Institutional Review Board

The purpose of Centre's Institutional Review Board (IRB) is to protect the rights of human subjects participating in research.

All research involving human subjects or human materials must be reviewed and approved by the IRB. Federal law and Centre policy require this review for biomedical, social, and behavioral research conducted by Centre faculty, staff, and students. Researchers are urged to discuss their projects with a member of the IRB before collecting any data.

Review Centre's human subject policy

The IRB does not handle non-human research, please contact IACUC for those applications.

When do I need IRB approval for my data collection?

If you are unsure whether your research requires IRB approval, please contact one of the members of the committee (listed at the bottom of this page).

Laboratory/Field Data Collection

Most laboratory and field research which requires human participation requires IRB approval. Common disciplines that apply for IRB approval include Anthropology, Biology, Neuroscience, Psychology, Sociology, and Economics.

Students’ Classroom Data

Data collected by students as part of a class project may require IRB approval if the data is presented outside of the classroom and/or the information collected by students in private or if the information is sensitive. Common example of sensitive data include answers to questions about criminal activity, sexual activity, victims of violence, emotional content, alcohol or drug, personal health, or any identifiable information such as names or birthdate.

Professors’ Classroom Data

Data collected by a professor from their own students may require IRB approval if the professor plans for the data to be published or presented at an academic conference.

Campus Surveys

Large campus surveys with the potential for data to be shared outside the institution or used for marketing should be approved by the IRB. This includes surveys related to grants and special projects.

Applying for IRB Approval

Before data collection or applying for IRB approval, all researchers who are working with participants or participant data must complete research ethics training. This includes the primary investigator, all student researchers, and faculty mentors for student research. This can be completed for free through the CITI Program. If this is already completed, you can skip to step 5 below.

Visit the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website
Click on the "register" button
- Centre College is your organization affiliate
- Fill out the basic information
- Click NO for CE credits
- Your role will likely be Student Researcher (for Students) or Principal Investigator (for Faculty), most information is optional
  - Question 1: Student or Faculty
  - Question 2: Leave blank
  - Question 3: Choose your field, SBE is most common
  - Question 4: The Information Privacy course is optional
Complete the modules that are assigned to you
Once the modules are completed, you should write down your CITI ID number for use on the research application. This is found in the upper right corner when you are logged into your account.
Submit an IRB application

Because IRB applications may require review and edits from several members of the committee, we respectfully ask that you submit your proposal no less than thirty (30) days in advance of your intended project start date. Some research applications may be approved in less than two weeks if they are low risk, but we cannot guarantee approval times faster than thirty days.

Investigators must immediately report any unanticipated adverse effects, events, other problems involving risks to subjects to the IRB Chair.

You will be contacted by the chair of the IRB and receive a Letter of Approval once you approved to start data collection.