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Terms and Definitions

Key terms related to research, federal regulations, and the Roanoke College IRB

Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Activities that meet this definition constitute research for purposes of this policy, whether or not they are conducted or supported under a program that is considered research for other purposes. For example, some demonstration and service programs may include research activities. For purposes of this part, the following activities are deemed not to be research:

  1. Scholarly and journalistic activities (e.g., oral history, journalism, biography, literary criticism, legal research, and historical scholarship), including the collection and use of information, that focus directly on the specific individuals about whom the information is collected.
  2. Public health surveillance activities, including the collection and testing of information or biospecimens, conducted, supported, requested, ordered, required, or authorized by a public health authority. Such activities are limited to those necessary to allow a public health authority to identify, monitor, assess, or investigate potential public health signals, onsets of disease outbreaks, or conditions of public health importance (including trends, signals, risk factors, patterns in diseases, or increases in injuries from using consumer products). Such activities include those associated with providing timely situational awareness and priority setting during the course of an event or crisis that threatens public health (including natural or man-made disasters).
  3. Collection and analysis of information, biospecimens, or records by or for a criminal justice agency for activities authorized by law or court order solely for criminal justice or criminal investigative purposes.
  4. Authorized operational activities (as determined by each agency) in support of intelligence, homeland security, defense, or other national security missions.

Human subject means a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research:

  1. Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and uses, studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or
  2. Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.

Intervention includes both physical procedures by which information or biospecimens are gathered (e.g.,venipuncture) and manipulations of the subject or the subject's environment that are performed for research purposes.

Interaction includes communication or interpersonal contact between investigator and subject.

Private information includes information about behavior that occurs in a context in which an individual can reasonably expect that no observation or recording is taking place, and information that has been provided for specific purposes by an individual and that the individual can reasonably expect will not be made public (e.g.,a medical record).

Identifiable private information is private information for which the identity of the subject is or may readily be ascertained by the investigator or associated with the information.

Minimal risk means that the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater in and of themselves than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.

Risk is the probability of harm (physical, psychological, social, legal, or economic) occurring as a result of participation in a research study. Both the probability and the magnitude of possible harm may vary from minimal to significant.

  • Physical risks: include physical discomfort, pain, injury, illness or disease brought about by the methods and procedures of the research. A physical risk may result from the involvement of physical stimuli such as noise, electric shock, heat, cold, electric magnetic or gravitational fields, etc. Engaging a subject in a social situation which could involve violence may also create a physical risk.
  • Psychological/Emotional risks: include the production of negative affective states such as anxiety, depression, guilt, shock and loss of self-esteem and altered behavior. Sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, use of hypnosis, deception or mental stresses are examples of psychological risks.
  • Social/Economic risks: include alterations in relationships with others that are to the disadvantage of the subject, including embarrassment, loss of respect of others, labeling a subject in a way that will have negative consequences, or in some way diminishing those opportunities and powers a person has by virtue of relationships with others. Economic risks include payment by subjects for procedures not otherwise required, loss of wages or other income and any other financial costs, such as damage to a subject's employability, as a consequence of participation in the research.
  • Legal risks: exist when the research methods are such that the subject or others will be liable for a violation of the law, either by revealing that the subject or others have or will engage in conduct for which the subject or others may be criminally or civilly liable, or by requiring activities for which the subject or others may be criminally or civilly liable.

For a more comprehensive list of terms, please consult FR46.102.

Confidentiality vs Anonymity

When conducting research and collecting data (particularly through survey tools), researchers often claim that the research will be conducted anonymously or confidentially. There are distinct differences between the two terms and the researcher should be clear about their claim. The difference between the two claims can be very important for the participant, their protection, and their willingness to participate in the project.

Anonymity requires two criteria to be met:

  1. No direct identifiers are collected: The project does not collect any unique identifiers of individual subjects (e.g., name, address, email address, social security number, phone number, etc.).
  2. No indirect identifiers are collected: The project does not collect any identifiers that combined would allow an individual to be identified. For example, age alone is not a unique identifier, but the combination of demographics like age, gender, major, living learning community participation, honors program participation, number of semesters at Roanoke could allow a participate to be identified.

If data is in any way identifiable or can be connected to the participant (directly or indirectly, even if only by the researchers), the data collection process cannot make the claim of being anonymous.

Confidentiality means that only the investigator(s) or co-investigator(s) will ever be able to identify the responses of individual subjects. This means that data will never be reported in a way that allows an individual respondent's identity to be known or tied to their responses.


This clarification of terms does not mean that no unique identifiers should ever be collected. Rather, this clarification of terms is designed to provide a greater level of precision when communicating with research participants. It is important to understand the claims that you are making regarding their responses. In general, participants are at greater risk when their responses can be tied to their identity. Typically, it is best to collect only the data that is necessary to complete the research objective.

Who are "investigators"?

Investigator refers to any individual performing various tasks related to the conduct of human subjects research activities, such as obtaining informed consent from subjects, interacting with subjects, and communicating with the IRB. For the purposes of the HHS regulations, OHRP interprets an "investigator" to be any individual who is involved in conducting human subjects research studies. Such involvement would include:

  • obtaining information about living individuals by intervening or interacting with them for research purposes;
  • obtaining identifiable private information about living individuals for research purposes;
  • obtaining the voluntary informed consent of individuals to be subjects in research; and
  • studying, interpreting, or analyzing identifiable private information or data for research purposes.

Investigators can include physicians, scientists, nurses, administrative staff, teachers, students, and others. Most research studies are conducted by more than one investigator, and usually one investigator is designated the "principal investigator" with overall responsibilities for the study. In every human subjects research study, investigators have certain responsibilities regarding the ethical treatment of human subjects. 

In addition, it is integral that all investigators involved with a research study have undergone training on the ethical treatment of human subjects. Please see the IRB Training webpage for more details on this requirement.

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