Human Subjects Training

Researchers engaged in human subjects research must complete training in the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) program. Please note that Principal Investigators are also responsible for training research personnel on protocol-specific procedures.

How to Register in CITI

New users will need to first complete an initial registration.

Register for CITI

View the CITI Training Guide for instructions on registering for CITI.

Required Courses

The required CITI courses and who should complete each course is described below. First time users should register for the appropriate "Basic" course listed under Question 1 on the "Select Curriculum" page. After that course expires, users will automatically be registered for the "Refresher" version of the course listed under Question 2.

ISU personnel that completed CITI through another institution must change their institutional affiliation in CITI to ISU and complete any additional modules. Personnel not affiliated with ISU may either enroll in the ISU course or submit their completed CITI training record to REC to determine if additional courses may be required.

• Educational Social and Behavioral research with human subjects: All non-student researcher engaged in human subjects research at ISU. Students engaged in more than minimal risk research (Full Board Review) must also need to complete this course.
• Students conducting no more than minimal risk research: Student researchers engaged in human subjects research at ISU when the study does not pose more than minimal risk to the participants (Exempt or Expedited Review) may take either this course or the "Educational Social and Behavioral research with human subjects" course.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) members: This course is only required for IRB Committee Members and Departmental Liaisons. This course also meets requirements for researchers.

Enroll in CITI Courses

Please note that CITI training will expire every 3 years. You will be notified when your training is about to expire and must complete the refresher version of your required course if you will continue to engage in human subjects research. Training that expires during a study must be refreshed in order to remain eligible to conduct the research.

Optional Courses

Although the courses listed above are required by the IRB, additional training may be completed as well. The other courses listed in CITI can be completed but do not satisfy the requirements needed to be eligible for IRB review. These include good clinical practice, responsible conduct of research, grant administration, financial conflicts of interest, and others.

After Training Completion

Documentation of CITI training must be provided in Cayuse IRB when prompted in the submissions. The prompts will be based on the following:

1. The CITI training of research team members who were added via the People Finder in Cayuse IRB will be linked to the submission if their primary email in CITI matches their ISU email. Training for these members do not need to be attached to the Cayuse submission.
2. For all other personnel on Expedited Review or Full Board Review studies, the individual should send a copy of their CITI Completion Records to the PI to attach to the study submission. Personnel can send electronic copies of their completion certificate from the CITI program to the PI to facilitate this process.
3. For Exempt studies, CITI training for the PI and any student who is using the data for a thesis or dissertation must be included in the submission. Training of other research team members do not need to be attached but the PI must maintain documentation of their training.

REC is able to verify the authenticity of CITI Coursework Requirements Reports and may be contacted at (309) 438-5527 or at IRB@IllinoisState.edu to do so.