Institutional Review Board

Contact:

Ursula Furi-Perry, J.D.
IRB Chair
Email: ursula.furiperry@becker.edu
Phone: 508.373.9533

IRB Overview and Purpose

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is the entity charged with reviewing, prior to its commencement, all funded and non-funded research involving human subjects conducted under the auspices of Becker College by its faculty members, students, or staff, as well as research by outside investigators using Becker College students, personnel, or facilities.

Research subject to review includes, but is not limited to, pilot studies, class projects aimed for publication, master’s theses, doctoral dissertations, co-supervised work, independent research, senior Capstone projects, and senior theses, whether such research takes place on or off the Becker College campus, including work done outside of the United States.

Becker College’s IRB is registered with, and has an approved Federal Wide Assurance from the Office for Human Research Protections.

Statement of Principles

Becker College assures that all of its activities related to human subjects research, regardless of the source of support, will be guided by the following statement of principles governing the institution in the discharge of its responsibilities for protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects of research conducted at or sponsored by the institution.

• The Belmont Report: https://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/belmont.pdf

The Belmont Report identifies three fundamental ethical principles for all human subject’s research – respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. Those principles remain the basis for the HHS human subject’s protection regulations.

• The Declaration of Helsinki: https://history.nih.gov/research/downloads/helsinki.pdf

The Declaration of Helsinki is a set of ethical principles regarding human experimentation developed for the medical community by the World Medical Association (WMA).  The Declaration is an important document in the history of research ethics as it is the first significant effort of the medical community to regulate research itself, and forms the basis of most subsequent documents.

The IRB Review Process

Submission of Request for Human Subjects Research Review

Submit one signed copy of your Request for Approval for Human Subjects Research to the Office of Institutional Research and submit an electronic, PDF version to irb@becker.edu. This includes the following:

• IRB Initial Application
• Description of Project and Procedures
• Acknowledgment of Ethical Concerns for Student Researchers or Participant Observers
• Consent Form
• Completion of NIH PRHP training certificate
• The Faculty Attestation form  is used by faculty to attest that a class project is exempt from IRB review.

IRB Member Checklists

• Exempt Review Checklist
• Expedited Review Checklist
• Full Board Review Checklist
• Initial Review Checklist

Useful Links

• The Belmont Report – Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research
• Declaration of Helsinki – Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects
• World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki
• Nuremberg Code
• Office for Human Research Protections, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
• Office of Research Integrity, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services
• Protection of Human Subjects, Federal Guidelines