 During this module, we are going to identify that what could be the risk to research participants which may be identified by IRP board. One of the most important and challenging tasks that investigator face is identifying and evaluating the risk associated with participation in research. It is not so simple that when we design a project in the beginning, we have to identify how to face the participants' challenges. Because at times, all the scenarios are not available to us in a clear and true form. We have a few assumptions, but there may be some confounding variables that emerge in the same situation because of the participants' health, because of the participants' prior perception, because of the participants' maybe idea about something which is already being carried out and in that setting, its behavior becomes very uncertain and we don't even have an idea that these research participants can act so unpredictably in this scenario. So, there could be the different settings and researchers at times may not be aware of all those possible situations prior to conducting the research. Then, unlike biomedical research studies or clinical trials, risk associated with the participation in social and behavioral science research are often more ambiguous and less predictable. So, as I said that maybe it is because of the personal perception or maybe the health status of the participant whose research results are very unpredictable. Let's say a company is trying to test its soda and after drinking the soda or the energy drink of human subjects, what changes in human behavior? And we make a setup in which the researcher, the investigators, gives the energy drink to the participants. In a cool, comfortable environment, while ensuring that the room temperature is the same for everyone, comfortable clothing and things like that. But results are very unexpected because of the reason that one individual who is participating in it, his body temperature is very high because of fever. Or he has done a lot of sports and because of that, his body temperature is already high, so the effect of the drink has become different because of the other participants. So, this is something which could be a confounding variable and researchers may not identify that prior to the beginning of the research. When considering risks, an IRP considers only those risks which are related to the research. The IRP board, to research-related risks, they identify them for example, psychological, physical, social, legal and emotional. So, they are the different domains which can involve risk. Like maybe this could be the social reputation which would be on risk for the participants. Maybe it could be some emotional distress which could be, you know, possible risk for participants. So, identifying this is also the work of the IRP board. Investigators should be aware that risk in social and behavioral sciences generally fall in three categories. When we talk about social and behavioral risks, that these categories are very challenging to identify, then they are major three categories. And the first one is invasion of privacy. Then breach of confidentiality and then study procedures. So, looking at three of them one after another. Invasion of privacy, it can occur if participants' personal information in a study is revealed without participants' knowledge. For example, communicating via email with participants in a study about recovering from sexual assault, researchers need to be aware that email is not private and it can be read by employees, etc. It can be hacked and something like that. Take up experiences and lived experiences to a person who has a sexual assault. So, this is something which is very much private which one person is not going to share with all of the other people publicly. But that email could be hacked, that WhatsApp group could be hacked, that phone could be stolen, that audio record could be, you know, lost somewhere or agar uske andar privacy juhay wo invade hone ke chansay ko so that would be the responsibility of IRP board to ensure that what mechanisms should be followed, that you can sustain the privacy of a participant. Then breach of confidentiality. Perhaps the primary source of risk in social sciences is disclosure of information outside the research setting. And this is by the way the very reason that people feel themselves stigmatized and they do not go for clinical and counseling sessions without, you know, having any assurance that they would not be identified by the general public as having any psychological or social issue. Because it gets a stigma attached that your confidentiality if breached then people will consider you as sick. So, social settings may be the same issues that people that people try to sustain their confidentiality that they do not reflect on their point of view or participate in their research. For example, unauthorized release of data which could have a negative impact on participants, psychological, social and economic status. Let's say if I talk about exclusively the prevalence and incidence of HIV population in Pakistan, so by default I have to say that the most incidence is in which area of Punjab. When I say that in which area, that could be identified very easily that which sector it could be because the map can easily show you that the most incidence is being recorded here. And then in which villages. And then after that which population is the most. And from there if I look into its causes, I can easily trace back myself to different cases where I can identify certain participants. Without sitting them close, I can easily identify them that they could be the potential people who are involved and their sources, their issues and things like that. So you know privacy to keep confidentiality is not that easy thing. And this is also the work of an IRB board that is very carefully and very diligently sustained. The third thing is psychological harm. In some cases, simply participating in the research can cause social or psychological harm. Depression, stress, guilt and loss of self-esteem. For example, research may include psychological distress if include questions regarding to any sensitive topic or past traumatic event. Let's say we talk about any event related to harassment, assault, robbery or victimization or abuse. So it can instantly create PTSD or just sharing and reliving those memories can create a very strange kind of psychological distress and psychological harm. So it is very important to keep this in mind. Then social and economic harms are another thing which is important that some breaches of confidentiality may result in embarrassment within one's business, social group, loss of employment or criminal prosecution. For example, disclosure of the information about alcohol and drug abuse, mental illness and illegal activities. If a person has not been identified earlier by the community that he is alcoholist, he is drug abuse or such a criminal activity may involve and suddenly because of that research, it has been highlighted that the person is being involved into certain things. So without having that debate, is it good or bad, this is important to understand that the participants confidentiality should not be breached at any time during the research. So we apply this as an ethical principle, but what we have discussed earlier is that in what situations confidentiality could be breached, we then exercise that law on certain situations. And this is how we manner between the confidentiality and breach of confidentiality.