Reading :: Engaging Research Communities in Writing Studies

 Engaging Research Communities in Writing Studies: Ethics, Public Policy, and Research Design

by Johanna Phelps

As someone who does field research, I’ve had to write my share of IRB proposals. And as a professor, I have had to mentor many PhD and MA students through the process as well. I even teach the process to my undergraduate students, although they are exempt because their studies are for learning purposes only. The IRB process is often frustrating: not only do institutional requirements sometimes change, the individuals involved in the process often rotate to other assignments, meaning that standards are sometimes implemented differently from semester to semester. Yet the IRB proposal is a vital part of the research process, pushing us to think more deeply about how we can support and benefit our participants rather than just about how we can collect data and write papers based on them.

In this book, Phelps examines how IRBs have impacted writing studies. She overviews the principles that animate IRBs; discusses how IRBs came to be; and goes into detailed exploration of how the IRB process interacts with different kinds of research in writing studies. What emerges is an argument for how IRB compliance can align closely with the field’s focus on justice. 

The book is well worth reading, and it’s also available as an open access download, making it a good fit for graduate and perhaps even advanced undergraduate classes. If you research, teach research, or have to deal with IRBs, it’s definitely worth a look.