COVID-19 Updates

Revised: August 29, 2022

Investigators are no longer required to submit a Restart Research Request through COUHES Connect. If you have an existing approved Restart Research Request, you do not need to take any further action.

For any in-person research, on or off campus, investigators must continue to comply with all MIT policies regarding COVID safety requirements, including the MIT Visitor policy, as well as all applicable international, national, state, and local health authority requirements. When submitting a new human subjects application, investigators will be prompted to attest that all these applicable requirements will be followed.

Subjects no longer need to complete a consent form addendum prior to in-person research. However, COUHES recommends researchers continue to screen subjects for COVID using the COVID Screening Questionnaire. A “yes” answer to any of the questions on this questionnaire would make someone ineligible to be a research subject.

While these changes will apply to all active and future studies, COUHES retains the right to add additional COVID safety standards or requirements if the nature and details of the experimental protocol warrant more stringent protections.

Please email COUHES@mit.edu with questions or concerns about this guidance.

Additional MIT policies may apply, see MIT Now: https://now.mit.edu/.

Guidance for Conducting In-Person Research

Q1. Does COUHES have any recommendation for conducting research remotely?

 The following are options for you to consider:

• Recruiting subjects via phone call, email or Amazon MTurk.
• Internet-based consent or oral consent, depending on the subject population and risk of study.
• Conducting surveys via MIT Qualtrics if appropriate for your data classification risk level.
• Conducting interviews via Skype, Zoom, or over the telephone. (If recording, make sure to include this activity in the informed consent.)
• Using postal or courier services to send subjects and receive back from them study equipment such as wearable devices

Q2. Is there a limit on how many subjects can be studied at the same time?

Investigators should only include subjects and guests required for the completion of the research and monitor applicable national, state and local health requirement at the time to find out if there is a space density requirement.

Q3: Are participants required to report their vaccine status?

No, participants are not required to report their vaccine status as part of their participation unless the approved study protocol specifically state vaccination as an inclusion criteria.

Q4. What if I learn that a subject that participated in my study tested positive for COVID-19?

For on campus research, See MIT Now for more information: https://now.mit.edu/

For off-campus research, please contact the appropriate health authorities.

Q5. How long should I keep the COVID Screening Questionnaire?

We recommend these forms be retained for 3 years after the study completion and then be destroyed.