8
Jun2016

Sticking Around to See Change: An Interview with Jennifer Castle-Hickerson

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8 Jun
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In this month’s installment of PRIM&R’s featured member interviews, we hear from Jennifer Castle-Hickerson, a longtime PRIM&R member working in IACUC administration. This series is intended to let our community get to know our membership and hear about the impact they make through their daily work. Read on to hear from Jennifer!

PRIM&R: When and why did you join the field?
Jennifer Castle-Hickerson (JC): I became part of the lab animal field in 2001. I started out as an animal technician and transitioned into IACUC administration in 2003.

PRIM&R: What [...] Read more

3
Jun2016

OkCupid and the Ethics of Big Data Research

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3 Jun
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We clearly have entered the era of big data. Armed with petabytes of transaction data, clickstreams and cookie logs, as well as data from social networks, mobile phones, and the "internet of things," a wide range of economic interests, including consumer marketing, health care, manufacturing, education, and government, are now in pursuit of the value of data-driven decision-making that big data promises.

At the same time, the big data that increasingly fuels economic decision-making has emerged as a rich terrain for engaging in academic research and experimentation: think of the Facebook emotional contagion experiment of 2014, where the news feeds of nearly 700,000 users were altered [...] Read more

27
May2016

Research Ethics Roundup: Historic USDA Fine for Violations of Animal Welfare Act, Legal Challenge to OkCupid Data Release, and More

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27 May
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This week’s Research Ethics Roundup focuses on three different legal actions: one of the largest US Department of Agriculture (USDA) penalties in history is being issued over Animal Welfare Act violations; ACLU’s complaint against Myriad Genetics; and OkCupid’s legal actions after a dataset was controversially released by a researcher. Read more

24
May2016

Annual IRB Workload and Salary Surveys Help You Gain Insight

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24 May
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The annual Workload and Salary Survey reports offer insight into workload trends, salaries, and staffing patterns for IRB and IACUC offices. By publishing these reports, PRIM&R provides its members, and the wider research oversight committee, a valuable tool to aid in resource management. In this blog, we’ll focus on the 2015 IRB Workload and Salary Survey results. Read more

23
May2016

Sharing the Joy of Research: An Interview with Corrie Warren

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23 May
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Welcome to the fourth and final installment of the 2016 Member Appreciation Month Featured Member Interviews! During the month of May, we’ve featured a member each week; Read the previous weeks’ interviews here. We will continue to feature members through the featured member interview series once per month throughout the year, so be sure to check back for more. This week, meet Corrie Warren, research regulations specialist at University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler.

PRIM&R: When and why did you join the field?
Corrinne Warren (CW): I [...] Read more

20
May2016

When Big Data Isn’t Big Enough

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20 May
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Throw the phrase big data out at Thanksgiving dinner and you’re guaranteed a more lively conversation. Your nervous uncle is terrified of the Orwellian possibilities that our current data collection abilities may usher in; your techie sister is thrilled with the new information and revelations we have already uncovered and those on the brink of discovery. Many people likely feel a mix of both these sentiments: enthusiasm tempered by apprehension.

Big data is bringing about change in a variety of sectors, and the health research field is one area where the potential, both positive and negative, is the most dramatic. The recent event, Big Data, Health [...] Read more