for IRB approval will depend on the board’s decision while reviewing our application. This entire process should take 4-6 weeks and we should plan accordingly.
- Develop an outline for your mid-semester presentations. What supporting evidence will you provide for each point? How will you boost your credibility every step of the way?
Due to the amazing work of our team members in previous semesters, we have a strong basis to work off while developing our presentation.
- Introduction
- Introduce ourselves and our team members
- Tell our audience our overarching goal
- 20% of children in Sierra Leone screened by year 3 (2022)
- Describe who we are partnering with
- Focus on Sierra Leone Autistic Society and the University of Makeni
- Describe the problem
- Misinformation, stigma, and danger of Autism in Sierra Leone
- Lack of Autism research in non-Western countries
- Describe model used in previous presentation
- Consult with group member who designed it to better understand how to explain it
- Describe the work we are doing and why it is important
- Describe timeline of plan (seen in districts graphic)
- Metasynthesis findings (problems with current screeners)
- Talk about work on feasibility of current screeners
- Readability, cost, cultural sensitivity
- What have we been up to recently
- Work has slowed due to need for field work
- Currently looking for and applying for grants
- Success of Davis Peace Project Grant
- Last semester we continued to work on submitting papers and conducting meta synthesis of current research available on disabilities in Africa
We will boost our credibility in multiple ways during our presentation. A large part of this will come from the presentation of our presentation, if you get my meaning. We should be passionate and clear while speaking about our work. This is our research and our goals that we are presenting, and acting like we own them will greatly improve our credibility in the eyes of our audience. Throughout our presentation, it is important to mention what we have accomplished in order to further demonstrate our credibility. Mentioning the papers that we have published/are working on publishing, the grants that we have successfully applied to, as well as the individual work done by Dr. Morin and our grad students will increase our credibility. A final way to improve our credibility outside our actual presentation of the material is to discuss our partnerships with organizations in Sierra Leone. Talking about our relationships and planned collaborations with other organizations will go a long way to establishing our credibility and helping create an image of our place within the larger picture. We hope to establish and maintain credibility throughout our presentation this semester.