Protection of Human Participants in Research

The Human Research Protection Program is designed to assure the safety and well-being of individuals who participate in research projects at Cornell University. Research activities covered by the Human Research Protection Program include, but are not limited to, experiments and psychological or physical tests on humans, surveys, questionnaires, and studies of existing data, documents, or records in which there are individual identifiers. To help faculty, students, and staff members determine if an activity or project falls under the purview of Cornell’s Human Research Protection Program, the Office of Research Integrity and Assurance (ORIA) has developed a Decision Tree, available at www.irb.cornell.edu.

The Institutional Review Board for Human Participants (IRB) is the official review board for all university projects that seek to use humans as research participants, assuring compliance with university policy and federal regulations protecting human subjects in research at universities. All proposals involving human participants in any category, including those initiated by students, must be submitted to the IRB for review before any research activities begin. Only after receiving an approval letter from the IRB, or an Exemption from IRB Review by ORIA, may a project be initiated. The guidelines for the use of human participants in research are available at www.irb.cornell.edu. Inquiries and communications about the guidelines should be directed to the IRB administrator (607-255-5138; irbhp@cornell.edu).