Research Regulations and Policies

Prior to conducting research, students are required to familiarize themselves with the policies and procedures available on the Office of Research Administration’s (ORA) website. These may be found at: http://research.ouhsc.edu/.

The College of Nursing's Research Office is CON's link with the University Health Science Center's Office of Research Administration and your faculty's intramural and extramural grant applications are processed and routed by this office. PhD students planning to submit NIH predoctoral applications (e.g. F31, NRSA grants) should make an appointment with the Associate Dean for Research to discuss these steps.

Review for Protection of Research Subjects

The OUHSC Institutional Review Board (IRB) website for human subject research is found at http://compliance.ouhsc.edu/hrpp/OUHSC.aspx/. An online submission process is in place, called iRIS. Please review the processes for IRB approval at http://iris.ouhsc.edu/ before submitting any proposal for research with human subjects. Doctoral students are not eligible to serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) on a research study submitted to the IRB unless they are currently faculty members. The student may serve as co-investigator with the Dissertation Chair serving as the PI. Information on training required for research involving human participants is found at http://compliance.ouhsc.edu/hrpp/OUHSC/Education.aspx.

Human Subject Research and Responsible Conduct of Research Training

Prior to engaging in research activities as part of a graduate assistantship or enrolling in a research practicum or dissertation must complete three forms of human subject training.

The biomedical and social/behavioral modules (Group 3) of the online CITI Basic Course consists of 13 modules and addresses the key issues involved in the protection of Human Research Subjects. This training requires the student to log on to the CITI Website. To create a free account/register here: http://about.citiprogram.org/en/homepage/.

Graduate Student Responsible Conduct of Research training: As of January 2009, all graduate students accepted into the Graduate College must receive training in Responsible Conduct of Research. For doctoral students, this training must occur prior to their enrolling in doctoral dissertation research. Nursing 6101 satisfies this requirement. This is not the same training as the previously mentioned CITI Course.

Provost-required Responsible Conduct of Research training. A second CITI module entitled “Biomedical Responsible Conduct of Research” has been mandated by the Provost for all individuals at OUHSC who conduct or oversee research as well and individual who are eligible to conduct or oversee research. The course provides a summary of core topics in the Responsible Conduct of Research including collaborative research, fiscal responsibility, conflicts of interest, authorship, human subjects, research misconduct and more. This course can be accessed at the same site and using the same log on user/password as the CITI Basic Course.

Collection and Storage of PhD Student Research-Data Files

Safe Data Practices: To be used throughout your tenure in the Ph.D. Program

Personal Mobile Devices that can access the web or OUHSC email (cellphones, notebooks) adhere to the OUHSC IT policy. Please see the policy here: http://it.ouhsc.edu/studentservices/

Specifically, all students must:

  • Maintain the security policies intact on their Personal Computing Device – including Encryption, Agent, Antivirus, and Forced Encryption of Removable Media.
  • Smartphones and mobile devices used for University business must be enrolled in Secure Mobile. Secure Mobile enrollment is automated on mobile devices by establishing an ActiveSync connection with the OUHSC Exchange server (webmail.ouhsc.edu) for email synchronization. See http://it.ouhsc.edu/services/infosecurity/SecureMobileFAQ.asp. Only encrypted USB flash drives are to be used for university business
  • All students, when on campus, must use the HSCSTUDENT wireless network to access the internet using their mobile device.

Policies are subject to change. Students should refer to the IT link above for current information.

Working with Files with Protected Health Information (PHI)

All students will submit to the CON Office of Research, Scholarship, and PhD Studies a data security protocol that is compliant with current federal, state, and University regulations. This document is to be prepared by the doctoral candidate in consultation with the chair of the dissertation committee and in conjunction with the IT supervisor. The role of the IT supervisor is to ensure that the plan is compliant with current federal, state, and University regulations (including HIPAA). The document will be submitted to the IRB as part of the study protocol (under the section: database security).

Dissertations cannot be initiated until these documents are submitted to the CON Office of Research, Scholarship, and PhD Studies.