Student

Student

If you are an Elms student who is conducting a research project, quality improvement project or survey, please contact your Faculty Advisor. All student applications must be submitted by a supervising faculty member who has reviewed and approved the project. Click here for additional information.

When should anonymous surveys or class research projects be submitted to IRB?

1. Bulk Email: If students plan to recruit participants using Elms bulk email (class 20xx.students.elms.edu), you will need IRB approval to send this out to the entire student body.

2. Public Dissemination: If the project results are intended for public dissemination (e.g. conference presentation outside the class) then you need IRB approval before commencing data collection.

3. Potential Risk: If the survey or project involves more than minimal risk to the participants, you will need IRB approval. An example of a minimal risk survey is an anonymous survey with no personally identifying or sensitive information collected. An example of a survey with more than minimal risk may involve sensitive information or potential loss of anonymity. For example, asking about past drug use, history of disease/illness, and/or personal demographic information would be above minimal risk.

When is it okay to conduct my class survey without IRB approval?

If the survey is:

1. Not being sent out a as a bulk email to students

2. Minimal risk as determined by your instructor

3. Anonymous

4. Results are only intended for use in class for the assignment

As with any research project, it is important that anyone planning to collect data from human participants complete the CITI ethics training modules before collecting data. It is also important to use the consent process for the participant's voluntary participation in the project. For surveys that are exempt from IRB approval, we suggest that you minimally include the following information on the cover sheet of your survey:

1. Participants need to be aware their responses will be anonymous and their names will not be collected

2. Participants need to know they may discontinue or leave items blank if they choose (free of coercion or penalty if they discontinue)

3. Participants know how their responses will be used and if there are any risks or benefits of participation (e.g., if it 's for a class project only, please inform them of that)

4. Contact information of principle investigator in case the participants have questions/comments regarding the survey

If you have any questions, please contact irb@elms.edu.