Ethics Tutorial for All Researchers

All individuals named in a research protocol involving human subjects at CCSU must complete a Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) ethics tutorial program (or an equivalent research ethics training approved by the CCSU IRB). The mandatory program required through CITI is based upon a researcher’s status as an 1) undergraduate student; 2) faculty, staff, or graduate student, or 3) IRB member.

CCSU researchers who do not have an existing account with CITI will have to register for a new account by typing in and then selecting "Central Connecticut State University" from the "Select Your Organization Affiliation" menu. Establishing a CITI account is free for all researchers affiliated with CCSU. Researchers who are registering in CITI for the first time will need to complete several registration pages to access their courses. You can find a preview of the registration process here.

Once registered, researchers will be prompted to select an IRB ethics tutorial program. Group 1 (English) and Group 4 (Spanish) are for undergraduate students, Group 2 (English) and Group 5 (Spanish) are for faculty, staff, and graduate students, and Group 3 is for IRB members. Each learner group includes a set of required modules to complete along with electives. It is possible to start the tutorial and then log off to return later to finish. If a CCSU researcher is collaborating with a researcher from another institution, please email IRB@ccsu.edu as to whether or not the CCSU IRB can accept the ethics training required by the collaborating researcher’s home institution.

If you initially choose the wrong program group, would like to add another program group, or would like to explore additional available modules, select the “Add a Course” option at the bottom of your screen. This option will appear on your personal courses page under the “Learner Tools” menu once you complete the registration process.

CITI certificates of completion for the appropriate Group coursework must be included with the initial protocol submission for review by the IRB. CITI Certificates are valid for five years. Researchers who need to download their CITI completion certificate for an IRB protocol can find directions for that process here.

For animal care and use courses, new researchers should select the “Animal Care and Use (ACU) Courses” option, which will take users to a separate menu for those courses. Researchers with existing CITI accounts may also access the ACU courses through the “Add a Course” option under the “Learner Tools” menu. More information on Institutional Animal Care and Use Council (IACUC) can be found here.