IRB stands for Institutional Review Board. It is a committee of faculty, staff, and at least one community member. This committee serves the college by reviewing all research involving human subjects for compliance with federal human subjects research guidelines.

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If your project is a research project and it involves collection and/or use of data from human subjects (e.g., surveys, oral interviews, videotaping, secondary data sources) then you need IRB approval.

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You may submit a Research Determination Form to the IRB committee. This entails a brief description of your project and participants. You will be notified that your project is either a) research and you need to complete a full application for IRB review; or b) not research and you do not need to do anything further. If your project is not considered research (b) then you need to retain this official form with its IRB response for your records. In the event that you wish to publish the results of this project you may need to show proof that a determination of non research was made by the IRB.

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That depends on the type of review needed and your timeliness in submitting materials and requested revisions. Exempt and expedited reviews can be done in 1 to 2 weeks. Full reviews require discussion of the proposal at a full committee meeting and can take one month or more.

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There are exempt review categories and expedited review categories. All else is full review. Please Note: it is up to the Chair to decide what level of review is needed.

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NO. Exempt means that it is EXEMPT from continued oversight and yearly review. The approval is good for a period of years. You need only to notify the IRB if you change any portion of the proposal (e.g., add a new data collection site, add a new instrument, substantially change the interview questions etc.)

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Additional information can be obtained by clicking here.

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