Researcher Materials & Resources

The IRB review process takes time and research protocols are reviewed on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The IRB’s ability to conduct a timely review of your research is very dependent on the quality and clarity of your submission.  Please plan accordingly and develop a clear and detailed research plan.

You will complete everything in Cayuse, but the following documents are also required for review:

–Consent form(s)

-Survey/Questionnaire and/or Qualtrics link

-Recruitment Materials (email, flyers, etc.)

-CITI certificate(s)

The Principal Investigator and members of the research team are required to complete the CITI Program training.

If the CITI training requirement is not complete for all research personnel involved with human subjects in your study, your application is deemed incomplete and cannot be processed for IRB review.

This includes any researcher who:

•       obtains information about living individuals by intervening or interacting with them for research purposes

•       obtains identifiable private information about living individuals for research purposes

•       obtains the voluntary informed consent of individuals to be subjects in research; and/or

•       is studying, interpreting, or analyzing identifiable private information or data for research purposes.

To submit materials for IRB review, the Principal Investigator must complete a submission via Cayuse.  At MSU Denver, the Principal Investigator must be a member of the faculty or staff.

Training & Support is offered in the Cayuse application via numerous help buttons.  The Cayuse application will guide you on all the requirement elements of an IRB submission.

Will you be conducting research at a school, public or private agency, or collaborating with an organization?

A letter of cooperation, authorization, or support to conduct research may be required.  In some cases, the IRB requires documentation that the researchers have permission to conduct the study in a specific setting.  Some organizations or institutions may also require their own ethics or IRB review process in addition to MSU Denver’s IRB review and approval.  Multiple review processes can occur concurrently in many cases.

Are you proposing to recruit students from MSU Denver classrooms or student organizations?

Classes or student groups that are targeted for recruitment must be directly relevant to the proposed research and not simply a matter of convenience for the investigators. In some studies, the IRB may request documentation of permission from the course instructor or faculty or staff advisor that he/she is aware of the study and what is being asked of the students.  As there are specific considerations of potential coercion or undue influence with recruiting students into a study, researchers are advised to clearly outline the measures they are taking to minimize this risk in their submission materials.

Use of Listservs

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is seeing an increase in the request to use specific listservs for recruitment of participants into a research study. The IRB is trained and responsible for assessing the risk to human subjects of all research proposals including research design, recruitment and consent processes, data management and confidentiality according to the three principles contained in the Belmont Report and the Code of Federal Regulations (45 CFR 46). https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/. Upon review and approval of a research proposal that intends to use any internal or external listservs for recruitment, the IRB requests that the Principal Investigator (PI) obtains permission from the owner of the listerv, to encourage responsible use. This step ensures that the IRB carries out its charge and responsibilities to protect human subjects, and also decreases administrative burden on offices who are not trained in assessing the risk to human subjects of research per federal regulations. PIs will be instructed that it is their responsibility to request permission to use a listserv prior to recruitment. The decision to approve this request is up to the individual unit, office, department, etc. that controls the listserv. Approval to use a listserv to distribute recruitment information does not change the PIs responsibility to the protection of the rights and welfare of subjects in human research, including obtaining informed consent of individual subjects.

All requests for IRB review should be submitted through Cayuse. 

Submissions will NOT be accepted through the HSPP email or any other method other than via Cayuse.

Submission materials should be complete and documents should be clearly titled. Instructions for submitting materials for IRB review can be found in the Investigator Manual.

Please also upload a Word Doc or PDF of all consent forms and surveys.