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Office for Human Subject Protection
Office of the Vice President for Research

Required Human Subject Protection (HSP) Training

Human Subject Protection (HSP) training is required to engage in human subject research. The training is completed through the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI).

If you are collaborating with individuals external to the University of Rochester, review our HSP Training for External Research Personnel instructions. Otherwise, explore the guidance on this page to learn more about HSP required training.

Review HSP and CITI FAQs

Learn about additional resources available via CITI

 

Register and complete your HSP training

  1. Go to citiprogram.org and click ‘Register’ in the upper right corner.
    1. If you already have a CITI account, do not create a new account. See the instructions under ‘I completed HSP training through CITI at my previous institution…‘ below.
    2. Use Chrome, Safari, Edge, or Firefox to access CITI; Internet Explorer is not recommended.
  2. Enter the University of Rochester (UR) in the search box and select the checkboxes to agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and confirm your affiliation with the UR.
    1. Do not select ‘Log in Through My Institution’; single sign-on is not available for UR faculty/staff/students.
    2. Do not select Rochester University. Click ‘Continue to Create Your CITI Username/Password’.
  3. Complete the remaining registration steps as prompted. Note:
    1. All new users will be direct to complete a ‘Member Profile’ (generic to CITI) and an ‘Institutional Profile’ (specific to the UR).
    2. In the Member Profile, UR faculty/staff/students are strongly encouraged to enter their UR address as the primary/preferred email and their personal email as a secondary email. Doing so ensures all CITI notifications (e.g., regarding training renewal) will be sent to your UR email address.
    3. In the Institutional Profile, UR faculty/staff/students must enter an accurate UR email as their institutional email to facilitate access to the Click IRB system. All non-UR individuals completing training on behalf of a UR collaboration may enter their personal email in this field.
    4. If you receive a prompt indicating that your email address already exists in the system, contact CITI directly at (888) 529-5929 to retrieve your username and password.
  4. Once you have completed the registration process, you will be directed to select a training course. Select the checkbox for Human Subject Protection (HSP) and click ‘Next’.
    1. Note: HSP and Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training are not equivalent, nor are HSP and Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training. Only HSP training is required for all staff engaging in human subject research. GCP and RCR training are encouraged for all staff but only required in certain circumstances. E.g., NIH and NSF have specific requirements in place concerning RCR training when research is NIH/NSF-funded and, similarly, NIH and most industry sponsors require GCP training when the research is a clinical trial. For additional information, see the RCR training page and/or GCP FAQs page.
  5. Select a training option (group) within the HSP curriculum to complete and click ‘Next’.
    1. To meet HSP training requirements, trainees can complete either the Biomedical or Social-Behavioral-Educational Researcher option. Selections should be based on the type of research being conducted.
      1. Do not select the IRB Chair, IRB Member, or Institutional/Signatory Official option. These courses are for specific roles with the University’s Human Research Protection Program, not Investigators and study staff. When required, they are assigned to users by Office for Human Subject Protection staff.
    2. If this is your first time completing HSP training, select one of the options identified under the ‘Initial Certification Program’ heading.
    3. If you have selected additional training courses, e.g., GCP or RCR training, you will also be directed to select a training option (group) for each respective course.
  6. Once you have selected your training course(s), you will be offered access to additional webinar recordings. Selecting additional webinars is optional/voluntary; scroll to the bottom of the screen and select ‘Next’ to continue. For additional information or to add webinars at a later time, see the information below.
  7. All selected courses/webinars will then appear on your UR course listing page, under the ‘Courses Ready to Begin’ heading. To begin the course, click ‘Start Now’.
  8. Complete the ‘Assurance Statement’, then ‘Start’ adjacent to the first training modules.
    1. Complete all required training modules and each corresponding quiz. All supplemental modules are optional.
    2. You may start the course, leave and return at any time.
    3. A passing score of 85% is required to complete the course. You may re-review modules and re-take quizzes, if you wish and/or need to in order to improve your score. Reference the FAQ below for additional information.
  9. Following course completion, print or save a copy of your Course Completion Report for your records. Provide this documentation to your department administrators, study coordinator or program manager per your study/departmental needs.

For additional guidance, reference CITI’s Guide to Getting Started

HSP and CITI training FAQs

How do I update my institutional email in CITI?

CITI issues all users at least two profiles; each profile includes contact information.

  1. The Member Profile includes your name, preferred email addresses and password information. This profile remains active regardless of how many institutions you affiliate with in CITI.
  2. Institutional Profiles are also created for each institution you affiliate your account with. This profile includes institution-specific information such as department, research role and institutional contacts.

The ‘institutional email address’ entered into the University of Rochester Institutional Profile facilitates the transfer of information from CITI to Click IRB. To verify and update this field in CITI:

  • Log into CITI and click on your name in the upper right corner.  Select ‘Profiles’ from the resulting drop down menu.
  • Select ‘Edit Profile’ adjacent to University of Rochester (under the ‘Institutional Profiles’ heading). Do not select the ‘Member Profile’. The information entered here does not facilitate the CITI/ Click IRB integration.
  • Update the ‘institutional email address field’ and select ‘Update’ to save your changes.
I completed HSP training through CITI at my previous institution. What do I need to do to meet the University's training requirements?

CITI courses are customizable. So, based on their needs, each institution determines which modules they want included in a course. As such, training requirements can vary from one institution to another.

To meet the University’s HSP training requirements, internal faculty, staff and students need to complete the University’s version of HSP training. However, CITI programming will transfer credit for current modules that were previously completed. Following transfer, trainees only need to complete the modules remaining.

For credit to transfer, trainees need to add the University of Rochester as an affiliation to their existing CITI account. Trainees should not create new CITI accounts. If you need assistance logging in to your existing account, contact CITI directly at (888) 529-5929.  Following log in:

  1. Click ‘Add Affiliation’ (under the ‘Institutional Courses’ heading).
  2. Search for the University of Rochester in the resulting search box. Once selected, complete the corresponding attestations regarding terms of service, privacy and your University affiliation
  3. Complete the contact and demographic information form. For all UR faculty/staff/students, enter your UR email address in the ‘Institutional Email’ field.

CITI will then direct you select a training course. The transfer of credit is dependent on the type of course selected, as well as the stage of training you most recently completed. If you are unsure which course to select, contact Kelly Unsworth at kelly_unsworth@urmc.rochester.edu.

CITI is asking for billing information and/or charging me a fee. Is this correct?

While the Office for Human Subject Protection pays fees related to course completion, users are responsible for fees associated with continuing education credits.  If you request continuing education credit during registration, you will be charged a fee. To update your continuing education status, log in to CITI and click ‘CE/CMEs’ from the horizontal toolbar at the top of your screen.

Can I retake a quiz in a CITI course?

Yes, reference CITI’s How to Retake a Quiz or Exam

How do I access (or share) documentation of my CITI training?

Reference CITI’s How do I access my completion report/certificate?

How do I add or remove a course in CITI?

Reference CITI’s How to Add/Remove Courses.

How do I find an active and/or refresher course?

Following log in, click ‘View Courses’ adjacent to the UR listing (under the blue banner and ‘Institutional Courses’ heading). Active courses that have not yet been completed will be listed under the ‘Active Courses’ heading. Courses that have not yet been initiated will be listed under the ‘Courses Ready to Begin’ heading. Click ‘Start Now’ or ‘Continue’, as appropriate, to enter the course.

Note: Trainees are automatically registered for refresher training 90-days prior to course expiration. If you wish to complete refresher training before the training has been added to your curriculum, contact CITI directly at (888) 529-5929.

Will I be reminded when I need to re-certify my HSP/GCP training?

Yes. Once a user completes HSP or GCP training, they are automatically registered for refresher training. Automated reminders for these courses are sent by CITI at 90, 30, and 7 days prior to expiration. Additional reminders are provided 1 and 7 days following expiration.

To ensure you receive these emails, UR faculty, staff and students are strongly encouraged to identify their UR email as their primary/preferred email in their CITI Member Profile.

GCP and other HRPP training requirements

In addition to HSP training, further training may be required by another department within the University and/or a study sponsor/funding agency.

CITI webinar recordings

Recordings of over 100 CITI webinars, covering a wide range of topics, are available to faculty, staff, and students via the University’s CITI subscription. For a complete list of available recordings, see CITI’s All Access Webinar page.

To access recordings:

  1. Following log in, click ‘View Courses’ adjacent to the UR listing (under the blue banner and ‘Institutional Courses’ heading).
    1. If you do not have a CITI account, follow the instructions above through step 3 to register.
  2. Scroll down to the ‘Learner Tools for University of Rochester’ box and select ‘Add a Course’.
  3. Select ‘Webinar’ from the course listing and click ‘Next’.
  4. Select the webinar recording you wish to view. Once added, the selected webinar will appear on your UR course listing page, under the ‘Courses Ready to Begin’ heading.

Still have questions?

Get additional support

If you have questions about the training requirements outlined on this page, you can contact Kelly Unsworth at kelly_unsworth@urmc.rochester.edu or Janice Taylor at janice_taylor@urmc.rochester.edu. Visit our Contact page for more ways to get in touch with our office.

Reach out to OHSP

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