IRB/Human Subjects

Clark University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) is responsible for ensuring that all research conducted by faculty, staff, and students, protects the rights and welfare of human subjects. All human subjects research at Clark must be reviewed by the IRB.

General Overview

Application forms and instructions may be found on the Mentor IRB Website.  Exempt and expedited reviews are generally considered on a rolling basis. For other types of research, submission deadlines for monthly IRB meetings are listed on the sidebar.  Apart from situations in which urgent review is required due to extenuating circumstances, the IRB does not review applications during the summer.

Turnaround time for proposal review is normally 1-3 weeks after submission (for exempt or expedited reviews) or 1-2 weeks after the meeting date (for full board reviews).  An additional week is sometimes needed for special circumstances. Note that there are submission deadline dates for each scheduled IRB meeting. The point of contact for IRB matters is Linda Cote, Grant and IRB Coordinator, at licote@clarku.edu.

NOTE: Some committee determinations may require review of a revised proposal at a subsequent meeting of the full committee. It is strongly urged that research planned for summer be submitted for review NO LATER THAN APRIL to allow time for resubmission if required. Proposals submitted for the final (May) meeting of the academic year are rarely approved in time for research to take place over the summer.

CITI Training

All individuals submitting proposals to the IRB must have completed CITI training.  Training must be renewed every three years.  Mentor will automatically flag your submission if your training has expired.  CITI training must include the “RCR Basic Curriculum + Human Subjects” modules.