Institutional Review Board (version 1.8)

Welcome to the Georgia College IRB Portal

All research involving human subjects conducted at Georgia College or by Georgia College faculty, staff, or students must be reviewed and approved by the Georgia College Institutional Review Board before the research can begin.

 

REVIEW CYCLE: 

The IRB applications are processed within a few days of submission.

 

ATTENTION - Students: ALL student projects must list a faculty member whose ethics training certificate (NIH and/or CITI) is current AND agrees to serve as the Supervisor, before IRB will process the application.  Students must also have ethics training certificates.  Faculty: Faculty research applications do not need a supervisor listed on the application.  

ATTENTION - Supervising Faculty: Supervising faculty members should thoroughly review student projects prior to submission. 

ATTENTION - Federal Definition of Research: A systematic investigation, including development, testing, and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.

Application Process

  • GC Students, Faculty, and Staff Researchers: Please Click Log in and use your UNIFY User Name and Password to log in. You will be able to use the portal without delay. DO NOT use the NON-GC path to create a new account if you are GC users!
  • Non GC Researchers: Please first click Create new account and proceed. Approval of your account will be sent to your email.
  1. Please have your NIH (not free) or CITI (free for students and faculty - see side bar for more information) certificate (to be uploaded in Document area): Date Certified and Certificate # will be needed on the 1st page;
  2. Click Applications and start a new application by clicking My Applications.

Steps for the application process: (at any time, you may use back arrow on your browser to return to previous page)

  1. Complete a Main Attributes page, click SAVE.
  2. Application process:
  • Complete the description of your protocol (Statement, Methods, Tools, etc.).
  • You may edit the attributes of your application on the Edit tab (Title, Principal, Location, etc.).
  • Upload all relevant documents in the Documents tab. Please also upload your CITI certificate in the document area.
  • When complete, carefully review your application and go to Submit.
  • Note that you will not be able to modify the application after submitting until after the review cycle. You will be notified if modifications are required.
  • For Continuing Research, please add [EXTENSION] on your title, fill out the Continuing Research Form AND upload your existing IRB approval letter issued previously to Document, for record keeping. Please check the EXTENSION form to make sure typed information is stored (Firefox is recommended). 

Account Blocked Error Message When Creating An Application

Contact IRB@gcsu.edu

Research Misconduct

Research misconduct means intentional, knowing, or reckless fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research or in reporting research results. 

 A finding of research misconduct requires that there be a significant departure from accepted practices of the relevant research community, and does not include honest error or honest differences in interpretations of data or judgements.   

  • GCSU employees have a duty to report any suspected research misconduct (or concerns about possible misconduct). 
  • GCSU has a duty to investigate any allegation brought forth.  
  • GCSU has a duty to protect, to the extent allowed by law, both the person bringing concerns forward and the person who is accused.   

Research Misconduct Policy 
 
Please report research misconduct concerns to the GCSU Research Integrity Officer, Holley.Roberts@gcsu.edu.

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