Human Subject Research

Human subject research describes observational or interventional scientific investigation involving human beings as research subjects. Since people are involved in this research, the consistent pursuit of an open science paradigm plays a particularly important role. Below we briefly describe the general research process in human subject research. 

Human Subject Research Process

In principle, the human subject research process can be divided into different phases. In our Open Science-based research framework we differentiate between six phases:

• Problem – In a first step the research problem is identified and defining the problem that needs to be investigated.
• Research Design - Next, the methodological approach to address the problem is planned.
• Data Collection - This stage involves gathering data according to the research design.
• Data Analysis - The collected data is then analyzed to draw conclusions.
• Interpretation - Insights and results from the data analysis are interpreted.
• Communication - Finally, the findings and insights are communicated to a wider audience.

Each stage of the human subject process seamlessly leads to the next, and the final stage linking back to the initial problem identification, suggesting that the output of one human subjects research cycle could serve as input to new problems to investigate.