A Message from the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board

IRB Announcements

• IRB Question of the Week

IRB Question of the Week

We encourage investigators to send us questions that would be of general interest to the human subjects research community. Address your questions to the IRB Director, Christopher Ryan (ryancm@upmc.edu) using as the subject line ‘IRB Question of the Week.’

QUESTION:   We are preparing an IRB protocol using OSIRIS. Can more than one member of the research staff work on the application? Also, who will receive e-mail notifications from OSIRIS?

ANSWER:   OSIRIS allows researchers to list one PI, numerous Co-Investigators, a Primary Research Coordinator, a Secondary Research Coordinator, and an Administrative Support person. Any individual who is listed in any one of those positions will have access to the application. However, a secretary (or research assistant) who is not listed will not be able to work on the application (thus, you might want to list her or him as the administrative support person). After the application is complete, and is ready to be submitted, ONLY the Principal Investigator can “submit” the application and initiate the review process.

OSIRIS also sends e-mail notifications, but these go only to (a) the PI, and (b) the individual listed as the Primary Research Coordinator. Note, however, that any listed investigator can log onto OSIRIS and track the application’s progress in the review process.