Instructions for Human Subject Online Survey Research

Research with Human Subjects University policy states that all research involving human subjects shall be reviewed by the University. You must submit the Minimal Risk Studies with the Human Subjects Application to the Office of Research Compliance (ORC). Your survey research must include a recruitment e-mail and informed consnet document. The template for these documents are located in the Other Template section. After your application has been reviewed, approved or exempted, the investigator may only then proceed to conduct research using the survey tools provided by Information Technology (IT). 

The Office of Research Compliance has coordinated, with Mercer University’s Information Technology Department, a process for investigators to conduct human subject online survey research with Survey Monkey.  Survey Monkey is free for all Mercer University faculty and students who wish to set up a web-based survey for research, review, analysis, and evaluation.

To set up an Online Survey you will need to prepare the following information for the Office of Research Compliance (ORC):

1.      Contact information: Name, Email address (Must be Mercer Student or Faculty), Title of Project 

2.      IRB approval date and IRB approval number.

3.      An electronic file of your survey questions in Microsoft Word format. Each question and section should be clearly identified as either open-ended, free form input, or multiple choices.  All questions submitted should be Survey Monkey question types.  (Download question types)  Indicate in your Microsoft Word file which questions should be mandatory.  Provide any additional explanation of the survey information as necessary.

4.      Provide the beginning and closing date of the online survey.  

Send all forms via e-mail to: ORC_Research@Mercer.edu The ORC will be responsible for submitting the research to Mercer’s IT department.  Request for Human Subject online survey set up sent directly to the IT department will be returned to sender.

Please allow up to (2) two weeks for the online survey to be reviewed and complied.

A preview live link will be sent to the investigator before the survey is activated by email.  You must inform the IT department within (3) days of receipt of the link to approve, disapprove, or request revisions of the online survey.

If you wish to add more survey questions or modify any of the approved questions, an IRB Request for Modification form must be submitted and approved by the IRB before making any changes.

After the activation of the online survey, a link will be provided to the investigator to review preliminary results as the survey is being taken.

Michelle Bliss, BLISS_M@Mercer.edu, in the IT department can be contacted only for technical difficulties experienced with the Zoomerang software.

The ORC will send an email at least 30 days prior to the closing date of the survey to notify the investigator that the online survey will be closed.  All data collected will be sent by email to the investigator.