Skip to Main Content

Oral History Interviewing Methods & Project Management: Getting Started

Does Your Project Need IRB Approval?

For many years the answer to this question was somewhat unclear, but thankfully we now have more concrete guidance on whether or not one needs to receive IRB approval to initiate an oral history project. First put forth in 2019, adjustments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “Policy for Protection of Human Research Subjects” specifically exclude oral history from IRB review through a strict definition of research. Here is the language of that policy directive:

  1. Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Activities that meet this definition constitute research for purposes of this policy, whether or not they are conducted or supported under a program that is considered research for other purposes. For example, some demonstration and service programs may include research activities. For purposes of this part, the following activities are deemed not to be research:
    1. Scholarly and journalistic activities (e.g., oral history, journalism, biography, literary criticism, legal research, and historical scholarship), including the collection and use of information, that focus directly on the specific individuals about whom the information is collected.

Further guidance provided by the federal Office for Human Research Protections states that oral history activities are not subject to IRB review if they can be classified as “scholarly and journalistic activities that collect and use information about specific individuals themselves.”

That said, “studies using methods such as participant observation and ethnographic studies, in which investigators gather information from individuals in order to understand the beliefs, customs, and practices, not only of those individuals, but also of the community or group to which they belong” would represent “generalizable knowledge” do still require IRB review and approval.

Whether your project is subject to IRB review or not, it is critical that you adhere to sound ethical practice in every phase of your project. This begins by making sure that you and your narrator clearly share an understanding of the full intent of the project: what do you seek to collect? how will it be preserved? what types of access will be permitted once the project is completed?

Oral historians also adhere to well-established sets of ethical principles in developing their interview topics and conducting the interview itself. For more details, please see our notes on Fundamental Interviewing Ethics under the 'Conducting the Interview' tab of this resource.

Identifying a Narrator

It may be that finding a person to interview is not a concern for you, but if it is, we would offer that you think about someone who has inspired or intrigued you or someone who can speak to the experience of a specific place, time or community. Keep in mind that certain narrators might also become project partners who can provide resources of various forms, including access to individuals who might be less responsive to a cold call.

Making Arrangements

Once you have identified an individual whom you wish to interview, the next step will be to contact them to discuss your project and obtain their approval to participate. This is an important phase in the process as it is your first opportunity to build trust and help your narrator feel less vulnerable. Do not underestimate the role of anxiety in the oral history transaction! It is, first and foremost, your obligation as an oral historian to make your narrator feel safe and to assure them that your process will be governed by a mutually agreed upon ethical standard at every step. To that end, the Oral History Association Statement on Ethics is available here, and many of the best practices that it describes are interwoven into this guide.

In these early conversations, also do your best to find an interview location - be it in person or over Zoom - that is quiet and free from distraction. In many cases, a narrator’s home may be the only real option for the interview but, if so, do your best to ensure that the interview is one-on-one, as the presence of other people in the interview setting, more often than not, will prove problematic. Also communicate to your narrator that the interview itself may run for at least sixty minutes, but potentially a fair bit longer. Generally speaking, we target ninety minutes for a full life history interview, though we have also conducted individual sessions that lasted in excess of three hours.

Lastly, it will often be helpful to obtain a copy of your narrator’s resume or, in the case of an academic, curriculum vitae. Ask for a document of this sort early on, as it will usually prove invaluable to your preparations. Of course, other resources will surely assist your research process, including content that you find online or through resources like LinkedIn. Likewise, if your narrator has a connection to an organization that hosts an archive, be certain to seek out any records (on them specifically or on institutional experiences that they may have shared) that might be accessible from that angle. It is important to note however, that there shouldn’t usually be a need to closely detail all of the specifics of your narrator’s life prior to the interview. What is more important is to isolate major themes that you can then examine through the narrator’s eyes.