Suggestions for Completing the IACUC protocol

If you have questions about the IACUC or animal welfare related issues, please contact the Chair of the IACUC, Associate Dean, Dr. Rick Zechman at rick.zechman@humboldt.edu.

• Download the current blank form from the IACUC web site onto your disk or hard drive.
• Open the blank form using your choice of word processing software (MS Word …). DO NOT try to type the answers into the form on the web, and then print the resulting document, as the formatting will invariably be lost.
• Do not purposefully change the formatting of the routing slip or the last page (item 16). These should both be left as separate full pages once the document is completed. If either page has been split into a second page, please reformat the page so that it appears entirely on one sheet of paper.
• Do not write in the box on the routing slip.
• Type your answers using consistent fonts, full sentences, correctly spelled words, and correct grammar. Your answers should be your attempt to clearly and succinctly describe your proposed “use(s)” and to directly answer the questions asked. Please note that these protocols are required by the federal government and that they are inspected twice annually by an inspector from the USDA. Note also that the protocols will be kept in a binder and that the binders will be available to the public upon their request. We ask you to consider that each protocol is representative of the faculty member who signs, the department with which they work, the college and the campus, and we respectfully ask you to represent our school as professionally as possible.
• The Faculty Project Leader must be a faculty member at Humboldt. Students must have a faculty member who takes responsibility for their use of live animals even if the student has written the study design and will conduct all of the work.
• If the author of the protocol is a student, they should provide their name and email address on the contact line of the routing slip so that the committee can contact them directly without mailing the document back to the faculty member (a process that could add several days to weeks for the review).
• The project title on the routing slip must be the same as written in the answer to question 1 on the protocol.
• Please leave a blank line between the questions and your answers so that the beginning and ending of your answer will be immediately clear to reviewers.
• The comments in the document that follows are provided as guidelines to help you write your answers.
• Once your protocol is written and edited, please confirm that the responsible faculty member has read and signed the document.
• Lastly, deliver the protocol to the Office of the Chair of the IACUC (Forestry 106C). The Administrative Assistant will assign it a routing number and route it to the Chair for committee review.
• You should expect protocols to take a minimum of 3 days for processes, routing and reviewing. In the event that your protocol needs to be revised, this process will take considerably longer.