Research Involving Human Participants: Fill & Download for Free

Yes. I have published several articles, book chapters, and a book as an independent scholar. The quality of research is what matters. How to do it? Write a good article and submit it.The only caveat would be if you were doing research involving human participants. Most journals require some statement that the research has gone through some kind of IRB vetting, so for that it would be easier to team up with someone with an institutional affiliation.

Ethics in research relates to research integrity, data credibility and the right and well-being of the research subjects (whether they are animals or humans). For research involving human subjects, the three pillars of ethics are respect, beneficence and justice. Under each of these pillars are several concepts which must be understood and applied by researchers.Informed consent is one of the core issues in human research, and the researchers should be familiar with the correct consenting process that is applicable to their particular study (normal subjects, vulnerable groups such as children or elderly persons with compromised mental capacity).The Declaration of Helsinki, GCP Guidelines and CIOMS guidelines are essential resources for researchers. All researchers doing research involving human participants should go through research ethics training, and should have the research approved by the authorized Research Ethics Committee prior to starting their research.

Just about any research organization in the US (academic, national lab, hospital, corporate) will have an Institutional Review Board (IRB). If your organization gets funds from the federal government, it has to have one of these.The IRB reviews all proposed research involving human subjects (and other categories as well). The IRB is supposed to ensure that the research is conducted in an ethical way. That review includes issues such as informed consent (the nature of the research will be described to subjects and they must agree to be part of it) and weighing the risks to participant against the potential benefits in research. The IRB will likely require a training course on proper procedures for human-subjects research for anyone applying for approval.Now, turning to your question. If someone wanted to do advanced experimental research on human subjects at a US institution, their competence to perform that work would be assessed by the IRB. It would be up to them to judge if a Bachelor's degree, along with other qualifications, were sufficient for the proposed research.If someone wanted to do research outside such a context, then there are still the legal considerations that Mary Arneson discusses.