Institutional Review Board (IRB)
When research involves human subjects, including working with private data or conducting surveys, protocol(s) need to be submitted for review by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Columbia University committee charged with protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects who participate in research. It also serves to protect the researchers and the University from potential harm when research projects that use people as subjects are conducted at Columbia.
Human subjects research is any research in which an investigator obtains information about a living individual:
- Through interventions or interaction with the individual, or, through securing identifiable private information about the individual.
- Any project which meets either of the criteria above must be submitted for IRB review and approval prior to beginning the research.
Protocols are created and submitted via RASCAL. Researchers must ensure they have obtained IRB approval before starting any experiments involving human research subjects. Furthermore, to prevent delays in the formal awarding of grants, especially for NSF-funded projects, researchers need to either have IRB approval or have submitted a protocol for approval at the time of the application (or as soon as possible afterward).
Behavioral Research Lab (BRL)
The BRL is a large, centralized laboratory dedicated to supporting scholarly research by providing assistance to a diverse community of faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and research assistants affiliated with Columbia Business School.
The BRL also employs Research Assistants (RAs) who can help researchers in their scholarly pursuits, providing valuable support in participant recruitment, in-person and online studies, data analysis, and more.
Please visit the BRL website for more information about the BRL.
Columbia Experimental Laboratory for Social Sciences (CELSS)
CELSS is a shared resource among CBS, Economics, Political Science, and SIPA. It is primarily used for studies and surveys requiring computer labs and the ability to run large groups simultaneously. CELSS does not allow deception in studies it hosts.
Please visit the CELSS website for more information.