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Timelines for IRB Review

Your chair will review your IRB materials to ensure they are complete prior to submitting them to the IRB. Your submission is put in queue when it is complete. Submissions are processed as follows:

  • Within 5 business days: Activities deemed not human subjects research or exempt (with or without limited review).

  • Within 7 business days: Research reviewed as expedited.

  • Within 21 business days: Research requiring a full board review. This process takes substantially longer because a full committee must be convened and have time to review the materials before the meeting. Given USU's mission and the goals of the doctoral programs, it would be rare for a student to propose a project/study requiring full board review. However, should you believe your idea falls into this category, please take the following steps to reduce the time spent in the review process:

  • If you have a research idea that would require a full board review, meet with your chair early to determine ways you may pivot your idea. Remember that your dissertation/doctoral project is a demonstration project, not your life's work (in fact, it is often just the beginning). Be strategic in your study design: You can usually stay in a general area and contribute to your field meaningfully without conducting a study that would require a full board review. For example, if you are interested in the relationship between acute childhood trauma and leadership abilities, instead of interviewing leaders who have experienced trauma, you might instead interview counselors who work with this population.

  • If you plan on proposing a study that may require full board review, your chair should reach out to the IRB early to determine what safeguards will likely need to be in place to receive approval. Sometimes, the safeguards required are significant (and may go beyond the resources available to the average doctoral student). Knowing this as early as possible will allow you to design your study accordingly. It is also important to understand that USU as an institution can disapprove a study that the IRB has approved (although the opposite is not true).