CITI Certification

Hope College requires all investigators who do research with human subjects or other vertebrate animals to have up-to-date CITI certification. This is Hope College's active attempt to prevent any unanticipated problems or violations.

CITI Certification

To become citi-certified, successfully complete the required CITI tutorials and tests. Certification lasts for three years. If you had previous CITI certification, you do not need to retake the course but can instead retake the refresher courses to renew your certification.

Registration for CITI

1. Go to the CITI Registration Page
2. Complete registration steps. Select "Hope College" as your organizational affiliation and register with your Hope College email address.
3. Select relevant modules as part of your registration. You will also have the option of selecting course modules after you have registered. (See "Required Courses" below.)
4. Take the courses and corresponding tests at your leisure; stop and start as needed.
5. Upon completion of the course or module, Hope College is notified and you can print a copy of your CITI certification. Be sure to save a copy of this certificate and completion date for your records. You will need to state your completion date for every HSRB proposal, whether you are a collaborator or principle investigator.

Required Courses

The following CITI modules are required for all investigators applying for HSRB approval:

• Social/ Behavioral/ Educational Research
  
• Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)

Those working with animals

• Basic Course for Animal Care and Use
• Specific species modules to be determined by primary investigator

People with biomedical research interests must also complete:

• Biomedical

Members of the HSRB or HCACUC boards must take the appropriate course(s) for your role.

Continuing researchers (those who have had previous CITI certification) can take the Refresher Courses.

Many departments require Responsible Conduct of Research training modules, even if human subject work is exempt.

 

Other Certifications

The Hope College Human Subject Review Board (HSRB) deems Cancer Institute (CI) training as equivalent to CITI training, if it has been done in the past three years. If you have recently completed CI training, submit proof of the training with your HSRB application. If the HSRB already has your certificate on file, merely indicate the date the CI training was complete.

Hope College strongly prefers CITI training to CI training. If you currently hold CI certification, when you are due for a renewal, please take the CITI course unless doing so violates other research based regulations.

Students

Students who are active investigators must complete all steps of the CITI training. Faculty are responsible for reporting students' CITI training completion dates on their HSRB and HCACUC applications.