Institutional Review Board (IRB): Get Started with IRB

 Email us at irb@ncu.edu and CC your dissertation chair

To prepare for the IRB process, please follow the steps indicated below:

1. Complete CITI training
2. Review institutional policies
3. Consider the feasibility of your study
4. Determine the supplemental documents for your IRB application
5. Register for IRB writing services
6. Register for an account in IRBManager

Researchers must complete the most current online training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) program. To review the requirements for CITI training, please visit our CITI Training page.

Review institutional policies before designing your research study.

As you develop your dissertation, ask yourself these questions to consider the gatekeepers involved in your study, the possible risks, the benefits of the study, permissions, and potential challenges:

• Is your recruitment plan clear?
• How will you obtain the data you want to use?
• Will you be able to accurately portray and understand what your participants/data had to say?
• Are the data analyses well-developed?
• Will you be able to collect data that your propose?

To help with considering the feasibility of your study design, please use the following document:

• Feasibility and Ethics Checklist for Doctoral Research

Please use our new IRB Documents Checklist to determine which supplemental documents you will need to prepare before submitting your IRB application. Information and templates for all supplemental documents are available under the Prepare IRB Documents tab.

If you are planning to do research with adult human subjects, we highly recommend attending our IRB Group Writing Sessions before starting or submitting your IRB application. In these sessions, you can receive feedback on your eligibility criteria, recruitment materials, and consent letter for human subjects research. You can also learn how to complete the IRB application.

If you are planning to use an online survey or questionnaire in Qualtrics, we can also help you to format your consent letter in our Qualtrics Consent Review service.

Students who use our writing services tend to receive IRB approval more quickly than students who do not.

Once you have completed all of the previous steps and have an approved dissertation proposal (DP), you can register for an account in IRBManager and start your IRB application. Please use our IRBManager instructions for assistance with using our application system.