Question Solved

Does journal impact factor matter for early-career researchers?

Back to Forum
Starting 0 pts 0 followers
St. Aloysius College · Posted
Educational Assessment Environmental Science Chemical Engineering

My question

I have been collecting data for my thesis research and realized I may have an ethical issue. I surveyed 450 college students about their academic stress and mental health. The survey was anonymous, but I am now questioning whether I need IRB approval retroactively.

The situation:

  • The survey was done purely as pilot research before my formal thesis proposal
  • I used Google Forms and data was stored on my university Google Drive
  • No personally identifying information was collected
  • This is at an Indian university (not a US institution)

What are the ethics review requirements for student survey research in Indian universities? Is anonymous pilot data typically exempt?

Sign in to interact

Sign in to join the discussion.

2 Replies

Oldest Top
0
Quamar Ahmed Growing 65 pts · Accepted answer

The short answer: it depends heavily on the journal and field, but here is a general framework.

If your null result is well-powered and the hypothesis was reasonable: Absolutely publish it. Null results in well-designed studies are as valuable as positive results. Journals like PLOS ONE explicitly welcome them.

If your study is underpowered: Be transparent about it. Report effect sizes and confidence intervals, not just p-values. A small, underpowered study with honest reporting is still a contribution.

What kills papers is when limitations are obvious but the authors have not addressed them.

0
Meena Sharma · Accepted answer

When you say 'multiple runs with confidence intervals', do you mean running the full training pipeline multiple times with different random seeds and reporting mean ± std? Or something more statistically rigorous?