Submission Dates for Proposals

A researcher submitting a proposal to the IRB should regard the proposal as the beginning of a process of exchanging ideas, rather than a submission of a finished document which is accepted or rejected.  The expertise of the IRB committee will often be able to provide information to the author about important ethical omissions or inconsistencies.

One copy of the proposal should be submitted to the IRB Coordinator. The proposal will then be scanned and shared electronically with assigned committee members.

If it is anticipated that the proposal will be appropriate for review at the exempt or expedited level, it may be submitted to the IRB Coordinator at any time.

The committee will try to provide a response within two weeks for "exempted" and "expedited" research. Proposals requiring a full board review may take longer.  Although a few proposals are accepted as originally submitted, the author should expect that the committee's response will probably point out areas where modifications are needed, and that the committee will expect the proposal to be modified and resubmitted. Occasionally, even the resubmitted proposal will be returned for further modification, lengthening the process to six or more weeks.

Meeting Dates for the Full Board

The Institutional Review Board for Protection of Human Subjects meets once a month (for Spring 2012, the 1st Friday of each month) during the academic year of September through May. Since most of the review process happens outside the meeting, approval decisions are made on a continuous basis, with reconfirmation made at the monthly meeting.