Research that falls into an Exempt category is reviewed and approved by the Associate Director of the Human Subjects Research Office (HSRO), and research that falls into an Expedited category is reviewed by the HSRO and may be reviewed by additional experienced reviewers as needed.
The majority of submissions at RIT are reviewed and approved outside of convened IRB meetings; this is due to the nature of the research conducted at RIT. Investigators will be notified by the HSRO if their activity needs review by a convened Board.
Currently there are two committees, or branches, of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at RIT. The Members have a variety of backgrounds and bring a varied set of skills and expertise to the review process. As required by Federal Guidelines this diversity fosters a well-rounded review. RIT can add new branches as our research efforts evolve.
The NTID Branch reviews research activities that focus on deaf and hard of hearing subject populations. The RIT Branch reviews research activities that are generated by Investigators across RIT.
The IRB assembles to discuss research activities that do not fall into an Exempt or Expedited category, and activities that may meet the requirements to be considered Exempt or Expedited but focus on topics that benefit from review by a group.
If an activity needs to be reviewed by the IRB and a meeting date is not already scheduled it can take several weeks to schedule a meeting that includes the necessary Members and give Members enough time to review the materials, so Investigators should take that into consideration when they are anticipating a data collection start date. Researchers should also be aware that it may take some time to address any questions brought up by the IRB and additional review will be necessary before they can begin data collection.