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Institutional Review Board

The Institutional Review Board ("IRB") consists of two groups, the Human Subjects Committee (HSC) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). The IRB reviews all proposed research conducted by Mount Union faculty, students, or staff, regardless of source of funding, to ensure that the safety and welfare of the research subjects. All human subjects research requires review and approval by the IRB prior to subject recruitment and data collection and prior to the use of extant data or private information.

For a more detailed explanation of the role and the responsibilities of the IRB, please refer to the following document.

Depending on your specific type of research, please refer to either the Human Subjects or Animal Subjects sections below.

Animal Subjects

The Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) is responsible for the ethical care and use of all non-human vertebrate animals for research and instructional purposes. All individuals wishing to conduct research or any faculty member who intends to use vertebrate animals for teaching purposes should submit an Animal Use IRB Application.

Human Subjects

  1. When is IRB review required?

    All individuals conducting research using human subjects are required to submit an IRB application for review.

    IRB review and approval is required for projects that are

    • research in nature
    • involve human subjects
    • include any interaction, intervention, or access to identifiable private information
  2. When is IRB review not required?

    Some examples for which IRB review is not required include

    • data collected for internal departmental or administrative purposes
    • training activities unless it is conducted for research purposes
    • activities designed solely for quality improvement or evaluation of a program, course, etc.

    Classroom student research also may be exempt from formal IRB review.

    Student research projects that meet all the following conditions may be conducted under the supervision of the faculty member without submitting an application to the IRB. Projects that do not meet all these conditions must be submitted to the IRB for review.

    The project must meet the definition of classroom research/student research. This is defined as a project that:

    • is a normal part of the student's coursework
    • is supervised by a faculty member
    • has as its primary purpose the development of the student's research skills
    • does not present more than minimal risk to participants or to the student investigator
    • does not include any persons as research subjects under the age of 18
    • does not include any persons as research subjects who are classified as protected populations or sensitive subjects according to federal regulations
    • is not genuine research and will not result in a degree culminating product (e.g., thesis, dissertation), publication, or some other form of public dissemination (e.g., presentation at conferences including the undergraduate/graduate scholars forum)
    • does not involve sensitive, personal, or incriminating topics
  3. Application and Review Process

    Please follow the application process in the sequence that is presented below. The final step in the sequence is submitting the online application. Because the online site will not allow you to save your progress and return to complete it at a later time, we strongly encourage you to download the Word document version of the application, complete all fields in that document thoroughly first, and then copy and paste them into the online application for submission.

    • All IRB applicants must compete the Human Subjects Assurance Training. First time users may refer to this "How-To" document for further instructions on registering on to the CITI Program site. When completing the IRB online application, you will be asked to provide proof of completion of this training. If you are conducting research in a group, all group members must complete the training.
    • IRB application (Word document): The online site does not allow you to save your progress and return to complete the application at a later time. Please download the Word document version of the application, complete all fields in that document thoroughly first, and then copy and paste then into the online application for submission.
    • Complete the Informed Consent and Debriefing Forms and customize it to fit your study. You will be asked to attach it to your online IRB application.

    IRB Electronic (Online) Application: make sure all the previous steps are completed before you begin the online application.

    All applications are reviewed on a rolling basis as they are received. For full consideration, the committee requires two weeks to review materials prior to the monthly meeting.