Critical first steps

Submit Information Sharing Agreement (due November 14, 2008)
Every school participating in this survey must sign the Information Sharing Agreement (ISA). The ISA should be signed by someone in your institution – usually your CIO who has the right to formalize your institution’s commitment to participate in the MISO Survey. We recommend that you review the ISA with your CIO before identifying the individual that will sign the document. If you are not part of a merged information services organization, consult with your MISO Survey Team liaison to determine which individuals at your institution should sign the ISA. The signed ISA document should be sent to David Consiglio by November 14, 2008.

Obtain Institutional Review Board approval (due December 15, 2008)
In order to administer the MISO Survey on your campus you must obtain approval from your Institutional Review Board (IRB), a campus committee that oversees the use of human and animal subjects in research. This is a federal requirement for conducting research projects such as the MISO Survey. Research that has not received IRB approval cannot be published. The MISO Survey Administrator must receive proof of IRB approval before you may administer the survey at your institution.

Although the deadline for submitting proof of IRB approval isn’t until December 15, 2008, you should begin the process of obtaining approval at once since it may take as long as several months to complete the process. Web-based surveys are generally approved by campus IRB committees, so this should not be a difficult process – just one that may take some time. Your IRB committee’s website probably contains instructions for seeking approval.

To help you with this process, the MISO website’s Survey Administration page provides IRB proposals that were approved in the past at participating institutions and a summary of the MISO Survey for your IRB. Feel free to use these as a model for your proposal, and please contact your MISO Survey Team liaison if you have any questions. Once you have obtained a letter of approval, please forward this letter to David Consiglio before December 15, 2008.

Back to CSA Action Items.

Questions and Comments: survey@brynmawr.edu