Recruitment Policies at JCU

This information is in the process of being updated, and it is not to be considered “complete”. If you have questions about the most appropriate and effective ways to recruit members of the JCU Community to participate in your research study, please contact the IRB Administrator, Carole Moran Krus.

Sending Mass Recruitment Emails at JCU

Sending recruitment emails to large numbers of addresses is a common method to build a large participant pool for a research study or online survey. John Carroll University maintains several listservs (electronic mailing lists) with the email addresses of everyone in the JCU community (name@jcu.edu). There are listservs for all-faculty, all-staff, all-students, and the entire JCU community. However, researchers must seek approval from a vice president to gain access to these University-maintained listservs. The vice presidents who can grant permission to use the JCU listservs are:

Executive Vice President/CFO   Dennis F. Hareza
VP of University Advancement  Doreen K. Riley
VP for University Mission & Identity  Edward J. Peck
Academic Vice President  James H. Krukones (Interim)
Vice President Student Affairs  Mark D. McCarthy

Individual departments sometimes maintain their own email lists. Researchers must get approval from the appropriate department chair or supervisor to access these types of lists.

If you would like to use one of the JCU email listservs to recruit potential participants into your research study, please follow these steps:

1. Submit your protocol application to the IRB. If you are not sure if IRB approval is required, contact the IRB Administrator.
2. In your application, specify what email list(s) you would like to use and explain why this is necessary. (Section 7.e. of the Application)
3. Work with the IRB Office and the reviewers to complete any required revisions to your protocol.
4. During the review process, the IRB Administrator will contact the appropriate authority to request listserv access for the investigator.
5. Once the investigator has been granted both permission to use the listserv AND IRB approval, the IRB Administrator will contact Information Technology Services (ITS) to verify the approvals.
6. The investigator is required to use the listserv ONLY for the purposes and in the methods outlined in the approved IRB protocol.

“Manual Email Lists”

Researchers at JCU sometimes create their own lists by manually adding addresses from their own contact lists, their classes, their team or club rosters, or from the JCU online directory. Authorization is not required to create or use this type of email list, but researchers should proceed with caution if they want to create large, broadcast email lists. The University policies that protect the official listservs are in place to protect the privacy of JCU Community members. “Survey fatigue” and overstuffed inboxes will result in poor levels of response to your recruitment if your email list casts too wide a net. Using personalized invitations to participate and a carefully directed recruitment list is often a more effective way to recruit study participants. Please see the IRB Administrator for more information about effective recruitment strategies. See also: Recruitment of Research Participants.

Recruiting Student-Athletes for Research

When investigators propose research protocols that involve JCU student-athletes, they must gain authorization from the JCU Athletic Department to recruit these students. During athletic seasons of competition, the Athletic Department and the coaching staff may prohibit student-athletes from being recruited for research studies. If you would like to conduct research that will focus on JCU student-athletes, please contact the JCU Athletic Director, Michelle Morgan, mmorgan@jcu.edu, (216) 397-1525, and the individual coaches, if applicable.