Oral History Activities

This page has been updated to reflect the New Rule effective January 21, 2019.

Oral history activities do not constitute research as defined in Federal guidelines (45 CFR 46).

Oral history activities designed to create a record of specific historical events or experiences of an individual and are not intended to draw conclusions or generalizable findings do not constitute research and do not require COUHES approval.

However, oral history activities designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge, such as to draw conclusions, inform policy or generalize findings, or create a repository of information or archive for other investigators to conduct research constitute research. Therefore, these activities require COUHES approval.