Services

SADRI administers the Department of Sociology's local Internal Review Board (IRB) for human subjects research.

All sponsored research at UMass-Amherst that involves human subjects must be approved by the University's IRB (http://www.umass.edu/research/comply/irb.html).

Research by faculty, students and staff of the Department of Sociology that involves human subjects but is not currently required to be submitted to the University IRB (e.g. non-funded faculty and student research, class research projects, etc.) must be approved by the local IRB. If research involves high risks, vulnerable populations, etc., the application for approval is forwarded to the University IRB for full institutional review.

The local IRB consists of the SADRI Director or Associate Director, the Department Chair and the Graduate Program Director. It is highly advised that you speak with one of the members of this board before submitting your protocol. The contact for submission of a human subjects research application is Karen Mason (mason@sadri.umass.edu).

Although the University Compliance Office has instituted a new electronic submission protocol (e-Protocol), until a similar system can be instituted for the local IRB, we will require the human subjects Protocol Application Form and, if applicable, supporting documentation. This may be sent electronically to Karen Mason.

Before submitting the application you will also be required to complete a very brief on-line human subjects training course. Certification of completion, which should be printed out, must be included in the application (http://www.umass.edu/research/comply/citi.html).

Please note that access to all services is prioritized in the following order:
1) currently funded projects of SADRI Research Associates;
2) unfunded research of Research Associates;
3) projects of faculty who are not Research Associates;
4) research projects of graduate students (not otherwise included in 1 & 2);