Ethical conduct of research is important for maintaining the public trust and adhering to research requirements and best practices.
IUP provides training through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI), which offers web-based training materials for millions of learners at academic institutions.
See FAQ about IUP's Mandatory Online Ethics Training for Students
Who must complete this training?
All students who engage, or plan to engage, in systematic interaction with human and/or animal research subjects that requires approval by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB) or by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) must complete training in human subjects research or animal care and use. IUP also offers other trainings in responsible conduct of research, financial conflict of interest, export control, and biosafety/biosecurity. These trainings are recommended, but not required unless you are a recipient of NSF or PHS funds.
Where do I register?
How do I know what courses to register for?
When registering for CITI, you will answer six questions that help determine your courses of study. You can change the courses at any time in the "Learner Tools" section after registration. If you are completing the CITI training as a prerequisite to submit or be added to an IRB protocol, you will need to complete the Social, Behavioral, and Educational Researchers module, unless you have been given alternate directions from your faculty advisor. To enroll in this module, select SBE in Question One of the course registration screen. Please refer to the course instructions for additional guidance.
The CITI Program includes training and modules for the following:
- Basic courses in the protection of human research subjects (IRB): Question ONE on the CITI course registration page.
Required for all students working with human subjects and recommended for all others working with human subjects- Select your protection of human research subjects training based on the type of research activities you will conduct:
- Biomedical
- Social, behavioral, and educational; OR
- Data/lab specimens only
- View the learning modules available to each of the above types of researchers.
- Select your protection of human research subjects training based on the type of research activities you will conduct:
- Basic course in the protection of animal subjects (IACUC): Question FOUR on the CITI course registration page.
Required for all students working with animal subjects and recommended for all others working with animal subjects- Select your protection of animal research subjects training based on the type of research activities you will conduct:
- Faculty or staff researchers (students should not enroll in this course even if they are employed by the university)
- IACUC members (only faculty and staff serving on the university's Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) should enroll in this course)
- Students working with captive animals (students conducting laboratory research who will not be working with wild animals in the field should register for this course)
- Students working with wild animals (students conducting field research with wild animals should register for this course even if they will later perform laboratory analyses)
- View the learning modules available to each of the above types of researchers.
- Select your protection of animal research subjects training based on the type of research activities you will conduct:
- Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
Required for student researchers working on NSF projects but recommended for all researchers - Financial Conflict of Interest (FCOI)
Required for all recipients of PHS funds (includes NIH, CDC, FDA, CMS, US Dept. of HHS, etc.) but recommended for all financial managers - Export Control
Recommended for all researchers traveling internationally or working with international collaborators - Biosafety/Biosecurity
Recommended for all researchers working with recombinant DNA or select agents, responding to biohazards, or shipping/transporting regulated biological materials.
Need guidance completing registration?
You will need RealPlayer to access all the materials in the program. You can download RealPlayer on the Realtime website. When you click on the hyperlink to the Realtime website, your download should begin immediately.
How do I obtain copies of training certificates?
Once the training module is completed, you may print a copy of your training certificates by logging into CITI, using your username and password, and clicking the "Print" link under the Completion Reports column in My Reports.
For questions or concerns, please contact grad-research@iup.edu.