11. Using Students as Subjects

Using Students as Subjects

The faculty at Northeastern may not recruit students from their own classes for their personal research projects.  Postings on general information boards may be used to recruit students.

In general, if students are directly recruited to participate in research, it is of the utmost importance to avoid undue influence or coercion (or even the appearance of coercion). It must be explicitly stated that the decision of a student to participate or not will have no effect on their class standing or any relationship with the university.

Researchers should carefully consider whether students are being directly recruited because they are a convenient sample or that they in fact are a representative sample of the target research population.