Holly Schiffrin is reminding everyone conducting research with human subjects that you are required to submit an application for approval by the UMW Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to the start of data collection. In general, federal guidelines define research as “a systematic investigation…designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.” Therefore, all research that will be published, presented at a conference (e.g., Research and Creativity Day), or archived in a library (e.g., senior honor’s theses and EDCI 590) needs to be reviewed. Additional information to determine what needs to be reviewed, the application forms, and a description of the submission process can be found on the IRB web site: http://www.umw.edu/irb/default.php. If you have questions about the application process, please contact the reviewer assigned to your academic department. The list can be found at: http://www.umw.edu/irb/instructions_forms/board_reviewers.php.

Faculty, staff, and students who wish to submit research for review by the UMW IRB must complete the online training program available at www.citiprogram.org. You will need to register for the course and select University of Mary Washington as the institution. Once you have completed the training, you should retain a copy of the training completion certificate for your records. You will need to submit this certificate as proof of training with each IRB proposal you submit. If you have any questions about the training program please contact Amy O’Reilly in the Provost’s Office.

Holly Schiffrin
Chair, UMW IRB