Human Research Protection Program: Guidance
It is sometimes necessary, when conducting social & behavioral science or education research, to conduct telephone screening. This screening is normally conducted to insure that the potential participant meets certain criteria for inclusion in the study.
When conducting such pre-research activity, the Social & Behavioral Science IRB and the Education Research IRB requires the investigator to:
- inform potential participants that this screening is being conducted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison to evaluate eligibility criteria for inclusion in a research study,
- identify the purpose of the research,
- indicate that the potential participant does not have to answer any questions and may skip individual questions if s/he does not want to answer for any reason,
- indicate that answering these screening questions does not commit the person to participating in the study,
- indicate that the potential participant may ask any questions at any time,
- if the potential participant either does not meet the criteria for inclusion in the study, or chooses not to participate, the screening data must be destroyed.