General Human Subjects Information

Human Subjects proposals are also known as IRB proposals, and refer to investigations that involve human subjects. There are two levels of approval: the Departmental Review Committee (DRC), made up of C&I faculty, and the Institutional Review Board (IRB), made up of faculty from across the university.

IRB proposals must be submitted to the C&I Department Coordinator of Human Subjects Research Review in the Center for Science and Mathematics Education office (SZB 340) for approval before being submitted to the UT IRB Committee in the Office of Research Support and Compliance. The only exception to this rule is a class project. The Class Project Form can be submitted directly to the UT IRB Office for approval. This form is available in the Forms and Templates area of the IRB website listed under Special Documents.

All IRB proposals are submitted electronically. Read the C&I DRC approval process before submitting (clicking the Collect Signatures button) your electronic application. See the Proposal Submission & DRC Approval area of this Web site for more information. Contact your department office or the Office of Research Support and Compliance if you are unable to submit your proposal electronically.

You must have a High Assurance UTEID to submit your IRB Proposal on-line.

• Apply for or upgrade to a High Assurance UTEID on-line at https://utdirect.utexas.edu/nlogon/eid_suite/essentials/upgrade_sec_level.WBX
• For UTEID assistance contact the ITS Enterprise Information Center at (512) 471-7128.

Studies that take place in school districts require district or campus approval. Some districts have Web sites that list district IRB approval procedures. If not, contact the district by phone.

If you are using only public datasets or unrestricted databases, and the data are de-identified (e.g., U.S. Bureau of the Census), then you are NOT using human subjects and do NOT have to go through the DRC/IRB review process.

Oral history projects that only involve interviewing individuals for perspective on an event, rather than contributing generalized knowledge, are also not subject to the DRC/IRB review process.

Please refer to the following Web site for the complete IRB policy statements:
http://www.utexas.edu/research/rsc/humanresearch/special_topics/oral_history.php

For IRB proposal information, review the supporting C&I Departmental Human Subjects/IRB Web pages. Contact your faculty sponsor with questions regarding the proposal content. For additional questions, contact Gail Seale in the Center for Science and Mathematics Education office (SZB 340) at (512) 232-6202 or gails@mail.utexas.edu.