There is growing agreement that researchers have a responsibility to determine and make clear to research participants whether IFs and IRRs will or will not be offered back to the participants.20,25,26 (p38), 27,28 (p15) As we noted in our prior project’s consensus paper1, in the face of silence, participants may simply assume that such findings will be returned. This assumption risks “conflat[ing] the role of researcher with that of a physician”29 (p37) and may lead participants to misconstrue researcher silence as an indication that there are no findings of individual health concern.
