Review by Choice Review
As an institutional review board (IRB) professional, this reviewer was skeptical that anyone from the "outside" could capture the essence of IRB work. Babb (Boston College) overturns those fears with this outstanding volume. Having interviewed 50 individuals from the IRB world, she expertly describes IRB work from the early days of "approximate compliance," run largely by boards of volunteer academic faculty, to what has become a full-on compliance bureaucracy. She has captured the why and the how models of IRB review's evolution into an industry where the master's-trained IRB professional has become essential to helping organizations conform to complex and ambiguous regulatory rules. The author discusses both the upside and the downside of the professionalization and commercialization of the IRB complex and how the social sciences have been rolled into what had largely been a process with a biomedical focus. Comparing three different models of compliance bureaucracies, Babb's discussion of the differences between the ways equal employment opportunity, IRBs, and financial services approach compliance is compelling, particularly her consideration for the reliance of IRBs and financial services on efficiency goals. Thoughtful and readable. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. --Kathleen E. Murphy, Northwestern University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
