Institutional Review Board Checklist

Tick off the following points to facilitate the review process of your proposal by the Institutional Review Board (IRB):

  • Faculty advisor has gone through entire proposal and gives the go ahead to proceed to IRB (in case of students).
  • If from the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine (DPHPM), make sure it has gone through the Research and Service Committee (RSC) for review prior to IRB submission, and that all suggestions have been incorporated in the document or justified before submitting to the IRB. When you submit your application to the IRB, please make sure to copy your e-mail to RSC chair and faculty advisor.
  • Training certificates of all investigators involved with research project are current (within two years) and copies are attached to application (free NIH course or other training certificate such as CITI).
  • Before you submit your proposal to the IRB, make sure to use the online form and include:
    • Contact information and title of principle investigator (address, telephone, SGU email). Students must clearly identify themselves as students.
    • Contact information of faculty advisors and co-investigators, titles, and applicable signatures.
    • Explanation of all aspects of data collection, participant recruitment, data management, security and analysis is thoroughly addressed.
    • Explanation of all aspects of obtaining consent, whether signed or verbal. If applicable, include the script to be recited verbally to participants.
    • Concise explanations, 100 words or less if possible.
    • Check for correct spelling and grammatical errors, particularly documents that are provided to members of the public and participants.
    • No referral to attachments should be made; no “see attached” in the application. All pertinent information should be on the official form.
    • The informed consent form includes the title of the project and contact information for the principle investigator, faculty advisor, and co-investigator(s) for research concerns.
    • Less prominently, contact information of the IRB Administrator, indicating that he can be contacted for ethical issues concerning the research project.
    • A sentence indicating the IRB has reviewed and approved the project, such as “The SGU IRB, which protects human research participants, has reviewed and approved this project (ref. number:).” The number must be added after approval of the proposal.
    • Attach questionnaire and consent form to application.
    • If collaborating with NGOs or community groups, attach the organization’s support letter.
    • If collaborating with an institute outside of Grenada, attach their IRB approval document.

Kareem Coomansingh, IRB Administrator
St. George’s University, Grenada, West Indies
Tel: (473) 444-4175 ext. 3221
Fax: (473) 444-4388
Email: kcoomans@sgu.edu