Just a little "rant" here ...

To conduct my dissertation experiment up at the University of Wisconsin this past November, I had to jump through a number of formal hoops with the human subjects review board that approves all research on humans there. I thought I had gotten all the necessary forms in by the end of September. My projected research dates on campus there were Nov. 12-21. I had done my part, and was expecting them, on their side, to ease the researcher's way in time to meet the dates I told them of (and couldn't really alter).

By the first day of the experiment, I STILL hadn't received formal approval to go ahead, but with a narrow window of opportunity Fall Semester to do the study (and expecting a bunch of pre-registered subjects to show up in the computer lab), I felt I had to go ahead and start, albeit in limbo without formal permission (but having done my end legally).

By the last day of the experiment, November 21, I STILL had no word whether my application was approved or not, and I cleared my program off the lab computers and left Madison for Thanksgiving break with all my data. The end of November I finally got an email saying the research project had been approved. Belated, but at least the issue was settled and I was "legal".

Now, a good month after the fact, I get an email from the human subjects office that my application was not actually approved after all and is still technically "under review" (this is more than a month AFTER I finished the experiment!) and that, oh, by the way, they can't seem to locate a paper copy of my application, and could I email them a copy.

This from one of America's top "research universities" ... Sad.