Claremont McKenna College maintains an Institutional Review Board (IRB), as mandated by Federal Law, in order to ensure that researchers who are part of the CMC community protect the dignity, privacy, and safety of the participants they recruit for their research. In addition, the IRB serves to protect the dignity, privacy, and safety of everyone in the CMC community when they choose to participate in research.

If you are doing research that involves working with living human beings, you may need to get permission from the IRB before you begin. Research that involves interviewing other people, distributing surveys, conducting experiments on people, or even observing particular people in their daily lives is normally what we call "research on human subjects," and all such research requires some level of approval from the IRB.

Please browse this web site to determine whether you need to apply for IRB approval of your research. This website will help you determine whether your research qualifies as research on human subjects, get answers to frequently asked questions, and submit electronic web applications and forms.