Washington State IRB: Advancing Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Justice in Human Subjects’ Research
- Diversity: The practice of acknowledging, considering, and valuing the experiences, contributions, and needs of people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, ages, physical abilities, etc. Diversity of participants, investigators, and members of the IRB who review research includes but is not limited to differences in ability, age, culture, gender, immigration, LGBTQIA+, military membership, national origin, race, religion, and socio-economic status.
- Equity: The fair and just treatment of all individuals in a community. Equity is not a static state but a continuous process that acknowledges differing needs and seeks to address imbalances.
- Inclusion: The practice and policy of ensuring community members feel respected, heard, and able to participate in meaningful ways. This applies to the subjects of research, as well as to Board and staff members who are charged with reviewing the research.
- Justice: One of the central tenets of research ethics, justice demands fairness in distribution and drives the consideration of who should bear the risks and receive the rewards of participation in research.
The Washington State Institutional Review Board (WSIRB) is fully committed to ensuring diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the review, approval, and oversight of human subjects’ research. It is the WSIRB’s purpose and responsibility to safeguard the rights and welfare of all human participants of research involving Washington State Government Agencies, and to ensure justice and equity inform balancing the risks and access to the benefits of participation in research.
In accordance with the principles of respect for persons, justice, and beneficence – the three foundational tenets of the Belmont Report – the WSIRB holds that human participant research should strive to be broadly inclusive and representative of the populations whose experiences or conditions are the focus of the study - unless justified by scientific, ethical, or safety concerns - without exclusion on the basis of age, race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, disability, religion, socio-economic status, or other characteristics that distinguish people from one another.