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 the Human Research Committee (HRC).  There are many kinds of human subject research, each of which requires a different kind of review. Students often encounter HRC 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 two years. The instructor of your course will need to know that you have completed this course before approving your research project.  More complex projects, e.g., for an honors thesis, an MA thesis or a PhD dissertation, require additional training and application forms.