Institutional review boards

Abstract

Institutional Review Boards originated in isolated American institutions in the 1950s, became legally mandated in the United States in the 1970s, and in the 1990s became required by international ethical guidelines. They are the most important social control mechanism to assure the ethical conduct of research involving human subjects, by contributing to the education of researchers in matters related to research ethics in general as well as by guiding researchers to comply with ethical and legal expectations as they carry out specific research projects.