Final answer:
Research involving human subjects at universities, like the University of Tennessee, must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB). The IRB reviews the ethical aspects of the research proposal, including participant risks, consent, and data handling, to protect human subjects.
Step-by-step explanation:
In most universities, such as the University of Tennessee, research directly involving living human subjects must go through a process of ethical approval through an Institutional Review Board (IRB) before the research can be carried out. IRBs are critical in ensuring that research conducted is ethical, minimizing risks to participants, and safeguarding participant welfare. For contemporary sociocultural researchers and anthropologists, adherence to these protocols is essential. The IRB process involves a proposal review that includes thorough plans about the research methodology, assessment of potential risks, plans for participant emotional support, strategies to protect identities, comprehensive disclosure of the research intentions, and the archiving of research data. The formation of IRBs was a response to historical unethical research practices, such as the Tuskegee syphilis study, and now serves as an essential mechanism for protecting human subjects in research, encompassing a range of studies from medical to social science research. All studies must be approved in advance by the IRB, ensuring informed consent is obtained from all participants.