CITI Training

What is CITI Training?

CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) is a service providing research ethics education. Hampshire has become a member of this service so that IRB members, faculty, and student researchers can have access to an online training in research ethics. Specifically, Hampshire provides access to training in human subjects research with a focus on topics like "informed consent." The service is geared towards the psychological, biological, and behavioral sciences and thus is best utilized by researchers doing work in fields such as psychology, neuroscience, and in fields where interviews and surveys are conducted. In contrast the training may not be as useful for those doing ethnographic research, historical documentaries, and other types of research that utilize methodologies such as participant observation.

What courses can I take?

Hampshire currently offers:

  • Basic courses in the protection of human research subjects.
    • Biomedical Focus
    • Social and Behavioral Focus.
  • Health information privacy and security course (HIPS), including HITECH

When should I take a course?

It is recommended that students talk to their faculty research advisors prior to submitting an IRB application about whether CITI training would be useful given their particular research project, and which training(s) to take. If you do not take a course, the IRB may in some cases still require taking a course or courses for IRB approval. Even in cases where taking a course is not required, however, students may find the information on informed consent information useful (this is found within the social and behavioral focus module of the basic course in the protection of human research subjects). Additionally, nearly all researchers may benefit from the health information privacy and security course, as it deals with the question of what constitutes personal information and how to treat such information.

How do I access the website?

To access the website go to the CITI page and register as a new user. You will be offered the different courses available to Hampshire at that point. Once courses are completed you can print confirmation of taking different courses for your own records. You may also need to submit this confirmation to the IRB with your proposal when these courses are required.