IRB Workflow

Time to Read: <2 Minutes

I have had the pleasure to serve on an Institutional Review Board since 2016. The experience has benefitted me time and again as a researcher and as a friend to researchers. I have helped many of my peers with this daunting process and have realized two things:

  1. No matter which Univeristy in which state someone is attending, there are some common misconceptions about how IRB works.
  2. There is not much written specifically about the process to guide people through it.
To fill that gap, I will periodically be posting about the IRB process.

Note: My advice is general and will vary from school to school. I am not a lawyer or a compliance officer... just someone who wants to help.

You Need IRB Approval to Conduct Research

After you have completed and defended your research proposal, you must get permission from the IRB to proceed. This means no recruiting, no surveying, nothing. 

Your university's office of human research protections (OHRP) is responsible for protecting human research participants, including administering the IRB. They will have a website with an IRB submission checklist. After you complete the steps and submit your application, the IRB starts its review.

IRB Workflow

Here is a broad overview of the entire IRB process:
  1. Complete human subjects research ethics training (CITI is common)
  2. Consider levels of review
  3. Familiarize yourself with the website where you will submit your application
  4. Gather necessary materials
  5. Submit application
  6. Someone in OHRP examines application for completeness and to determine level of review
  7. Someone in OHRP may reach out to you at this point to request clarification, more information, and/or schedule you to attend next IRB full board meeting
  8. IRB reviews application. This can be a single IRB member, a subset of IRB members, or everyone in IRB (full board)
  9. Study is approved
  10. Researcher gets letter from IRB stating the study was approved. Recruitment and research can begin.
The IRB workflow requires lots of reflection and planning.

Start Now

You cannot start conducting research (including recruiting participants) until you get IRB approval. Future posts will get into more detail about saving time, but you should know that you can start on steps 1-4 at any time... even before you pick a chair. The more you understand before you start your proposal (first three chapters), the better-equipped you will be to design a study that sails through the approval process.

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