I feel lately like I'm mostly making excuses here for why I'm not blogging regularly and not visiting everyone regularly. It's not for lack of ideas. I've got plenty of those. What I haven't had is time. The next 10 to 12 days will be no exception. I get 27 term papers in my writing in psychology class today, and then another 20 plus essays on Thursday from a second class. I could probably manage that reasonably but the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) called to let me know they'll be coming Monday to inspect the files for the research committee that I chair. They do this every few years but it means many, MANY hours of me going through our files to extract the information they want. I'm looking at 12 to 15 hour days straight through at least next Tuesday. So, once again, blogging has to take a back seat.
In the meantime, David Cranmer did a very nice review of "Chimes" over at his blog, and I much appreciate it. Thanks, David.
I will be back, with writing related posts sometime next week at the latest.
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Showing posts with label IRB. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IRB. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Peeve
My peeve this week is unnecessary work!
My work week is usually pretty busy, and perhaps because we were off on Monday, this week has been particularly hectic. Other than simply reading through 5 pages of my novel and making some minor corrections to it, I haven’t written a word in three days. I’ve not been able to get through more than about a 100 pages in the books I’m reading. Even at night, I’ve been doing school work.
So, when I’m backed up like that, the arrival of unnecessary work really chaps. Here’s some examples.
1: IRB STUFF:
A: I had an IRB (research) proposal to approve, one among many, and I finished reading over it and wrote the approval letter last night. This morning I mailed the approval letter. Not 10 minutes later an email request came in from the researcher to change something in the project. The approval letter that I spent time constructing is now a waste. I have to do another one. Between receiving the first proposal and the new changes, 2 days passed. Couldn’t the researcher have put a little more thought into their first effort so that one letter would have sufficed?
B: I got a proposal from a researcher at another university who requested that I accelerate my normal approval process because they had already bought their airplane ticket to come to Xavier to collect the data. Because they were asking for approval via email rather than by sending me a hard copy, I had to write a contract for our review. I’m required by law to keep hard copies of all submissions and I don’t want to spend my own money printing out hundreds of pages of material. So, I spelled out how I could help them under certain conditions. Two days later I get an email from them saying they were no longer applying to Xavier for approval at present. They’d discovered that they needed IRB approval from their own university first. Time writing contract = wasted. Couldn’t they have checked their procedures for how to do their own research first?
2: WRITING GROUP:
A: One writing group I’m a member of is a critique group. We email our material to a listserv and then print it out on our own for consideration at the next meeting. I sent some stuff in for a review. The day before our meeting, I get an email from one of the members asking me to resend. Now, everything we send to the listserv goes into the archives, and is probably in this individual’s personal email somewhere anyway. But because they didn’t print it out when it came through, they probably lost the email with the attachment somewhere in their inbox. Rather than taking the time to find it, or digging through the archives, they just decided to ask me to take a few minutes to resend. This individual is retired, btw. I’m not.
B: This has happened several times in the past and happened again this week. Someone submits a piece for review. I dutifully print it out, read, make my comments in preparation for our meeting. And then I get a second email a few days later with a “revision” of the previously submitted piece, usually with a note saying: “please ignore the first version you received and respond to the new version.”
All I can say is: ARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Thanks for letting me rant!
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My work week is usually pretty busy, and perhaps because we were off on Monday, this week has been particularly hectic. Other than simply reading through 5 pages of my novel and making some minor corrections to it, I haven’t written a word in three days. I’ve not been able to get through more than about a 100 pages in the books I’m reading. Even at night, I’ve been doing school work.
So, when I’m backed up like that, the arrival of unnecessary work really chaps. Here’s some examples.
1: IRB STUFF:
A: I had an IRB (research) proposal to approve, one among many, and I finished reading over it and wrote the approval letter last night. This morning I mailed the approval letter. Not 10 minutes later an email request came in from the researcher to change something in the project. The approval letter that I spent time constructing is now a waste. I have to do another one. Between receiving the first proposal and the new changes, 2 days passed. Couldn’t the researcher have put a little more thought into their first effort so that one letter would have sufficed?
B: I got a proposal from a researcher at another university who requested that I accelerate my normal approval process because they had already bought their airplane ticket to come to Xavier to collect the data. Because they were asking for approval via email rather than by sending me a hard copy, I had to write a contract for our review. I’m required by law to keep hard copies of all submissions and I don’t want to spend my own money printing out hundreds of pages of material. So, I spelled out how I could help them under certain conditions. Two days later I get an email from them saying they were no longer applying to Xavier for approval at present. They’d discovered that they needed IRB approval from their own university first. Time writing contract = wasted. Couldn’t they have checked their procedures for how to do their own research first?
2: WRITING GROUP:
A: One writing group I’m a member of is a critique group. We email our material to a listserv and then print it out on our own for consideration at the next meeting. I sent some stuff in for a review. The day before our meeting, I get an email from one of the members asking me to resend. Now, everything we send to the listserv goes into the archives, and is probably in this individual’s personal email somewhere anyway. But because they didn’t print it out when it came through, they probably lost the email with the attachment somewhere in their inbox. Rather than taking the time to find it, or digging through the archives, they just decided to ask me to take a few minutes to resend. This individual is retired, btw. I’m not.
B: This has happened several times in the past and happened again this week. Someone submits a piece for review. I dutifully print it out, read, make my comments in preparation for our meeting. And then I get a second email a few days later with a “revision” of the previously submitted piece, usually with a note saying: “please ignore the first version you received and respond to the new version.”
All I can say is: ARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Thanks for letting me rant!
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Friday, March 13, 2009
Still Busy
Not much writing going on in my world. Midterms are done but everything else that backed up behind that is now due. I've got two IRB proposals on my desk today, and I've already dealt with two others this week. IRB stands for Internal Review Board, and we are the committee on campus that reviews any research involving human participants to make sure no one gets hurt. Unfortunately, I'm the chairperson. Sigh!
Ninety-five percent of the studies we review are just surveys, with virtually no chance to cause a participant any discomfort. In those cases, I'm the only member of the committee who has to review the project. The main issue is making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed so we won't get into trouble with funding agencies. This wouldn't be so tough if professors weren't a lot like students in their failure to read instructions.
A submitter told me once, "Wow, I guess it would have made your job a lot easier if I'd proofread my proposal before turning it in."
You think?
One bit of good news, though. One of my horror haiku from Wanting the Mouth of a Lover has been nominated for the Rhysling Award in speculative poetry. This is the award given annually by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). I know who nominated the poem and I much appreciate it. It's a great honor.
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Ninety-five percent of the studies we review are just surveys, with virtually no chance to cause a participant any discomfort. In those cases, I'm the only member of the committee who has to review the project. The main issue is making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed so we won't get into trouble with funding agencies. This wouldn't be so tough if professors weren't a lot like students in their failure to read instructions.
A submitter told me once, "Wow, I guess it would have made your job a lot easier if I'd proofread my proposal before turning it in."
You think?
One bit of good news, though. One of my horror haiku from Wanting the Mouth of a Lover has been nominated for the Rhysling Award in speculative poetry. This is the award given annually by the Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA). I know who nominated the poem and I much appreciate it. It's a great honor.
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Saturday, April 05, 2008
A Few Updates
Just a couple more days to enter my contest if you're of a mind to. The deadline is midnight Sunday, April 6. I'll do the drawing sometime next week and announce the two winners here.
I didn't make it around to blogs yesterday. I spent the whole day, from 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night at am OHRP conference. OHRP stands for Office for Human Research Protections. This is one of the major government agencies that overseas human research in the United States to make sure that it meets ethical standards. How did I end up at such a conference, you may ask. It's because, at Xavier University where I teach, I'm also chairperson of the IRB (Internal Review Board), which is often known as the Human Subjects Committee. We are sort of the OHRP of Xavier and oversee all the human research there.
Although I generally don't care a lot for conferences where you spend your day sitting, sitting, sitting, taking notes, there was a fair amount of interesting stuff at this one. And it was stuff I needed to know and my committee needs to know. Plus, I had to present on problems and solutions to the difficulties that IRBs at small universities experience. The presentation went well, despite the fact that I'd been rather dreading it.
Anyway, I'm back today, just in time to get notice that "Love in the Time of Cybersex" has been rejected once again. And this could be the ultimate indignity. The story was rejected from a magazine that was publishing an "all rejects" issue, all stories that had been rejected before by other magazines. Ouch! Well, it was actually outside their word count so I can console myself with that as the reason for the rejection. I'm not giving up on this tale, though. Each rejection makes me believe in it more. (Talk about irrational thinking!)
PS: If you haven't had a chance to read and vote for my wife's (Lana) hilarious drinking story yet, time is running out. You need to vote today, and she's in a neck n neck race for the championship. The link is HERE. Check it out!
And now, off to visit blogs and comment on the comments made on my recent post.
I didn't make it around to blogs yesterday. I spent the whole day, from 7:00 in the morning until 7:00 at night at am OHRP conference. OHRP stands for Office for Human Research Protections. This is one of the major government agencies that overseas human research in the United States to make sure that it meets ethical standards. How did I end up at such a conference, you may ask. It's because, at Xavier University where I teach, I'm also chairperson of the IRB (Internal Review Board), which is often known as the Human Subjects Committee. We are sort of the OHRP of Xavier and oversee all the human research there.
Although I generally don't care a lot for conferences where you spend your day sitting, sitting, sitting, taking notes, there was a fair amount of interesting stuff at this one. And it was stuff I needed to know and my committee needs to know. Plus, I had to present on problems and solutions to the difficulties that IRBs at small universities experience. The presentation went well, despite the fact that I'd been rather dreading it.
Anyway, I'm back today, just in time to get notice that "Love in the Time of Cybersex" has been rejected once again. And this could be the ultimate indignity. The story was rejected from a magazine that was publishing an "all rejects" issue, all stories that had been rejected before by other magazines. Ouch! Well, it was actually outside their word count so I can console myself with that as the reason for the rejection. I'm not giving up on this tale, though. Each rejection makes me believe in it more. (Talk about irrational thinking!)
PS: If you haven't had a chance to read and vote for my wife's (Lana) hilarious drinking story yet, time is running out. You need to vote today, and she's in a neck n neck race for the championship. The link is HERE. Check it out!
And now, off to visit blogs and comment on the comments made on my recent post.
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