Research Methods Institutional Review Boards and Peer-Reviewed Publication D. Kirk Hamilton 1 and Jaynelle F. Stichler 2 Health Environments Research & Design (HERD) requires authors to provide a copy of an approval letter from an Institutional Review Board (IRB) when the study involves human subjects. Some authors from countries outside of North America, or from nonacademic roles in practice, may have little or no experience with an IRB and wonder how to meet the journal’s requirements. The Code of Federal Regulations, Title 45, of the Department of Health and Human Ser- vices (DHHS) outlines the basic policy for the protection of human research subjects (http:// www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr 46.html). Essentially, all research and evidence- based practice projects that are conducted in aca- demic settings or in health care organizations are subject to this Code, requiring a review of the research proposal and its methods by an IRB, ethics board, or an administrative review board at the organization. Abuses of Human Subjects in the Past Have Led to Formal Protections The sad history of research that tragically abused human subjects ultimately led to the imposition in the United States of IRBs and ethics boards. The 20th century included a number of promi- nent examples of abuse, as was the case in which Nazi and Japanese physicians conducted cruel and inhumane experiments on living persons during World War II. In the United States, the long running Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932–1972) conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013) examined the natural progression of untreated syphilis among African American men without their knowledge. The subjects believed they were receiving free treatment. Radiation experiments on unsuspecting citizens were con- ducted by the U.S. government during the Cold War. The Soviets may have done the same thing. The Central Intelligence Association (CIA) is known to have been involved in mind control stud- ies that included brainwashing and administration of experimental drugs without consent. Government-sanctioned abuses were not the only problems. Controversial projects were undertaken by faculty at universities. Prominent examples include the studies of obedience to authority by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram involving the apparent administration of electric shocks by student subjects to other students to test the dangers of obedience to authority figures (Encina, 2004; Milgram, 1974). Professor Philip Zimbardo (Cherry, 2014) at Stanford studied behavior of students assigned to roles as prisoners or guards in a mock prison in the basement of the psychology building. This notorious experiment 1 Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA 2 San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA Corresponding Author: D. Kirk Hamilton, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA. Email: khamilton@tamu.edu Health Environments Research & Design Journal 2015, Vol. 8(2) 81-84 ª The Author(s) 2015 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1937586714567647 herd.sagepub.com