211 - Research on USU Constituents

Title:	Research on USU Constituents
Owner:	Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
Last Update/Revised:	05/01/2024

USU’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment (OIRA) is committed to conducting research that provides insight into USU's overall mission and vision. OIRA is responsible for ensuring that USU students, alumni, faculty, and staff (hereafter referred to as constituents) are not oversampled, that research efforts are not duplicated, that there is a rationale for selecting USU as a sampling site, and that the benefits of the research are clear.

Thus, research that proposes to target USU constituents, either through novel data collection or by analyzing archival data, must be approved by the Committee on Internal Research (CIR) under the following conditions:

The investigator intends to present results in a publication, presentation, or other academic venue (e.g., thesis, dissertation, course project), or
The investigator is faculty or staff affiliated with USU and the data collected or analyzed extends beyond their college or department (e.g. a faculty in the College of Education wishes to survey to all USU students enrolled in a certificate program), or
The research is conducted by an investigator not affiliated with USU.

Data collected or analyzed within a college or department as standard operating procedure for the purpose of understanding or improving processes does not require CIR approval. However, investigators in this situation may utilize the CIR application to request support from OIRA who can assist with survey development, data collection, and/or analysis.

For research that does require CIR approval, investigators are encouraged to submit their application to the CIR early in the research proposal process as not all applications are granted approval and approval must be secured prior to submitting to the IRB. Reviews are completed within 14 business days of submission.

The CIR is led by the Director of Institutional Research under the guidance of the Provost. In addition to the Director of Institutional Research, committee members include all doctoral program directors and a representative from USU legal, as needed. Additional internal stakeholders may also be asked to provide insight and/or guidance. Applications are reviewed by the committee asynchronously; meetings are called as needed.

For approved applications, investigators must submit a final report to the OIRA upon the conclusion of the research.

Purpose: This policy outlines the process for gaining access to USU constituents as research participants or to archival data collected on USU constituents.

Procedure:

Investigator completes CIR Application and submits it using the link on the application.
When a CIR application is received it is reviewed by the Director of Institutional Research.
The Director of Institutional Research confers with the Provost and writes a recommendation (approve, require modifications, disapprove) based on OIRA’s current research agenda.
The recommendation and application are sent for review via email to all CIR members (including a legal representative and other internal stakeholders, when appropriate). Members have 5 business days to review the submitted material. Members vote electronically to approve, require modifications, or disapprove the application. An application must be unanimously approved.
1. Approved applications will receive an email from the Director of Instructional Research. Investigators will then submit to the IRB for approval. A Final Report Form must be sent to OIRA upon conclusion of the research (see 700-30 - Final Reports).
2. If a disposition is not unanimous, or reviewers have questions about the application, a synchronous meeting will be called, and the investigator may be required to attend.
3. Investigators of applications that require modifications or that are disapproved will receive an email from the Director of Instructional Research noting the reason(s) for the disposition.

Scope: This policy applies to all research that proposes to recruit USU constituents as research participants or that proposes the use of data collected by USU for specific research purposes. It does not apply to data collected or analyzed within a college or department as standard operating procedure for the purpose of understanding or improving processes.

Documents and Forms:

CIR Application - Request to Conduct Research on USU Constituents