UC Davis Global Health

Internal Review Board Applications for Research

If your research involves human participants you will need to get ethical approval from the UC Davis Institutional Review Board. In addition, if you are conducting research abroad you should also apply for approval from the ethics review board from a university in the country where the research will be conducted. IRB applications take time, so start early. Ethical approval is important for ensuring that you are not endangering your subjects, and it will be difficult to publish your work if you conduct research without it.

The initial application once submitted will take a minimum of 1 month to be reviewed. Generally the IRB will return your initial proposal with requests for revisions. once you  have completed the revisions you can anticipate at least another month for the revisions to be processed. If your research mentor knows members of the IRB, they may be able to talk to them to help the project move through.

If your research is just a survey and does not include any at-risk population (including international populations, impoverished populations, children, etc.) then you can submit an expedited or an exempted review for faster processing. Instead of being reviewed by the entire committee at a meeting, your application can then be processed by a single committee member.
IRB Website

You will also be asked to complete an online ethics training and certification through CITI prior to obtaining IRB approval.

If you are working with other medical students or researchers from a non-UC Davis institution, they can complete ethics certification for free through the NIH Office of Extramural Research