Each research institution which is able to receive grants from the U.S. Government for human and/or animal research is required to have an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that reviews proposals to assure the protection of research subjects. Examples of and reasons for requiring review of research that involves human subjects are numerous and multiple throughout medical and behavioral research. (History is full of horror stories about the treatment of medical and behavioral research subjects.)
While it may not be bio-medical research, if we are to learn what we can about the many social and behavioral aspects of renewable energy and sustainability systems, we will need to research topics such as patterns of consumption, energy use, patterns of traffic flow, individual psychology, response to risks, etc. Behavioral and social requires the study of research subjects, which will require a review of the research by the institution's own IRB.
Penn State has very extensive Institutional Review Board (IRB) resources as part of the Office for Research Protections (which all research falls under.) This lesson is in no way a replacement for the extensive educational resources and regulatory support. See the following resources for more: Penn State's Institutional Review Board [1] and Penn State's Office for Research Protections [2].
The treatment of research subjects and medical patients can be approached through a basic principle (easy in theory, but not in practice) that subjects ought to be treated how they want to be treated. The difficult part can be in determining whether subjects understand the risks of the procedure or research in which they are partaking. Further, protecting the identity of information and research data about a subject is required (privacy and confidentiality) if no harm comes to the subject from the information generated by the research (such as a pre-existing condition or genetic marker for a specific disease). Subjects that are experiencing conditions that could compromise or coerce subjects into agreeing to research or treatments that may not be in their best interests.