Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board

Preview Service

Routinely, most protocols submitted to the IRB require changes to the informed consent form before final approval is granted. Often these changes are slight (e.g. changing the contact number of the IRB) or not time-consuming to make (e.g. obtaining the signature of the faculty sponsor), but it slows the process down for both PI's and IRB members.

In an effort to alleviate this problem, the administrator will review consent forms to see that they contain all the required elements of informed consent, that they are written at a level that is understandable by a lay person, and that they do not contain errors of grammar, spelling, and usage. This service is optional and does not guarantee approval. All communication between the administrator and the investigator is to occur before a protocol is submitted to the IRB.

Keep in mind that this review must be done before the protocol is submitted to IRB and that all IRB deadlines still apply. Therefore, schedule your review appropriately by calling the IRB Administrator Chris Marks at 645-3321 or sending a message to Marks@research.buffalo.edu. Students, faculty, and staff of the College of Arts and Sciences should send their previews to Brant Kresovich. Contact him at 645-2711 or bmk4@buffalo.edu.

Previews will be handled as they come in. There is not a set turn-around time. While it will be dependent upon the volume of requests and the schedule of the IRB staffs, we anticipate the turn-around time to be a day or two (this cannot, however, be guaranteed).