Oral History (A How-To Guide): Ethical and Legal Considerations

1.  Understand the range of ethical and legal concerns for oral history practitioners: review the Oral History Association's "Principles and Best Practices."

2.  Determine if your project needs Institutional Review Board (IRB) oversight.

   • If you plan to donate your oral history interviews to an archive or post them online, or, if you plan to use the interviews for research purposes, your project will likely need some level of oversight from DePaul's Institutional Review Board (often an ‘exempt’ application).  It is best to contact the Office of Research Protections several months in advance of starting a project.

3.  Create an information sheet and gather Deed of Gift forms.

   • Information sheets explain the project, its aims and procedures, and clearly identify the risks of participating. These are distributed when recruiting narrators and signed after the interview. See Appendix 1 of Neuenschwander's "Guide to Oral History and the Law" for some examples (E-book p. 142).

   • Deed of Gift forms are required if interviews will be archived in an institutional collection (e.g., DePaul Special Collections and Archives). Contact SPCA for more information.

Contact Information

773-325-7864
Send Email