Protecting human subjects and preserving academic freedom: Prospects at the University of Chicago

Within the terms of the federal regulatory scheme requiring institutional review board (IRB) oversight of federally funded research with human subjects, projects that are not federally funded are not mandated for IRB review. Eighty percent of social-science projects at the University of Chicago are not federally funded. This article is a critique of the overextension of federal regulations by university and college administrators and provides some suggestions for reform.