General information

All research projects involving the study of human participants must be first approved by the Suffolk University Institutional Review Board (IRB). This committee evaluates all research proposals involving human participants with respect to OHRP established ethical guidelines.

In order to remain compliant with federal regulations, the Suffolk University IRB requires proof of investigator completion of a human participant protection training program. The NIH has developed a tutorial that will meet these needs: "Protecting Human Subject Research Participants." This is a free and user-friendly program that can be completed in 1-2 hours. Access it here: "Protecting Human Subject Research Participants". All Completion Certificates submitted to the IRB are valid for two years per the National Institute of Health’s educational organization guidelines.

Investigators should review the Request for Approval of Research (RAR) Form Instructions, fill out the RAR form, and submit it along with any appendices to Andrea Vincenti. Investigators can indicate whether they anticipate expedited review or full committee review. They can review the Expedited IRB Review Form for criteria toward that purpose. For full reviews, the committee will review the proposal 3 weeks after the submission deadline for that meeting, and investigators will receive notification of approval status via e-mail and postal mail.  Expedited reviews may occur more promptly, depending on the number of submissions currently in process.  If an investigator has a specific deadline for a grant proposal or other institution, they should make the IRB aware of it so that accomodations can be made if possible.   

Approval of research is valid for one year; at that time, the primary investigator will be required to submit a Renewal or Closure Form. Investigators will be notified of the impending lapse of approval one and two months ahead of time.

In keeping with OHRP policy, all IRB approved consent forms will need to be stamped on each page with an approval date stamp provided by this office.  IRB policy requires the approved version of your consent form document to be stamped first and then reproduced with said stamp validating the existing approval dates for that particular protocol. Any consent form distributed without this stamp will be seen as a noncompliant document. Also, the records kept in the IRB Office will keep the original stamped form on file so anyone may obtain a paper or electronic copy upon request.

The IRB may, at any time, implement an audit of any project, particularly the condition of signed consent forms.

If you wish to recruit subjects by posting a research participation sign up sheet on the Research Participation Board on the 6th floor of Donahue you must first read these guidelines: Research Participation Board Policy. The research participation sign up sheet can be obtained directly from Kim Keough.

Informed consent templates

We are happy to be able to offer three guides for creating consent forms. Two have been generously provided by current Clinical Psychology doctoral students Pete Vernig and Jonathan Lee. The third is the National Cancer Institute’s Templates for Informed Consent documents. Please see the paragraph above regarding the IRB policy on stamped consent forms.

• Example A by Pete Vernig
• Example B by Jonathan Lee
• National Cancer Institute’s Template Site