Policy on collecting, storing personal info from research participants

Investigators who pay research participants should follow the university’s IRB and accounting guidelines for collecting and storing personal information.

To comply with federal Internal Revenue Service requirements, research participants must provide Social Security numbers if a single compensation payment is more than $50 or the total payment exceeds $600 per year. In these cases, the informed consent document that a participant signs should indicate that the Social Security number is required. Researchers should send payment forms that include the collected Social Security numbers to the UNL Accounting Office for storage to safeguard the information in a central location.

The IRB application form in NUgrant includes a section where investigators can outline plans for participant compensation. Accounting and Research Compliance Services provide a guidance document about the process of paying study participants.