Institutional Review Board

The purpose of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Gordon College is to protect the welfare, rights, and confidentiality of human research participants. We use the Belmont Report as a guideline for evaluating proposals.

All research involving human subjects, whether conducted by students, staff, administration and/or faculty, is subject to review by the IRB prior to its initiation. This includes persons who are off-campus who ask Gordon students, staff, or faculty to participate in their research projects.

Before submitting a proposal, each principal investigator (PI) should be trained in protecting human research participants. Free training is provided by Gordon on the Canvas site. There is a tutorial and a quiz. Proof of certification by the Gordon site, NIH or another organization (ex: CITI) will be requested at the time of proposal submission.

Once the IRB receives a proposal, one member of the board will contact the PI to secure any additional documents and will also be the point person to request revisions or provide the approval letter. The review process should not take longer than 3-4 weeks. If you have submitted a proposal and have not heard anything in 4 weeks, feel free to use the IRB Contact form to inquire about its status. The IRB committee does not review proposals during the Winter Break. Applicants should expect slower response times during the summer.