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Institutional Review Board (IRB): After IRB Approval

After IRB Approval

View these resources for assistance after you've received NU IRB approval:

If an incident occurs during your study (such as a participant becoming injured during research activities), you should submit an Incident report to your approved IRB application as soon as possible.

For help finding your IRB Approval Letter, follow this link:

Having difficulty with recruitment?

I have IRB approval, and I’ve been unable to recruit enough participants for my study. What do I do?

You should work with your dissertation chair and consider modifying your study. Here are some things to consider:

  • Is your eligibility criteria too narrow? In other words, are there not enough people who qualify to be in your study in the first place? Think about any details you could remove from your eligibility criteria to help increase your participant pool.
  • How much time or energy are you asking of your participants? During COVID-19, people are more stressed and have less free time. If you are asking for a lot of time or energy from participants, think about reducing or changing your research activities.
  • Are you asking participants to answer personal questions, such as demographic information about their age, race, gender, etc.? If so, consider removing those questions or moving those questions to the end.
  • Are you offering an incentive for participating, such as a gift card? Incentives can help to attract participants who are limited on time. Offering incentives also costs less money in the long run than paying for additional dissertation courses.

If you decide to modify your study, you will submit a modification and wait to receive IRB approval before implementing these changes.