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COVID-19 Information for Researchers

Research Procedures for Caldwell University Students and faculty

The IRB recommends that researchers adhere to the CDC guidelines when considering whether the research projects should be carried out in person or remotely. The current CDC guidelies can be found here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/communication/guidance.html 

Researchers should recognize that in-person research poses an additional potential level of risk/harm to the participant and should carefully consider the ability to effectively mitigate risks such that participant safety and research integrity are assured. Protocols and procedures to mitigate this additional level of risk needs to be outlined in each proposal that considers in-person research. 

The following research protocols will be followed at Caldwell University:

  • As always, IRB approval is required for any in-person, on-campus human participant research project, whether it is a new study or an existing study being renewed. 
  • For research that can be conducted remotely, no additional protocols are necessary, please follow regular IRB guidelines found in the IRB policy and on the website. 
  • For research that must be conducted in person, researchers should consider CDC guidelines currently in place. The IRB will weigh potential risks and benefits to human research participants before approving any protocols and/or modifications.
  • For the applications that request in-person data collection, the researchers must include back up plans should the University go into remote mode during the data collection process.