Poster Board Number: 89
Title: Reviewing Research Consent Forms: A New Library Service
Objective: Librarians recognized a need for better quality consent forms while serving on the university’s institutional review board. This involves ensuring that they are written at an appropriate reading level and are clear and understandable to prospective research participants. A pilot service was designed by the reference department to assist investigators in creating quality consent forms prior to their protocol submission.
Methods: An electronic form was developed for online submission of consent forms. The form is linked from both the library and the human research protection office web pages. A turnaround time of five business days is estimated for completing the review process. Once the documents are received, one of six members of the department is assigned to the request. Prior to the pilot, the staff was educated on best practices in writing consent forms. However, the major goal is to provide the investigator with a critique of the consent form from the perspective of a typical participant, offering suggestions on which areas need simplifying or clarifying. The pilot will be evaluated by the usage statistics as well as feedback received from a survey link provided to the investigator when reviews are complete.
Results and Conclusions: My results and conclusions are not complete yet.
Authors: Debra R. Berlanstein, AHIP, Head, Reference and Research Services; Ryan Harris, AHIP, Reference and Research Services Librarian; Health Sciences and Human Services Library; University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
