Additional Resources About Human Subjects Research

It is research that involves people. Investigators do research to answer questions and gain knowledge that they hope will benefit society. Investigators may do things to research participants with their agreement or ask participants to do specific activities and obtain information (such as health information) or biological samples (such as blood) from them to answer the research questions.

For example, investigators may give participants new medicines to take, collect their blood, and obtain their information to see whether the new medicine is safe and works. Investigators may also ask participants to view different images to see how they respond emotionally. These are both examples of research that involve people, or human subjects research. In addition, investigators may simply study the information or biological samples already collected from people, for example, from routine medical care.

There are different kinds of human subjects research, explore the links below to learn more!

To learn more about research and research participation, review the short videos at https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach/about-research-participation/informational-videos/index.html.

You can also read the infographics at https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach/about-research-participation/protecting-research-volunteers/index.html to learn more about how research participants are protected.

If you are looking for the policies and regulations of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on human subjects protections in research, check out the website at https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/index.html. If you are looking for the regulatory definition for human subjects research, click here.

You can also find a mini-tutorial here explaining human subjects research for the purpose of NIH grant submission.