Office of Sponsored Programs and Research

Grant Proposal applications must be in the OSPR office for review at least 5 business days before signatures are needed. See details on this page (Submission of grants and contracts) or call x7765 for requirements.

IRB (Institutional Review Board/Human Subjects) Fall/Spring semester deadlines and meetings:

Deadlines	Meetings
Tues Dec 11	Wed Dec 19
Tues Jan 15	Fri Jan 25
Tues Feb 5	Fri Feb 15
Tues Mar 5	Fri Mar 15
Tues April 2	Fri Apr 12
Tues May 7	Mon May 13

IRB proposals are due by 5pm on the deadline dates.For student proposals, advisor approval must be received by the deadline.

Link to the proposal application and other IRB information to help you prepare your proposal. See new Sample Recruiting Script and Revised Sample Consent Form. Send any correspondence to humansubjects@clarku.edu

New short application for human subjects survey approval is now on-line for submission under compliance/human subjects.

Turnaround time for proposal review is normally 2-3 weeks after the meeting date. An additional week is sometimes needed for special circumstances. Note that there are deadline dates for submission and meeting dates.

Red Square Clark University Worcester MA

Back to the Human Subjects page

Application for an Anonymous Survey

By Federal law and guidelines and Clark University policy, all institutional and research surveys by Clark faculty, research personnel, students and staff must be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board for Research Involving Human Subjects (IRB).

If the survey is not anonymous, the project must be described in the usual form, Application for Projects with Human Subjects, and reviewed by the full IRB.

If the survey is anonymous, it is eligible for executive review. In this case, your application should briefly address issues (1-7) and include a copy of the survey instrument. You will need to specify how your instrument will be administered. If the survey will be conducted electronically, in most cases Clark's web-based survey software, Checkbox, must be used. If your methodology requires functionality that is not available in Checkbox, Unipark Survey may be used.

When collecting web data there are unique challenges to ensuring respondent anonymity; ITS staff will help ensure Checkbox is configured in accordance with IRB standard protocol.

To determine if Checkbox will support your research methodology, visit the Survey Support section of the ITS web site.

This statement should be included at the end of all anonymous surveys: "This study has been approved by the Clark Committee for the Rights of Human Participants in Research and Training Programs (IRB). Any questions about human rights issues should be directed to the IRB Chair, Dr. James P. Elliott 508-793-7152."

Provide Contact Information

Name:
Email Address:
Advisor's Name:
Dept./Campus Box:

Provide Information About Your Survey

1. Criteria for Anonymity

An anonymous survey is one in which procedures ensure that the information obtained is recorded in such a manner that the participants cannot be identified by anyone, including the surveyors, either directly or through information linked to the participants.
Do your procedures meet these criteria?

Yes
No

2. Your Procedures for Maintaining Anonymity

Describe your procedures for maintaining anonymity (e.g. paper surveys returned to a box/location not monitored by the surveyors or by mail; electronic surveys returned to a website set up so that respondents can not be traced). If you use an electronic website, include assurance from ITS or another appropriate source that the website is indeed, set up so that the participants can not be identified by you. In addition, participants should be instructed to put no identifying information about themselves on the survey itself.

3. The Nature of Your Project

Briefly describe the nature of your project and its purpose.

4. The Nature of Your Participants

Describe your participants (e.g. college students, staff, alumni, etc.).

5. How Your Participants Will Be Recruited

How will you contact the participants? Example (in person on campus, send out the survey electronically, send out a paper survey by mail)

6. Provide your recruiting text, whether written or oral.

It should include the purpose of the survey and the names, contact information and affiliations of the surveyors. It should also include statements that:

the survey is anonymous
responses cannot be traced back to participants
participation is voluntary
any question may be left unanswered
the respondent can drop out at any time

7. Risks

In your estimation, does participating in the survey involve any risk for the participants (e.g. psychological effects of the questions) and if so, address their likelihood and seriousness. Be sure to justify your answer (e.g. no risk if subject matter is not personal or political, or is innocuous).

8. The Survey Form

Forward an electronic link with all the survey questions to: humansubjects@clarku.edu, or paper copy of the survey document to Diane Sainsbury, RESEARCH OFFICE, RM. 300, Geography Building (ext. 3880) It should include a statement to the participants describing

the purpose of the survey
the names and affiliations of the surveyors
the duration of time needed to complete the survey.

It should also include statements that:

the survey is anonymous
responses cannot be traced back to participants
participation is voluntary
any question may be left unanswered
the participant can drop out at any time
that respondents should not put any identifying information about themselves on the survey.

Human verification

Please use the field below to verify the letters you see in the red box: