John Jay College Of Criminal Justice | The City University of New York

1. Who must file with the JJ IRB?
Faculty, staff, students, or other member of the John Jay community conducting covered research must seek JJ IRB approval. Also, anyone who uses the College's facilities or uses John Jay community members as research subjects must file.

2. Do you have to take any type of human subject research training?
Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) is a required program that has to be taken by all CUNY researchers and key personnel involved in human subjects research regardless of whether the research is funded or non-funded.

This is the link: Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Training

Follow the instructions at the site. Select "City University of New York" as your institution rather than a campus. In order to start, you will need to select a Learner group. You do not need to complete all the modules all at once. CITI will save the work you have completed.

The certificate is good for three years. Researchers that have a CITI certificate that has expired will have to do a refresher course.

3. What kind of research is covered?
According to federal regulations, covered research means "a systematic investigation . . . designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge." (45 CFR 46.102(d)) In addition, this research must involve interaction with living human beings or individually identifiable private information about living individuals. A classroom exercise for educational purposes is not "research." The Research Determination Form may help you determine if your project involves covered research. If you need assistance, you may call (212) 237-8961 or email jj-irb@jjay.cuny.edu the IRB Office.

4. How does the review process work?
If the research is covered (see question 2), the type of review is determined by the nature of the research. There are three types of review: Exempt, Expedited and Full. Only Full review requires a decision of the Board. Exempt and Expedited reviews are conducted by the Chair and the Deputy Chair.

5. Which of the three types of review applies to my project?
Within one week of the submission of an application, the IRB Chair and Deputy Chair will determine the appropriate type of review, i.e., Exempt, Expedited or Full. Researchers must indicate, on the Application, the type of review they think appropriate. Due to the complexity of governing federal regulations, however, the IRB Chair and Deputy make the final decision.

a. Exempt Review is covered research that falls into certain categories established by federal regulations (45 CFR 46.101). These include projects involving certain types of interviews, observations of public behavior, or the collection or study of existing data.

b. Expedited Review is for research that involves no more than minimal risk to subjects and falls into certain categories established by the Secretary of Health & Human Services (63 FR 60364-60367).

c. Full Review applies to all other covered research.

6. What are the possible decisions of the IRB?
There are four possible decisional outcomes: Approved, Approved with Conditions, Deferred or Disapproved. They are defined as follows:

7. May a decision of the John Jay IRB be appealed?
Yes, but this is usually not necessary as proposals with deficiencies generally are Approved with Conditions or Deferred. Appeals first must be filed with the John Jay IRB, subject to the submission deadlines for Full Review. After an appeal to the John Jay IRB, a dissatisfied applicant may further appeal to the CUNY Central IRB. A project disapproved by the CUNY Central IRB, i.e., for the third time, may not go forward.