Before submitting any forms to IRB-01 you should be intimately familiar with our requirements. Please visit our Instructions for IRB-01 Forms page and our Deadlines page before submitting any paperwork. Some forms (e.g. the Informed Consent form) have their own specific instructions. You are required to be familiar with any pertinent information prior to submitting these forms.

Effective May 1st, 2003 SUBMISSION ACCEPTABILITY STANDARDS Earlier this year we conducted an internal review of IRB-01 Administrative Office's productivity. During this review we identified that we spend more than half of our resources attempting to fix problems in research submissions. Naturally we were alarmed to discover that we were spending so much of our limited resources fixing submissions. As a result we analyzed the situation to see how we can improve productivity. We quickly identified the most common problems and presented the situation to the IRB-01 Executive Committee. The Executive Committee confirmed that these problems are serious enough that they prohibit review and approval of research submission containing them. Since these problems cannot exist in the submission and since we do not have the resources to continue dealing with them in this manner, IRB-01 has adopted Submission Acceptability Standards in the interest of improving the Administrative Office's productivity. These standards address simple paperwork needs which must be followed in order to quickly process your research submissions. For example: all paperwork requiring a signature must be signed by the PI, your submission must include the required number of photocopies, any revisions to your paperwork must include strike-out/underline pages demonstrating the revisions, etc. The intent of these standards is to reduce the amount of time that we spend trying to fix submissions before forwarding it on for review. The result should be quicker processing, review, and approval for projects which meet the standards. Please note that it is the Principal Investigator's responsibility to submit proper paperwork to the IRB. Prior to submitting paperwork to the IRB every PI should verify that his/her paperwork meets these Acceptability Standards. Paperwork that does not meet our standards will NOT BE PROCESSED and, as indicated in the table below, will be returned to the PI via campus mail. As a courtesy to investigators we will e-mail the first contact listed on the paperwork in order to notify you that the submission is unacceptable. You will have one business day to pick up your paperwork and correct the problem, otherwise your submission will be returned to you via campus mailbox. Below is the list of current Administrative Acceptability Standards. This list has been reviewed and approved by the IRB Executive Committee. Since this list is subject to change please check the list on our web site before every submission in order to be sure that your paperwork is acceptable. Click the link below to view the list of required standards. SUBMISSION ACCEPTABILITY STANDARDS (Last revised: 4/30/03) If your submission is returned to you, it is because (1) it did not meet our Submisison Acceptability Standards and (2) no one from your office corrected the submission within the allotted time frame after being e-mailed. Once returned, please be sure to correct the noted errors and resubmit the paperwork. When you resubmit your paperwork new Full Board Deadlines will apply. NOTE: if any of these standards are not met, further inspection of your submission will not occur before it is returned to you. Thus, it is possible the office or Board may find additional but more significant issues with your paperwork when it is resubmitted. The Submission Acceptability Standards do not address the substance of your submission, instead they simply insure that submissions meet the minimum necessary administrative requirements for review. We strongly recommend and encourage everyone to compare your submissions to us with the standards prior to mailing or delivering your submission. In order to further assist you, we are providing additional copies of the Submission Acceptability Standards in our office next to the Sign-In box for you to make a final check of your submission. Please do not hestitate to ask our staff for assistance if you are unsure about the standards or how it applies to your submission. If you have any questions or comments please e-mail Michael Mahoney, IRB-01 Coordinator, at mmahoney@ufl.edu.

NOTE ON COPIES: prepare your submission with all appropriate IRB forms, original signatures, attachments, etc. This is considered the "original" submission. In addition prepare and submit the appropriate number of photocopies as indicated in the IRB paperwork or listed here. Please be sure to collate the copies properly. There should essentially be separate copies of your submission thereby enabling us to route your submission to the appropriate parties: (in this example you would be submitting an original and 4 photocopies)

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