Students as researchers
*unless otherwise noted, “student” includes undergraduates, masters and doctoral candidates
How to Navigate the BU CRC IRB
1. Principal Investigator -On the Charles River Campus, students in masters or doctoral programs may be listed as principal investigator (PI) on the IRB protocol. Undergraduates cannot serve as the PI on an application. They may serve as co-investigators
- The Faculty Advisor or designated faculty member must be listed as a Co-Investigator
- The Faculty Advisor must sign off on the protocol (instead of the Department Chair)
2. Applications must be Pre-reviewed by a designated reviewer from the school. Student Protocols must be pre-reviewed prior to submission to the IRB by a person or committee designed by the school (see list below). If the School Reviewer identifies any issues, s/he will send the protocol back to the student and copy the faculty adviser. Applications must then go back to the School Reviewer for final signoff before being sent to the IRB. This sign-off can be an email to the IRB included in the “packet”.
Pre-reviewers for Student Applications:
- SED – Bruce Fraser
- College of Fine Arts – Ronald Kos
- Communications –
- Psychology – Kathy Malley-Morrison
- Sargent – Ken Holt
- Social Work/Sociology – Judith Gonyea
- Engineering – Sol Eisenberg
- Anthropology – Parker Shipton
- Sociology – Emily Barman
- Management – Paul Carlile
- Theology – Anjulet Tucker
3. Human Subjects Training -All investigators listed on the protocol (including all students) must provide documentation that they have had human subjects training. This documentation must be provided to the IRB Office. See link called “Required Human Subjects Training” on the IRB Home Page for instructions.
4. COI disclosures -All investigators listed on the protocol (including students and the faculty advisor) must submit a Project Specific Conflict of Interest Disclosure (PSD). A link to the form is posted with New Applications on the FORMS page.
5. Copy of the Prospectus for Thesis/Dissertation must be included with the protocol so the IRB can be sure that the research being proposed matches that in the prospectus. If the prospectus is extremely lengthy, students may submit the introduction/summary and the design/methods sections including:
- Research Plan
- Specific Aims
- Background and Significance
- Preliminary Studies
- Research Design and Methods
- Human Subjects
- Appendices that relate to the conduct of the research (survey instruments, data collection forms, etc)