Guidelines for External Researchers

Researchers with a Home Institution IRB

Individuals from institutions other than Le Moyne College (external researchers) who wish to conduct research involving participants from Le Moyne College or who wish to conduct their research at Le Moyne must have their studies approved by the Le Moyne IRB after they have received approval from their own institution’s IRB unless Le Moyne has entered into a formal agreement with the home institution for a single IRB review of the researcher’s project. These researchers should submit an application to the Le Moyne IRB following the procedures outlined below. No recruitment of participants or data collection may begin without first receiving Le Moyne IRB approval. 

A faculty member, staff person or administrator at Le Moyne must sponsor your application to the Le Moyne IRB. In most cases, the sponsor only serves as the Le Moyne contact should someone other than the IRB want to get in touch with you or have questions about your study. Researchers often select a sponsor who is affiliated with an academic department or administrative office that is similar to their own. If necessary, the Le Moyne IRB can recommend department chairs or office heads that researchers could contact regarding the identification of possible sponsors.

Application materials submitted to the Le Moyne IRB at [email protected] should include:

  1. A completed Form A (Exempt Status Review), Form B (Expedited Review), or Form C (Full Board Review). Researchers should select the form that corresponds to the type of review approved by their home IRB. These forms are available on the Forms page link. The name of your sponsor is included as part of the information that you are asked to include on this form.
  1. A copy of the approval letter for your study received from your home institution’s IRB.
  1. The final version of the application that was approved by your home institution’s IRB. This would normally include a research protocol, consent form, and all other materials used in the researcher’s interactions with study participants. Examples of other materials would include copies of a recruitment announcement (e.g., a flyer, email, or a posting to social media), surveys, interview questions, or audio/video content that is used with your participants before or during the collection of data.
  1. For those using websites such as Survey Monkey, Qualtrics, or Google Forms to conduct surveys, please see more detailed guidelines at this link for Online Surveys. Copies of your online consent form and survey downloaded from the survey website should be provided with your application

In most cases, the Le Moyne College IRB is able to approve external applications without requiring revisions to the research protocol, consent form, or other requested materials. We know that such changes often must be approved by the IRB at the researcher’s home institution before they can be implemented and can hamper a researcher’s progress. If revisions are requested, they are designed to ensure that your application is consistent with the guidelines for human subjects research at Le Moyne College.

Researchers without a Home Institution IRB

For those who are not members of an institution with an IRB, they must contact the Le Moyne College IRB before recruiting Le Moyne participants or collecting data from them,  whether their work (including surveys) involves human subjects research or not. If Le Moyne’s IRB decides that the work requires IRB review and approval, the researcher must obtain a cooperating researcher at Le Moyne College who, along with the external researcher, is responsible for meeting the training criteria for human subjects research and submitting all of the application materials required by the Le Moyne College IRB. All of the criteria and forms required for submitting an application to the IRB can be found on the IRB’s website.  The decision regarding whether or not an application must be submitted to the IRB for approval is made by the Le Moyne IRB.