Human research protections and diversity science

Authors

Amanda Venta, University of Houston
Melanie M. Domenech Rodriguez, Utah State University
Aldo Barrita
Alfonso Mercado, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow
Luz M. Garcini, Rice University
Oswaldo Moreno
Cecilia Colunga-Rodríguez, Universidad de Guadalajara
Mario Angel-Gonzalez
Bertha Alicia Colunga-Rodríguez

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-30-2025

Abstract

Over the last decade, the profession of psychology has undertaken efforts toward promoting justice in teaching, research, and service. Calls for diverse, equitable, and inclusive research abound, focusing on critical perspectives, social justice, and decolonization. Amid this flurry of activity to remedy ills in our profession, no known scholarship has highlighted how the human research protections enterprise can best support diversity science. In the United States, human research protection programs were established to address abuse and dehumanization in the name of scientific discovery and, as such, hold justice as a central value. Yet Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have not consistently implemented their charge, and some have developed procedures that lead to rigid and exclusionary practices. In our experience conducting international, social justice research with historically marginalized communities, we have encountered barriers and challenges stemming from IRB practices that act against diversity, equity, and inclusion. Having served on IRBs ourselves and sharing productive exchanges with our IRB colleagues, we conclude that many challenges conducting research with diverse populations emerge from shortcuts meant to reduce the burden on researchers and IRB staff while minimizing legal liability. Some shortcuts send discriminatory messages about the sources of professional and ethical competence and are out of sync with the foundations of the human research protections enterprise and diversity science. We propose simple solutions and radical structural changes in response to these barriers in order to fill a gap in the existing literature, which has largely overlooked the role of IRBs in advancing equity.

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Recommended Citation

Venta, A., Rodríguez, M. D., Barrita, A., Mercado, A., Garcini, L., Moreno, O., ... & Colunga-Rodríguez, B. A. (2025). Human research protections and diversity science. Current Psychology, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-025-08285-x

Publication Title

Current Psychology

DOI

10.1007/s12144-025-08285-x