UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN River Falls

Institutional Research Board

Research Ethics and Compliance: Institutional Review Board (IRB)

The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is committed to protecting the rights and welfare of persons involved as subjects in research conducted by faculty, staff, and students at UWRF. Any research in which UWRF students are human subjects must also be approved by the UWRF IRB.  The UWRF IRB requires that all research conducted by students at UWRF have a UWRF faculty or staff member as the Principal Investigator.

In accord with federal regulations, we have established an Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB) and a set of policies and procedures to protect research subjects. The IRB and its policies and procedures are based on, and are consistent with, The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research, and the Code of Federal Regulations, 45 CFR 46 (July 19, 2018) and the Revised Common Rule (January 20, 2019).
 

Human Subjects Research Training:

UWRF requires that all faculty, staff, and students who are involved with research on human subjects are trained through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). CITI training must be completed BEFORE research protocol will be approved and CITI completion reports for all researchers (faculty, student, and/or staff) must be included with submitted protocols. All researchers conducting research about human subjects must at a minimum complete the Social and Behavioral Research modules via CITI.
 

Research involving human subjects cannot be initiated by UWRF faculty, staff, or students before it is submitted, reviewed, and approved via Cayuse by the IRB. (see UWRF IRB Policy)

 

Cayuse Guide

Cayuse Instructional Video


Once in the Cayuse Research Suite, Please click on Cayuse IRB under Research Administration Modules

Click on Cayuse IRB to be taken to your dashboard.

 

Research protocols for any research involving human subjects must be reviewed and approved by the IRB to assure that the rights and welfare of human subjects are protected, and that appropriate methods of obtaining informed consent are utilized. If it is unclear whether your research needs IRB approval, please email irb@uwrf.edu. A UWRF IRB decision tree may help in making this decision. 

Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge. Activities that meet this definition constitute research for purposes of this policy, whether or not they are conducted or supported under a program that is considered research for other purposes. For example, some demonstration and service programs may include research activities. For purposes of this part, the following activities are deemed not to be research:

  1. Scholarly and journalistic activities (e.g., oral history, journalism, biography, literary criticism, legal research, and historical scholarship), including the collection and use of information, that focus directly on the specific individuals about whom the information is collected.
  2. Public health surveillance activities, including the collection and testing of information or biospecimens, conducted, supported, requested, ordered, required, or authorized by a public  health authority. Such activities are limited to those necessary to allow a public health authority to identify, monitor, assess, or investigate potential public health signals, onsets of disease outbreaks, or conditions of public health importance (including trends, signals, risk factors, patterns in diseases, or increases in injuries from using consumer products). Such activities include those associated with providing timely situational awareness and priority setting during the course of an event or crisis that threatens public health (including natural or man-made disasters).
  3. Collection and analysis of information, biospecimens, or records by or for a criminal justice agency for activities authorized by law or court order solely for criminal justice or criminal investigative purposes.
  4. Authorized operational activities (as determined by each agency) in support of intelligence, homeland security, defense, or other national security missions.

Human subject means a living individual about whom an investigator (whether professional or student) conducting research:

  1. Obtains information or biospecimens through intervention or interaction with the individual, and, uses studies, or analyzes the information or biospecimens; or
  2. Obtains, uses, studies, analyzes, or generates identifiable private information or identifiable biospecimens.

The UWRF IRB will approve the research according to the research categories outlined in the Revised Common Rule.

Informed Consent Requirements

Sample of Informed Consent for Research Participation Form

 

Questions?

  • If you have questions related to IRB protocols, email irb@uwrf.edu.
  • Open Office Hours for IRB questions is on Monday from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. in the Falcon Center, Room A173.
Members of the UWRF Institutional Review Board:
  • Greg Ruegsegger, Chair of IRB, Health and Human Performance
  • Abigail Jackson, Psychology
  • Anne Zaslofsky, Counseling & School Psychology
  • Tammy Kincaid, Social Work
  • Todd Wilkinson, Psychology
  • Merry Mclaird, Manager, Grants and Research (ex-officio, non-voting)
  • Beth Shockey-Woll, Community member

 

Contact Us

IRB Office
Greg Ruegsegger
IRB@uwrf.edu
A173 Falcon Center