Submitting Human Participants Research for IRB Review
If you are conducting research as it is defined by OHRP, your work needs to be reviewed by the IRB at some level. There are three levels of review: exempt, expedited and full. Before submitting your paperwork, you should familiarize yourself with these different levels of review so that you know what to expect from the IRB process.
For anyone who is conducting research, you must submit to your school representative (see below) a completed copy of the Human Participants Research Review Form. Along with the completed Review Form, you should submit a copy of your informed consent document, your debriefing form, and all of your stimuli and materials.
Please follow the directions for these forms carefully. All questions on the Human Participants Research Review Form must be answered (you may put “Not Applicable” if you believe that to be the case), answered on the form itself (rather than in a research prospectus or other document), and answered in sufficient detail so that the IRB Chair (and other committee members, as applicable) can easily and quickly find needed information. Additionally, to facilitate electronic review of materials, all relevant documents should be submitted to your School Representative in a single electronic file. Submissions that do not meet these basic criteria will be returned without review.
Templates for informed consent documents and debriefing forms are available.
Frequently Asked Questions, including:
- What if I will be conducting my research at a location off-campus (e.g., a hospital, a museum, an airport)?
- What if I am conducting research with a collaborator at another institution?
- What if I oversee Drew’s participation in a large scale data collection project that is organized by another school/institution (e.g., an NCAA survey of student athletes, the Freshman Survey from the Cooperative Institutional Research Project of UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute)?
- What should I do if I have an active research protocol that is about to expire?
Only Drew faculty members and administrators may submit research for IRB review. If the research principal investigator is a student, the faculty advisor should submit the research for IRB review.
| Projects Originating In: | Should Be Submitted To: |
| 1) College of Liberal Arts | G. Scott Morgan, Assistant Professor of Psychology |
| 2) Caspersen School of Graduate Study | Bill Rogers, Associate Dean of the Caspersen School |
| 3) Doctor of Ministries Program | Carl Savage, Director of the Doctor of Ministries Program |
| 4) Theological School | Katie Oh, Assistant Professor of Christian Social Ethics |
Education Requirements
NIH Guidelines stipulate that key personnel, that is, those responsible for the design and conduct of a study, should complete training in the responsible conduct of research involving human participants. There are a number of ways to meet this requirement, among them:
- Complete the U.S. National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute Human Participant Protections Education for Research Teams online training module;
- Attend a class or seminar where the main purpose is to discuss the responsible conduct of research involving human participants.
IRB Meeting Schedule
The Drew IRB meets monthly from September to May.