If you’re having trouble using CLARA, please give us a call in the IRB office – we’re happy to help out. Sometimes it would be really helpful to us to be able to physically see where you are in CLARA. This is possible through the screen-sharing function in the Lync communication system (most commonly used […]

We’re numbers people here at the UAMS IRB. IRB protocol numbers, more precisely – everything related to individual studies is filed under a specific protocol number. So when you call or email us with a question about a specific study, please be sure to have the protocol number either at hand or included in your […]

Please help the IRB meet its requirement to verify that PIs are qualified to carry out their studies by making CVs easy to find. The simplest way to link CVs to study protocols is to upload CVs directly to CLARA profiles, rather than to individual studies. Tying a CV to the profile will automatically link […]

In a change from the IRB’s previous online submission system, ARIA, our current system, CLARA, accepts study documents created using Microsoft Word. In the ARIA days, all study documents had to be converted to PDF. The new system will accept documents in Word format, so that conversion is no longer required. Keeping everything in Word […]

Here’s another reason to get your continuing review forms in early: The IRB now routinely closes studies once a continuing review (CR) has been expired for 30 days. Even studies that have a CR form pending, or that have contingencies outstanding from a pending CR form, are subject to closure if the approval has been […]

We’ve noticed that some investigators routinely use underscores between words when typing in document titles in CLARA. We ask that you don’t use any underscores that aren’t strictly necessary, i.e. that aren’t an essential part of a document name. The underscores prevent the titles from wrapping across lines in CLARA, making it difficult for IRB […]

New to research? Or has it been a while since you’ve gotten some feedback on your research processes? If so, and if you have a study that’s about to be approved or that hasn’t enrolled any subjects yet, consider getting in touch with the Office of Research Compliance (ORC) to request a New Investigation Consult […]

There will be no IRB meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 30,  a fifth Tuesday. The IRB only meets on the first four Tuesdays of the month. Please keep that “missing” week in mind if you are facing deadlines for approvals and continuing review renewals. Also, remember that the campus will be closed for much of the […]

When you log into the human subject protection training program at citiprogram.org, you’ll be asked to affiliate with a particular institution. Please be careful to select UAMS to ensure that you are directed to the correct training! We’ve noticed that some people have accidentally affiliated with UALR, which, while also part of the University of […]

When completing a new submission form in CLARA, you may encounter a question asking whether you will obtain biological specimens as part of the research. This question should be answered “yes” only if you will be obtaining the actual specimens, either directly from subjects, or from a secondary source, such as a pathology lab or […]