Certification for IRB Professionals (CIP) Practice Exam

Data are made anonymous by?

1. Destroying all identifiers connected to the data.

2. Grouping sensitive data together without identifiers.

3. Only removing names of participants from the data set.

4. Storing data in encrypted files.

The correct answer is: Destroying all identifiers connected to the data.

The process of making data anonymous involves removing any identifiers that could be used to trace the data back to individual participants. This is crucial in protecting the privacy and confidentiality of the individuals involved in research. When all identifiers are destroyed, it ensures that no information can link the data to the specific individuals, making it impossible to identify them based on the information that remains. By completely eliminating these identifiers, researchers can considerably reduce the risk of unintentional disclosure of personal information, thereby enhancing the ethical handling of sensitive data. This practice aligns with common ethical standards and legal requirements for protecting participant confidentiality in research studies. The other options denote different methods of data handling but do not fully achieve the goal of anonymization as effectively as the complete destruction of identifiers does. For instance, grouping sensitive data or removing only names may still leave other identifiable information intact, thus not fully providing anonymity. Similarly, storing data in encrypted files secures the data but does not anonymize it, as the potential for identification still exists if the decryption key is accessible.