About Research Participation

This is a collection of videos, infographics, and tools to inform the general public about research and research participation.

The series of infographics on Protecting Research Volunteers provide useful information related to research protections under the headings of:
1) Why regulations?
2) Principal regulations
3) Who oversees and enforces regulations?
4) Other research
5) Shared responsibility

The mini-videos are designed to help human research protections professionals build on their knowledge, covering topics such as randomization in research and what it means to participants, clinical research and IRBs. RCR instructors will find the materials useful for teaching undergraduate and graduate students. The “Questions to Ask” list helps to inform, both potential research participants, and investigators developing or asking for informed consent, some key questions of interest to research participants, and what information ought to be included in informed consent documents. As a training exercise, RCR professionals have asked students to translate RCR related documents into other languages to help them think about human research protections as well as to help with the informed consent process with potential participants who speak a different language.  

As an organization whose sole mission is to promote the protections of human participants in research, OHRP is in a unique position to provide information for research participants that helps them make informed decisions about participation, and that is not confounded with conflicting messages including trial recruitment.

For more information: www.hhs.gov/About-Research-Participation

OHRP Luminaries Lecture Series  

This is a series of lectures given by esteemed individuals in the research community. They provide thought-provoking insights on the ethics and protections in diverse areas of human subjects research. For example, one of our most recent posting includes a fascinating presentation from Dr. David Fajgenbaum of the University of Pennsylvania. In this video, he described his experience as a patient on the verge of death battling Castleman Disease, the translational research that he began in search of life-saving precision treatments for himself and others, and the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network he created, providing an innovative model for supporting research on orphan diseases. There are now 16 videos and another series of older videos on the 25th Anniversary of the Belmont Report. We add around six videos a year to the series. We think that it’s a great set of resources for RCR instructors whether to show in class, or to use as materials to spark discussions.

For more information: https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach/luminaries-lecture-series/index.html

OHRP Online Educational Resources

RCR professionals can also find a variety of educational resources and informational materials directly related to our regulations. Significant changes have been made to the Common Rule. Beginning January 21, 2019, federally-funded new research will likely come under the revised Rule.

For more information: https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach

OHRP’s Division of Education and Development publishes a monthly newsletter informing the research community of new resources. Anyone interested in receiving our newsletter with the latest news and updates can follow the instructions at https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/news/sign-up-for-announcements/index.html to sign up.