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Institutional Review Board (IRB): Close Your Study

Contact the IRB

email icon Email us at irb@nu.edu    

 Visit the IRB Office Hours page

How to Close a Study in Cayuse

If you would like to close your study, you must submit a Closure to your application.

To submit a Closure to your application, please follow the instructions in the guide:

For a video help material about closing your study, see this link:

Data Verification Form for Closure

For DSE students, see this Dissertation Center sub-page for the Form.

For ADE students, see this Applied Doctoral Center sub-page for the Form.

When do I close my study?

After you have recruited all participants, be sure that you have completed these tasks:

Collected and de-identified all data;
Securely stored all data according to the IRB approved protocol;
Analyzed all data (for students completing dissertations, this typically means that you have completed preliminary data analysis and, with the help of your Chair/Faculty Sponsor, determined that further data collection is not needed.  For some dissertation students, this means completing and submitting to your course, the Data Verification Form that will eventually be added to your Closure submission).

Then, you will close your study with the IRB. Recruitment and data collection may not continue after study closure.  Re-opening a study is not possible after closure, and if you do not have the data that you need for your study, you will likely need to re-apply and possibly begin data collection again.

The process for closing a study depends on if your research involves human subjects.

  • Human Subjects Research. You will submit a study closure (see instructions on this page). If you are a doctoral student researcher, you will upload your automated study closure confirmation email to the Doctoral Record.
  • Not Human Subjects Research (NHSR). NHSR studies do not need to be closed with the IRB. If you are a doctoral student researcher, you will submit your NHSR determination letter to the Doctoral Record to meet your academic milestone.