Human Subjects Review

General Information | Review Process | FAQ | IRB-1 | Related Forms

General Information

In 1996, the College of Education established a College-level system for review of research involving human subjects, replacing the previous departmental review system.

All students, faculty, or staff in the College of Education (COE) who plan to conduct research involving human subjects, students in another College who are conducting research involving human subjects for an Education course, or researchers from another institution who plan to collaborate with U of I students, faculty, or staff in the College of Education must follow the procedures for human subjects review and approval described in this website.

UIUC and College of Education policy on human subjects research states that all research and data collection activities that are conducted at, or sponsored by, the University of Illinois, whether funded or un-funded and whether conducted by UIUC faculty or others, must comply with federal policy for the protection of human subjects. This includes pilot projects; student early research, thesis, or dissertation projects; student non-degree-related projects; faculty projects; independent studies; case studies; research placed in the schools; and course projects that involve human subjects. This policy applies regardless of whether the research will be conducted in the state of Illinois, elsewhere in the United States, in cyberspace, or in any foreign country.

The College of Education's Human Subjects policy also requires that human subjects review requirements must be completed before students can pass their early research requirement, master's or doctoral preliminary oral examination.

Certain types of research must be reviewed by the UIUC Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) and cannot be submitted for review to any College or departmental human subjects reviewer. These include research that is externally funded (where funding for the project has been obtained from a source outside UIUC), research that involves more than minimal risk (where the risks to subjects from the research are greater than those of everyday life), research involving prisoners, and certain other types of research. Information on Campus IRB review procedures, requirements, and deadlines may be found on the UIUC Campus Institutional Review Board (IRB) website.

Top

Review Process

For research projects that are not externally funded and do not involve more than minimal risk, human subjects review may be initiated by submitting a completed human subjects form and supporting documentation to the Office of School-University Research Relations and Human Subjects in 236C Education. There is one primary human subjects form called the IRB-1. The IRB-1 is the form that is used for the majority of human subjects research projects. The General Letter for Coursework Project is available for faculty only when they are instructing a course where all students are doing the same small, investigation.

Once submitted, the human subjects form and other documents relevant to the research will be reviewed to determine whether they are complete and clearly respond to the questions outlined in the IRB-1. If not, requests for additional or revised information will be made. Once the forms are complete and in order, and Campus IRB review is not necessary, Human Subjects review will be conducted in the College of Education and the researcher will be notified of their project's approval as soon as possible by letter in campus mail or e-mail. The researcher may not proceed with their research until they have received notice of approval.

If the reviewer determines that review at the Campus IRB is warranted, the researcher will be contacted and the materials will be forwarded to Campus IRB for review.

There may also be an additional Research Placement Form required if the research is conducted in schools, or uses the Educational Psychology subject pool.

Top