Printable Format 

CHECKLIST FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSIONS TO THE HUMAN SUBJECTS COMMITTEE

1. ______ Have you identified yourself (first and last name) as an undergraduate or graduate student at Clark and stated who your advisor is? Clark faculty should usually be referred to as Professor rather than Dr. to distinguish from the medical profession.

2. ______ Have you described your study briefly on the consent form and stated the goals of the research?

3. ______ Have you responded to all of the statements (9) on the proposal guidelines, including the corresponding numbers that you are addressing?

4. ______ If there is any chance that counseling will be needed by subjects, have you identified a person (such as your advisor), a phone number for Clark's Dean of Students Office, or a hot line phone number?

5. ______ If you are doing your study at any schools, agencies, hospitals, etc., have you received written permission allowing you to conduct your study? Have you made copies and sent them with your proposal for the Research Office files?

6. ______ Have your subjects been informed that if they choose not to participate, it will have no effect on their standing in class or their treatment?

7. ______ Does your consent form state that subjects are free to stop at any time and that subjects will be given a copy of their signed consent form?

8. ______ If your study involves deception, have you justified this to the Committee? Have you included, for the Committee, a copy of the text of your debriefing of subjects?

9. ______ Have you stated how you will obtain your subjects (i.e., in class, door to door, on the street, etc)? Reminder: children can not be approached outside of school or homes unless an adult is present and gives permission.

10. ______ Have you stated in your consent form and explained to subjects how data will be kept confidential?  This includes storage in a locked place and access only by the researchers as well as the separation of data and identity information.  You also need to include a description of the confidentiality measures in your Consent Form. 

11. ______ If research employs a questionnaire survey, and is to be considered anonymous, thus not requiring informed consent, use the specific on-line application for anonymous surveys.  You have you make sure that:

*Questionnaires need to include instructions for participants not to put their names or any identifying marks on the questionnaire

*No potentially identifying information is requested on the questionnaire

*Arrangements are made for participants to return completed questionnaires by mail or left in an unattended collection box.

*There is a sufficient number of subjects so that no person is identifiable from the information requested (e.g., background information, gender, etc.)

***Confidentiality means your material will be kept in a secure manner only accessible to researchers.  Anonymity means that no one will know who your answers came from, not even the researcher, as in a questionnaire that is filled out with no identifying marks and dropped off at a drop spot rather than handed, face to face, to researcher.

12. ______ For research outside the US, the Dean of Research will require a letter providing:

(a)    the name of a local contact institution and

(b)    a letter from someone from that institution who is willing to sign off that they have reviewed the research design from the perspective of risk and provide Office of Sponsored Programs with a letter stating that they find it reasonable for you to proceed.  The letter (or email) can be sent to the Office of Sponsored Programs or emailed to jmcgrath@clarku.edu .