IRB Policies Regarding Finder's Fees and Role Conflicts in Recruiting Research Participants (Insight) (Report‪)‬

Conflicts of interest may arise during the recruitment of research subjects in several ways. Financial conflicts of interest may arise when research sponsors (or their agents) pay members of the research team or clinicians to identify potential participants (often referred to as "finder's fees") or when the research team or clinicians meet predetermined enrollment targets. (1) These types of payment practices raise concerns because researchers and their colleagues, enticed by these financial offers, may be tempted to enroll individuals in studies for which they are ineligible to participate. Nonfinancial conflicts may arise when the investigator has a relationship with the prospective participant that involves an imbalance of power, such as when the investigator is the individual's physician, supervisor, or teacher (referred to as "role conflict"). (2) When this type of relationship exists, patients, employees, or students may agree to participate in the investigator's research in the hope that in return for enrolling in the study they will receive better medical care, employment perks, or good grades. On the other hand, they might enroll in the research out of fear that not doing so could negatively impact their medical care, employment, or grades. Another concern is that if patients interpret their physician's offer to participate in a study as affirmation that the study intervention is clinical treatment (i.e, the "therapeutic misconception"), they might be reluctant to decline to participate. (3)