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IRB/ Office of Research Compliance

If you are collecting data or/planning to publish data results, please consult with the IRB office on campus on 1) how to submit your project proposal for review and approval/ exemption and 2) templates/forms tailored to your research project.

Institutional Review Board | Office of Research Compliance

CITI training at UC Merced

Presentation Slides - Research vs Assessment Guide

Consult IRB Office staff members: Danielle Dai 'Re and Leslie Texeira with any inquiries at 209-228-4805

You must get an Institutional Review Board (IRB) exemption to perform research involving human subjects. This is not a trivial process, so - alas - there is no way I know of to speed up the process. You should have plenty of time to complete the requisite steps in order to begin your research in the Fall 2018 semester.

Steps that must be completed prior to any research activities:

  1. All PI’s must complete CITI (collaborative institutional training initiative) training. In order to submit a research protocol to our Institutional Review Board (IRB) all PI’s of the project must complete CITI training. This typically takes 5-10 hours of your time. Please go to http://rci.ucmerced.edu/node/40 and choose to complete either the Biomedical Research or Social/Behavioral Research course (Knowing a bit about what your research entails, I would choose Social/Behavorial). NOTE: The CITI Responsible Conduct of Research Courses will not suffice.
  2. Work through the Research involving human subjects flowchart to determine Exemption(s). You will need to identify any students under the age of 18 in your courses and make sure that they do not participate in this research.
  3. Develop a research protocol. I would be happy to meet with you to help you develop your research protocol.
  4. Initiate an IRB review for exempt status through Cayuse IRB. Goto the following site (http://rci.ucmerced.edu/irb/cayuse-irb) and initiate the IRB review process.
  5. Begin collecting data. Once you have received confirmation that your protocol has been evaluated and given exempt status you may begin to collect data. Typically exempt status is granted for a three-year window. You must reapply for exempt status every three years.

Any data that you collect prior to IRB approval is only approved for formative activities and may not be used in any external presentations and/or publications.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly (at 2092284766), or contact the IRB office directly at 209-228-4805.