Research Involving Human Subjects

As a linguist, you may do research involving human subjects, as when you conduct an experiment on language comprehension or get linguistic data by interviewing a native speaker on campus or on a field trip. By federal law, any research that requires the investigator to interact with a human being requires prior approval by CU's Institutional Review Board (IRB). There are many kinds of human-subject research, each of which requires a different kind of review. Students often encounter IRB procedures first when planning class projects. Before undertaking any such project, you must complete an online tutorial in the protection of human research subjects through the CITI Program. To do this, read about how to register for the first time. You will register as a student in research. The tutorial will take 45-60 minutes to complete, and the certificate of completion is valid for three years. The instructor of your course will need to see your certificate of completion before approving your research project. More complex projects, e.g., for an Honors thesis, an MA thesis or a PhD dissertation, require not only completion of the CITI tutorial but also submission of the Protocol Review Form to the IRB.