InCommon Operations Notifications

[Tom Scavo <>]

We are writing to let InCommon Site Administrators know about a change
to the definition of the Research & Scholarship (R&S) Category.
Specifically, InCommon has removed the following self-asserted claim
(made by Service Providers) from the R&S definition:

“My service does not engage subjects in experiments that require
specific oversight.”

There are a number of reasons for removing this requirement:

1) The human subjects requirement is very general, which resulted in
confusion among SP owners, inadvertently delaying their adoption of
R&S

2) Federal law and campus policies already provide oversight for
research involving human subjects and so there is no need for InCommon
to be further involved (particularly since the self-assertion is not
easily verified)

3) Our desire to align with the global Research & Scholarship Category
specification [1] which does not include a requirement involving human
subjects

This decision follows an extensive discussion and review by the
InCommon Technical Advisory Committee (at four different meetings), a
community review and comment period, and finally discussion and action
by the InCommon Steering Committee. A wiki page provides more details
about this process. [2]

If you operate an Identity Provider that does not yet support R&S, a
wiki page provides more information about R&S, including information
about the minimal set of attributes to release to R&S Service
Providers. [3]

If you have any questions about this decision, please contact InCommon Admin.

InCommon Admin


[1] http://refeds.org/category/research-and-scholarship/
[2] https://spaces.internet2.edu/x/xInwAg
[3] https://spaces.internet2.edu/x/aAbvAQ