CITI - Initial Certification:

All faculty, students and staff involved in research projects requiring approval by the University's Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB) are to complete the online training program offered through the Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI) program at the University of Miami. This replaces the NIH/NCI training program that was used in the past.  The CITI training program has a total of 22 modules.  The reason for switching to the CITI course is that it permits researchers to select the group of modules that best reflects the nature of their research project.  In contrast, the NIH/NCI program provided the basic human subject protection background but then focused exclusively on biomedical and clinical research.

 
All applicants are to have completed the CITI training prior to applying for approval of projects by the IRB.  Participants are advised to select either the;

1. Biomedical Investigators (Group 1) or
2. Social & Behavioral Research (Group 2). 

Some have found themselves completing all of the modules because they failed to register for one or the other of the Groups.  There is a third group listed on the CITI web site - IRB Reference Resource. This is intended for members of the IRB.

Do not register for this group as it will not be accepted as certification of completion of required training for Missouri State researchers.


GENERAL INFORMATION:

All faculty, staff and students are required to complete formal training before participating in research involving the use of human subjects. Up to this year, the University has relied on the online training program provided by the National Institutes of Health. While informative, the focus of this training was on medical research, and did not provide sufficient information on social and behavioral research, the types primarily conducted at Missouri State.

After reviewing other training programs available online, the University has contracted with the University of Miami for use of the Collaborative IRB Training Initiative (CITI) program for Human Subjects research. The CITI program is being used by approximately 165 higher education institutions and research organizations throughout the U.S. There are 22 modules in the Basic CITI course. Each module covers a specific aspect of human subjects research, e.g., History and Ethical Principles, Informed Consent, and Research with Children. Of the 22, the Missouri State’s Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects has selected 16 to be required for researchers who are conducting social and behavioral research and 17 for those who are conducting biomedical research.

Progress through the course requires correctly answering 80% of the questions provided at the end of each module. Based on a limited sample, it appears that completion of the Basic Course will take approximately 4 to 6 hours depending on the experience of the participant. Certification of successful completion can be obtained by downloading the Completion Report after finishing all of the prescribed modules.


The University shifted from the NIH to the CITI course as of July 1st. Thereafter, approval of a research project by the IRB requires that all investigators complete the CITI Basic Course. Those who have completed the NIH course within the last three years are exempted from this requirement. In the future, previously approved researchers will have to complete the Refresher Course every three years to remain eligible to conduct human subjects research.

Access to the CITI program is via the hotlink “CITI Human Subjects Training” on the OSRP web site or directly at https://www.citiprogram.org/default.asp. First-time users are to follow the directions to register and select the appropriate training program – Social/Behavioral or Biomedical. Returning to the site requires signing in with your Username and Password.


IMPORTANT POINTS:

• Missouri State has set curriculum requirements for specific subgroups of the target audience.
• When individuals log into the CITI specific Missouri State training, all the modules are highlighted plus the optional modules.
• Each module is focused on a different aspect of bio-ethics and human subjects research.
• Each module, developed by experts in the "IRB community" has an associated quiz.
• The learner can print / download a Completion Report that details the learners accomplishments.
• The learner can return to the course site and download a copy of the completion report as needed.
• The learner may complete a voluntary satisfaction survey.
• An administrator at each institution will have access to the CITI Report Utilities to view the progress of an individual learner or to download aggregate training data.
• The administrator also has access to the comments submitted by their learners about the course site.

Users are encouraged to use several "log-on" sessions, as it takes on average, about 6 hrs to complete the basic course of  Biomedical or Social Behavioral modules. The quizzes should however be immediately taken after completing each module. Links to supplemental information are provided in many of the modules, though they are not in the quizzes.

A grade book is also provided to help users track their progress through the web-based course. Users are instructed to go to https://www.citiprogram.org/default.asp to view their grade book from the CITI website.   (opens in a new window).