Ethics and CITI Training

Any researcher using human subjects in a project affiliated with Marist College must treat their research participates ethically and conform to all state and federal regulations concerning research with human subjects. It is important that all those involved with human subjects or their data be fully informed about ethical concerns and requirements when using human research participants. Federal policy requires that certain rights of human subjects be maintained and specific responsibilities of researchers be upheld and documented. An unfortunate history of violating basic human rights in the name of research has necessitated an act of Congress to ensure that human research subjects are treated ethically. In order to ensure that all researchers at Marist are aware of their responsibilities, they must complete specific relevant CITI courses and submit their completion certificates with their proposal. The CITI course draws heavily from the Belmont Report and other resources which congress used to craft the Health and Human Services regulations that govern research with human subjects and the IRB.

The Collaborative IRB Training Initiative Program (CITI) is a leading online training program maintained by the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York (BRANY). It offers curricula in human subjects research, animal research, and the responsible conduct of research. The training requirement applies to anyone conducting human subjects research activities at Marist College. This means anyone working directly with human subjects or with identifiable data or biological specimens for research purposes under Marist College auspices. Investigators, research nurses, coordinators, students, technicians working with identifiable data, and faculty advisors would all need to obtain CITI certification. CITI contains modules on topics like informed consent, vulnerable populations, ethical principles, and IRB regulations. Each module has a short quiz at the end to assess understanding. Over 1300 institutions are using CITI for their mandatory training. 

All researchers who either, come in direct contact with participants or who have access to privately identified data must complete the required CITI training.  Marist requires the completion of the Basic Course in Social and Behavioral Research and the Responsible Conduct in Research Course (RCR) for your discipline. Access to CITI training is available via the link on this page. To begin CITI training researchers must establish an account selecting Marist College as the affiliate institution.   All researchers must attach the completion certificates for both courses of all researchers to the IRB submission.

CITI certification expires after three years. Researchers can maintain their CITI certification by completing refresher courses also available via the CITI link.