Research With Human Participants

If you conduct any research study using human participants, Federal Law and College Policy mandate that participants be adequately protected from harm of any kind. This applies to all human participants in a study, regardless of any factors, including whether or not they are members of the RIC community.

Rhode Island College's Institutional Review Board (IRB) is charged with the responsibility for reviewing research involving human participants: to determine whether the rights, welfare and privacy of participants are protected; the risks to participants are outweighed by potential benefits; and informed consent is obtained by adequate and appropriate methods. The Committee follows Federal guidelines and, in some cases, imposes more stringent requirements than Federal guidelines in reviewing research protocols.

How It Works

To protect the rights and welfare of research participants, the validity of research studies and themselves, researchers submit 'research protocols' to the Committee for review and approval. A protocol is a series of documents/forms describing the proposed study, its benefits and risks to participants, and a copy of the informed consent document by which participants give their consent to be included in the study. We also provide a standardized informed consent document which you may use as a basis for building your own. However, you must still submit your version of the informed consent document along with protocol materials for review, even if using our version. The additional documents typically requested in addition to Committee forms include research plans, informed consent and assent documents/scripts, and any recruiting materials you may have produced.

Meetings and Reviews

The IRB meets monthly during the academic year. Some research activities are exempt from review and some qualify for expedited review by two committee members rather than the full committee. Eligibility for these special circumstances is determined solely by the Chair of the IRB based on requirements of the federal law.

The schedule of meetings for the 2009-2010 Academic Year is: Sept 11, Oct 16, Nov 13, Dec 11, (No meeting in January), Feb 12, Mar 12, Apr 9, May 14, and June 11. Applications must be completed and ready for review by the 1st of the month to be reviewed that same month. Please note that revisions are often needed before a proposal can be sent for review, so the application process should be started several weeks earlier to ensure that it is ready by the 1st of the month deadline. Anybody who has never previously submitted an application must contact the IRB Chair (IRB@ric.edu) by the 15th of the month in order to gain access to the IRB system.

How Do I Request a Review?

Please proceed to the protocol management system for all submissions to the Committee, including requests for exemption.

Committee members for the 2008-2009 academic year are:

• Dr. Christine Marco, Psychology, Chair
• Dr. Lisa Bain, CIS
• Dr. Patricia Cordeiro, Elementary Education
• Dr. Sue Pearlmutter, Social Work
• Dr. Patricia Quigley, Nursing
• Ms. Lynn Wachtel, College Health Services
• Dr. Dan Weisman, Social Work

IRB Bylaws