Research on human subjects at Central Piedmont Community College is guided by national Institutional Review Board (IRB) practices. Requestors must submit an application for research approval, as outlined below. This process is designed to ensure that requestors are able to conduct research that meets their academic goals while safeguarding the well-being of the people who participate in their work.

Process

1. Develop research topic, questions, and methods with research chair/committee.
2. Consider potential conflicts of interest and/or rational for deception (if used), develop consent forms (if used).
3. Research chair must complete committee chair signature form for submission with research approval application.
4. Complete the Central Piedmont research approval application, using ancillary materials for additional information on potential conflicts of interest, definitions of key terms, and research data available from Central Piedmont.
5. Submit the Central Piedmont research approval application and all required documentation, including consent forms and research instruments, to the Office of Planning and Research.
6. Research approval applications received before the third Friday of each month will be considered at the next research approval meeting.
7. Once the research approval application receives the final approval from the committee, the application will be submitted for approval to the Vice President(s) of the relevant area(s) within the college.
8. After the research approval application has received final approval from the committee and the relevant Vice President(s), the data retrieval process will begin (if data is required for the study).

In most cases, data will be available for the researcher within one month from the beginning of the data retrieval process. The researcher will be notified if data retrieval will take longer than one month.

Forms for Research Approval Request

• Central Piedmont Research Approval Application (Word)
• Committee Chair Signature form (PDF)
• Also include consent forms and research instruments, as applicable

Ancillary Materials

• Conflicts of Interest (PDF)
• Definitions of Key Terms (PDF)
• Research data available from Central Piedmont (PDF)