Requests by External Researchers
The external researcher guidelines apply to all individuals not currently affiliated with Slippery Rock University who are interested in conducting research involving SRU, its students, faculty, staff, or alumni.
The purpose of these guidelines is to establish a standard method of reviewing and approving any research conducted that involves SRU faculty, staff, students, or alumni as research participants and to balance a cooperative, collaborative research effort with existing research and data collection by researchers affiliated with SRU. Any and all external researchers (anyone currently unaffiliated with SRU) are required to follow the guidelines.
External Researcher Guidelines
Applicability
The External Researcher Guidelines apply to all individuals not currently affiliated with Slippery Rock University (SRU) who are interested in conducting research involving SRU, its students, faculty, staff, or alumni.
Purpose
The purpose of these guidelines is to establish a standard method of reviewing and approving any research conducted that involves SRU data and/or faculty, staff, students, or alumni as research participants and to balance a cooperative, collaborative research effort with existing research and data collection by researchers affiliated with SRU. All external researchers (anyone currently unaffiliated with Slippery Rock University) are required to follow these guidelines.
Background
The SRU Institutional Review Board (IRB) was established for the review of research involving humans as subjects and is in compliance with Federal regulations concerning experimentation involving human subjects (45 C.F.R. Part 46, Protection of Human Subjects). The purpose of the IRB is to provide review of all research conducted by faculty, staff, and students to ensure protection of human subjects and compliance with the Federal regulations. All research conducted on the SRU campus involving SRU students, faculty, staff, alumni, or SRU resources is subject to compliance with all Federal regulations regarding human subject research.
Education
All individuals engaged in research involving human subjects must provide documentation that they have completed an educational program related to the responsible conduct of research prior to submission of a research project for approval by the IRB. SRU has selected the Collaborative Training Initiative (CITI) as the best and most efficient mechanism for delivering education to SRU researchers involved with human subject’s research. CITI is an on-line educational training course that provides relevant, up-to-date information on the protection of human research subjects in the format of instructional modules.
Guiding Principle
It is a guiding principle of the IRB Office at SRU that all research, whether conducted by an internal or an external researcher, involving human subjects must be approved by the SRU IRB before any human subjects are recruited for the study. For all research activities, an external researcher must identify a SRU employee (faculty or staff member) willing to serve as the local sponsor for the duration of the research project. The local sponsor should be able to answer questions about the project, serve as the campus contact for questions or concerns about the research, and have completed the required CITI educational program.
Procedure
Researchers who are unaffiliated with SRU but wish to recruit participants on SRU campus, must request permission from the IRB before recruiting alumni, students, or employees at SRU (via poster, flyer, email announcement, newspaper ad, or any other method of recruitment). Unaffiliated researchers must submit one copy of the full packet of materials that were submitted to the IRB at their own institution, including the letter of IRB approval for the project, to the SRU IRB Office. For research activities that qualify as exempt from IRB review, evidence must be provided from the researcher’s home institution that exempt status has been granted. The external researcher must also complete the External Researcher Application Form then submit the completed form to the SRU IRB Office along with the full packet of materials submitted to the home institution.
The IRB Chair or his/her designee will review the request from the external researcher to determine if SRU’s IRB will accept the IRB approval of the researcher’s home institution. The IRB reserves the right to not accept the approval of the researcher’s home institution or to request that the protocol go to the full board for review and approval, should the Chair decide that the nature of the study requires the independent scrutiny of the SRU IRB to protect its students and employees.
The SRU IRB only considers the protection of human subjects; it does not grant authority for the researcher to conduct the research at SRU. Therefore, the approval to conduct research on the SRU campus must also be obtained from the SRU Research Permissions Committee before any subjects can be enrolled in the study. The SRU IRB will forward the information, including the completed External Research Application Form, to SRU’s Research Permissions Committee for review. If approval is granted by the SRU’s IRB and the Committee, correspondence will be sent to the external researcher from the SRU IRB and the Research Permissions Committee.
For questions or additional information in obtaining this approval, please contact the IRB Office at 724-738-4846 or by email at irb@sru.edu.
- External Researcher Guidelines - step by step instructions to request permission for external research.
- External Researcher Application Form - application form to request permission for external research.