For a many of us, the IRB process is one of those things that seems to be looming over our studies. For this Thursday Dialogue, Marianna Azar, the GC Human Research Protection Program Manager, originally planned to explain the new changes to the IRB, however, they were not implemented (they are tentatively slated for June 2018). Instead Marianna addressed eight common myths about the IRB.

I must admit that the IRB was a very intimidating enigma. I have heard of the quantity of questions asked and the rejections (read: bureaucratic drama), but as the presentation went on, I felt more comfortable knowing how to navigate the process and why the requirements are set up the way they are. Considering my research interest with high risk populations, “Myth VIII: I want to do research with a high risk population, in an international location, and/or with highly sensitive data. The IRB will never approve that,” came in handy. I am less anxious about starting the IRB process in the summer even with the pending changes.

Here is the link to the presentation slides.

Marianna also discussed the day-to-day operations and how a request gets approved. At this point I think it is important to note that there is a lot of reading that goes into filling out the application, to paraphrase Marianna, there is a lot of reading that is required for graduate school and the IRB application is no different. In addition many questions can be answered on the website: gc.cuny.edu/hrpp. It is password protected, so you will need Graduate Center credentials to log in.