CITI Training for Human Subjects Research

CITI Requirements

The University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass-Amherst) IRB requires faculty, staff, and students (graduates and undergraduates) who are conducting or part of a research group to take the research-appropriate course on the CITI Program Webpage and complete certification before submitting the Kuali protocol for initial approval, amendment, renewal to be approved by the IRB.

Training is required of all personnel regardless whether the study qualifies for exempt, expedited or full board review. You must receive a score of 80% or better overall in order to pass this course. If you receive less than 80% you will need to retake one or more of the quizzes to improve your score to 80% overall.

The Human Subjects CITI Online training is divided into two disciplinary categories:

  • Group 1: Biomedical research Investigators and Key Personnel - Basic Course. This course is required for medical, physiological or pharmacological studies that includes, but is not limited to, research with drugs, devices or other interventions.(Researchers collaborating with Baystate should complete all modules to be certified for Baystate Collaborative Studies.);  or
  • Group 2: Social Behavioral and Education Research Investigators and Key Personnel - Basic Course.  This course is required for studies on sociological, psychological, anthropological or educational phenomena including observational and survey research and work with population and/or epidemiological studies..
  • CITI Courses for these 2 two basic human subjects training modules can be found below under 'CITI Training Module Requirements.'

PLEASE NOTE: The Social and Behavioral Responsible Conduct of Research and the Biomedical Responsible Conduct of Research courses do NOT satisfy the human subjects training requirement.

Refresher Training

All human subjects researchers at UMass are required to complete a CITI Training refresher every 5 years.  If CITI training is expired (over 5 years) IRB submissions such as new studies, revisions, renewals will not be processed until the CITI refresher has been completed.