HRP Solicits Comments on Proposed Changes to the Regulations For Human Research Participant Protections (The Common Rule)

On July 26, 2011, the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), in coordination with the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) aimed at revising the current federal regulations for protecting human research participants (45 CFR 46, the Common Rule). These revisions are intended to reduce regulatory burden while providing better protection for human research participants, and facilitating valuable research.

The deadline for receipt of comments is no later than 5:00 pm on September 26, 2011. Comments may be submitted online through the Federal eRulemaking Portal, which can be found at the Regulations.gov website. Enter the docket ID number (HHS-OPHS-2011-0005) in the Enter Keyword or ID field and click Search on the next page, click on Submit a Comment and follow the instructions. You may also submit comments by hard-copy to: Jerry Menikoff, M.D., J.D., OHRP, 1101 Wootton Parkway, Suite 200, Rockville, MD 20852. Any comments received will be posted to Regulations.gov.

The American Psychological Association's Committee on Human Research (CHR) will review the suggested revisions and draft detailed comments to submit to HHS. CHR encourages APA members to submit individual comments and to contact the APA Research Ethics Office at (202) 336-6000 with concerns regarding the proposed changes to the regulations for the protection of human research participants.

For additional information regarding the ANPRM, please see the August 2011 edition of the Psychological Science Agenda.