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Instructions for taking BMC/BU Medical Campus CITI Courses for Initial and Refresher Training

 

BU Medical Campus/BMC investigators and research staff must be “certified” to perform human research before they can be named on any human research protocol or have contact with human subjects. Details of the certification requirements can be found on the page entitled Initial Certification. This current page provides directions for accessing the CITI web site which is where the courses are offered that allow investigators to become “certified.” We suggest that you print this page before navigating to the CITI website.  The instructions below will be helpful to you as you navigate on that site.


I am registering to CITI for the first time

  1. Navigate to: https://www.citiprogram.org/
  2. To register for the first time, click on the “Register” button.
  3. Complete the registration form: Please note these important steps:
    1. In Step 1, in the “Select Your Organization Affiliation” field, type in the word “Boston” and all institutions with “Boston” in their name will be displayed in the drop down list; select “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center” (make sure you don’t select “Boston University” which is for the Charles River Campus). You need to agree to the terms of service to continue, so click on the check box next to “I AGREE to the Terms of Service.” Next, you need to affirm your affiliation with our institution, so click on the check box next to “I affirm that I am an affiliate of Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center.” Click on the “Continue To Create Your CITI Program Username/Password” button to continue.
    2. In Step 2 “Personal information,” for the primary email address, enter your BU email address (@bu.edu) if you have one; otherwise, enter your preferred email.
    3. In step 6, for the Institutional Email Address, enter your BU email address (@bu.edu) if you have one; otherwise, enter your preferred email.
    4. In step 7 question 1, select “Medical Campus Biomedical Researchers” or “Medical Campus Sociobehavioral Researchers,” whichever is better aligned with your type of research.
    5. In step 7 question 2, select “HIPAA and Research Data Security,” which is required for all researchers.
    6. In step 7, you can select at this time any additional courses of interest if needed [e.g., Good Clinical Practice (GCP), BMC/BU Medical Campus Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Conflicts of Interest].
    7. When you’re done filling out the form, click on “Complete Registration.”
    8. Click on “Finalize Registration.” This will finalize the registration and log you in into the Welcome screen of your CITI account.
  4. Next to “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center Courses,” click on the “View Courses” button to show the available courses.
  5. Locate the course that you want to take and click on the “Start Now” button to take that course.
  6. If this is the first time you are visiting this page, then you need to click on “Complete the Integrity Assurance Statement before beginning the course”; select “I agree…”; and then click “Submit.” If you have already done this, skip this step.
  7. You should notice that the “Start” button for the first module listed under “Required Modules” is clickable now. Click on “Start” button to start reading it and taking the quiz.
  8. As soon as one module is completed, the next module (if there is one) will be available and the “Start” button for that module becomes clickable.

Once you pass a course, the system will email your certificate to the IRB on the next morning. There is no need for you to send the IRB a copy of your certificate unless specifically requested to do so by the IRB. Your CITI training information will automatically be uploaded the next morning directly into the IRB’s INSPIR system and into your INSPIR account if you already have one.


I am already registered to CITI under Boston University Medical Center

  1. Navigate to: https://www.citiprogram.org/
  2. Click on the “Log In” button and log in into your existing CITI account using the username and password you previously registered with. This should take you to the Welcome screen of your CITI account.
  3. Next to “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center,” click on the “View Courses” button.
  4. This will take you to the “Show Courses for” page that will list all “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center” courses that you have added to your list of courses
  5. If the course(s) that you want to take are listed there, skip to step 7. If the course(s) that you want to take are not listed there, then:
    1. Scroll down to the “Learner Tool” section and click on “Add a Course.”
    2. In question 1, select “Medical Campus Biomedical Researchers” or “Medical Campus Sociobehavioral Researchers,” whichever is better aligned with your type of research.
    3. In question 2, select “HIPAA and Research Data Security,” which is required for all researchers.
  6. You can select at this time any other courses of interest if needed [e.g., Good Clinical Practice (GCP), BMC/BU Medical Campus Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Conflicts of Interest]. When you are finished selecting your courses, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Submit.” This will take you back to the “Show Courses for” page.
  7. You will see the selected courses listed under “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center Courses.” Locate the course that you want to complete and click on the “Start Now” button (note: this button will later change to “Continue Course”).
  8. If this is the first time you are visiting this page, then you need to click on “Complete the Integrity Assurance Statement before beginning the course”; select “I agree…”; and then click “Submit.” If you have already done this, skip this step.
  9. You should notice that the “Start” button for the first module listed under “Required Modules” is clickable now. Click on “Start” button to start reading it and taking the quiz.
  10. As soon as one module is completed, the next module (if there is one) will be available and the “Start” button for that module becomes clickable.

Once you pass a course, the system will email your certificate to the IRB on the next morning. There is no need for you to send the IRB a copy of your certificate unless specifically requested to do so by the IRB. Your CITI training information will automatically be uploaded the next morning directly into the IRB’s INSPIR system and into your INSPIR account if you already have one.


I am already registered to CITI under a different institution other than Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center

  1. Navigate to: https://www.citiprogram.org/
  2. Click on the “Log In” button and log in into your existing CITI account using the username and password you previously registered with. This should take you to the Welcome screen of your CITI account.
  3. Under Institution Courses, next to “Would you like to affiliate with another institution,” click on “Add An Affiliation.”
  4. On the “Affiliate with an Institution” page, in the text box under “To find your organization, enter its name in the box below, then pick from the list of choices provided, type in the word “Boston” and all institutions with “Boston” in their name will be displayed in the drop down list; select “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center” (make sure you don’t select “Boston University” which is for the Charles River Campus). You need to agree to the terms of service to continue, so click on the check box next to “I AGREE to the Terms of Service.” Next, you need to affirm your affiliation with our institution, so click on the check box next to “I affirm that I am an affiliate of Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center.” Click on the “Continue” button.
  5. Complete all the fields in the registration form and then click on “Next.”
  6. In the “Select Curriculum” page, complete these important steps:
    1. In Question 1, select “Medical Campus Biomedical Researchers” or “Medical Campus Sociobehavioral Researchers,” whichever is better aligned with your type of research.
    2. In Question 2, select “HIPAA and Research Data Security,” which is required for all researchers.
    3. On this “Select Curriculum” page, you can select at this time any additional courses of interest if needed [e.g., Good Clinical Practice (GCP), BMC/BU Medical Campus Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Conflicts of Interest]. When you are finished selecting your courses, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Submit.” This will take you to the “Show Courses for” page.
  7. You will see the selected courses listed under “Boston University Medical Campus/Boston Medical Center Courses.” Locate the course that you want to complete and click on the “Start Now” or “Continue Course” button (depending on whether the course was started or not).
  8. If this is the first time you are visiting this page, then you need to click on “Complete the Integrity Assurance Statement before beginning the course”; select “I agree…”; and then click “Submit.” If you have already done this, skip this step.
  9. You should notice that any modules already taken under the other institution’s training will show up as completed, and only modules that were never completed under any institution, will display a clickable “Start” button. Click on the module’s “Start” button to start reading it and taking the quiz.
  10. As soon as one module is completed, the next module (if there is one) will be available and the “Start” button for that module becomes clickable.

Once you pass a course, the system will email your certificate to the IRB on the next morning. There is no need for you to send the IRB a copy of your certificate unless specifically requested to do so by the IRB. Your CITI training information will automatically be uploaded the next morning directly into the IRB’s INSPIR system and into your INSPIR account if you already have one.