Comment by sampo
4 years ago
Here is a case, where one university's (Portland State University) IRB saw that sending satire articles to social science journals "violated ethical guidelines on human-subjects research".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Boghossian#Research_misc...
that is actually a useful example for comparison.
* The researcher is a professor in the humanities, which typically does not deal with human subjects research and the (often) vague and confusing boundaries. Often, people from outside the social sciences and medical/biology fields struggle a little bit with IRBs because...things don't seem rational until you understand the history and details. Just like someone from CS.
* The researcher in your example DID NOT seek review by IRB (per my memory of the situation). That was the problem. The kernel bug authors seem to have engaged with their IRB. the difference is not doing it vs. a misunderstanding.
* The comments about seeking consent before submitting the fake papers ignore that it is perfectly possible to have done this WITHOUT a priori informed consent. It is perfectly possible for IRBs to review and approve studies involving deception. In those cases, informed consent is not required to collect data.
* Finally, people on IRBs tend to be academics and are highly likely to have some understanding of how a journal works. That would mean they understand the human role in journal publishing. The exact same IRB may well not have anyone with CS experience and may have looked at the kernel study and seen the human role differently than journal study.
* Lastly, the fact that the IRB in your example looked at 'animal rights' is telling. They were trying to figure out what Peter did. He published papers with data about experiments on animals...that would require IRB review. The fact that that charge was dismissed when they figured out no such experiments occurred is telling about who is acting in good faith.