Across a wide range of academic fields, scholars who want to do research that in some way involves human beings need to get approval from their school’s institutional review board (IRB). This is meant to ensure that the research is conducted ethically. Nothing wrong in that, but it gives IRBs the power to block research based solely on their whims. That’s a problem.

In today’s Martin Center article, Russell Warne looks at a court case that challenges the right of an IRB to prevent a research project.

This system is being questioned by an unassuming graduate student who is the plaintiff of a new lawsuit challenging the IRB’s authority to supervise her research. Idil Issak at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville is an anthropology student who wants to conduct research........

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