Human Subjects Protection

Overview Of The IRB Process

2019-2020 Applicants: If your project involves human subjects (interviews, ethnography, psychological experiments, etc.), it is recommended to include a PDF of your Certificate of Completion for the CITI human subjects online training course with your application.

Haas Scholars: If you are selected/waitlisted and your project is considered greater than minimal risk, you must complete a draft of your human subjects protocol for Leah Carroll to review by 9 AM on March 11, 2019. If it is minimal risk, you must completed a draft of your protocol for Leah Carroll to review by March 13, 2019. ALL must have their faculty mentors approve and then submit their protocols, with Leah Carroll (carroll2@berkeley.edu) as administrative contact, before midnight on March 18, 2019.

SURF fellows: If you are selected, you must submit your protocol by March 18, 2019. Check with SURF Social Science graduate mentor (surf@berkeley.edu) on draft deadlines.

Other undergraduates hoping to do human subjects research during summer 2019: Aim to submit around these dates, too, as the approval process can take up to three months.

The Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects’ website has detailed information for undergraduate researchers whose work involves human subjects. Please review their information, and check the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarships events calendar for upcoming workshops.

Not Sure If Your Project Needs to Be Reviewed?

1. General instructions on what requires CPHS review - see general guidelines here and student-specific guidelines here

2. Guidelines for designing undergraduate research activities:

3. A helpful overview on human subjects research

If Your Work Will Require Review by CPHS

1. Carefully review and incorporate these ethical guidelines as you prepare your research design.

2. You will also need to take and pass the online CITI human research training course. The online course is here (click on log in; choose "log in through institution; choose UC Berkeley; log in using Calnet ID; choose the course called "Group 2, Social and Behavioral Research Investigators"), and the signup guide is here.

3. The CPHS website has PDF versions of their eProtocol applications online for researchers to preview the questions on the 'eProtocol Instructions' section of the website. Please review the questions on the CPHS website before preparing your protocol.

4. The Office for Protection of Human Subjects also provided tips for efficient human subjects approval

5. Leah Carroll, Haas Scholars Program Manager/Advisor, has also prepared this chronological, step-by-step guide, which she presents in her human subjects workshops in late February/early March ( see events calendar ). This diagram maps out these steps so you can see the process at a glance.

6. Contact Leah Carroll or the SURF social science/humanities graduate mentor for sample approved protocols from past SURF fellows and Haas Scholars, as well as question-by-question guides for the exempt and non-exempt protocols.

Additional Documents

Attachment	Size
OURS Step-by-step guide to get human subjects approval	55.3 KB
Helpful map of the human subjects approval process (from CPHS web site)	18.91 KB
Ppt human subjects overview presentation given by OPHS staff to undergraduate researchers 2/28/18.	3.46 MB
OPHS staff's helpful hints for facilitating the approval process (2/28/18 last revised).	152.91 KB

University of California, Berkeley

Office of Undergraduate Research & Scholarships