Skip to main content

CITI Training

The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program provides research ethics education to the research community. The CITI program offers both initial and refresher courses covering human research and HIPAA requirements. More information can be found on the CITI support website.

  • The IRB Office will be able to view completed training. If you have registered in eIRB+ and your Northwestern NetID is within the CITI system, the training information will automatically populate within eIRB+ within 24 hours.
    • This integration runs 2 times daily, so please allow 24 hours before contacting the IRB Office, for any newly completed training or newly registered users profile to be updated with the current training information.
  • Completing CITI training does NOT register you with eIRB+. To be added to studies, Northwestern and Northwestern affiliate staff must create an eIRB+ profile.
  • If you are conducting research sponsored by the US Department of Defense or Department of the Navy, additional training may be required and can be taken via the CITI website.  Please confirm with your sponsor what additional CITI training is appropriate for your role.
  • Optional Good Clinical Practice (GCP) modules are available for completion, but will NOT fulfill the requirement for human participant protection training.
  • For additional information please see our CITI FAQs

Instructions

If You Have a Northwestern University NetID

If You Do Not Have a Northwestern University NetID

  • If you are employed by Northwestern Medicine or Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, and do not already have a netID, you can request a guest or affiliate NetID through your department & NUIT (http://www.it.northwestern.edu/netid/guest.html ).  This will allow you to create a profile in eIRB+ and be included as a member of the Northwestern (and Northwestern affiliates) study team.
  • If you are unaffiliated with Northwestern a netID is not appropriate. In order to fulfill training requirements please see our Training Options for External Collaborators webpage.

If You Have Never Taken a CITI Course Before

  1. Go to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website (www.citiprogram.org)
  2. Select the “Log In Through My Organization” option on the top of the screen.
  3. A page will appear with a box, where you will type in Northwestern and select “Northwestern University” from the list.
  4. A Northwestern validation screen will come up.  Enter your NetID & password.
  5. Click the blue banner labeled “Northwestern University Courses”.
  6. Click “Add a Course or Update Learner Groups”.
  7. Select the appropriate course(s) for the research you will be conducting (i.e. Biomedical and/or Social Science and Behavioral Science).
  8. Click "Submit".
  9. Click the blue “Northwestern University Courses” banner on your Main Menu page.
  10. A table will drop down below with “incomplete” in the status column.
  11. Click the name of the course to be redirected to the content.
  12. After you have completed all of the modules and passed the quizzes with a score of 70% or better, you will be able to download and print a Course Completion Report. This report is a transcript providing a detailed record of your training.
NOTE: The NU IRB Office does not issue certificates of completion on behalf of CITI. You are strongly advised to retain a copy of the certificate for your records.

If You Need to Recertify and Take a Refresher Course

Follow these instructions if you have completed training before and need to take the refresher course (per policy every 3 years).  Please note, you may only take the refresher course 3 times.  After that, you are required to complete the Basic course again.

  1. Go to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website (www.citiprogram.org)
  2. Select the “Log In Through My Organization” option on the top of the screen.
  3. A page will appear with a box, where you will type in Northwestern and select “Northwestern University” from the list.
  4. A Northwestern validation screen will come up.  Enter your NetID & password.
  5. For Biomedical and Social Behavioral courses, CITI will automatically add the “Refresher” course to your list of courses 90 days before your CITI Training expires.  To complete the Refresher course before this time, please see instructions below*.
  6. Click the blue “Northwestern University Courses” banner on your Main Menu page.
  7. A table will drop down below with “incomplete” in the status column for Biomedical or Social Behavioral courses.
  8. Click the name of the course to be redirected to the content.
  9. After you have completed all of the modules and passed the quizzes with a score of 70% or better, you will be able to download and print a Course Completion Report. This report is a transcript providing a detailed record of your training.

If You Need to Recertify Before the Refresher Course is Available in your CITI Account

  1. Go to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website (www.citiprogram.org)
  2. Select the “Log In Through My Organization” option on the top of the screen.
  3. A page will appear with a box, where you will type in Northwestern and select “Northwestern University” from the list.
  4. A Northwestern validation screen will come up.  Enter your NetID & password.
  5. Click the blue “Northwestern University Courses” banner on your Main Menu Page.
  6. A table will drop down below showing your current course completions.
  7. Click the name of the course to access a list of the modules.
  8. Click the name of each module to be redirected to the content and the quiz.
  9. When you have completed all the required modules and save/print a copy of your completion certificate, the first page (with a green stripe) will still display the original date you completed the modules.  The second page (with a blue stripe) will list the most recent date you completed each module.
NOTE: The NU IRB Office does not issue certificates of completion on behalf of CITI. You are strongly advised to retain a copy of the certificate for your records.

If You Have Taken a CITI Course at Another Institution

  1. Send a copy of your previous CITI completion certificate/s to irbtraining@northwestern.edu 
  2. Go to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) website (www.citiprogram.org)
  3. Select the “Log In Through My Organization” option on the top of the screen.
  4. A page will appear with a box, where you will type in Northwestern and select “Northwestern University” from the list.
  5. A Northwestern validation screen will come up.  Enter your NetID & password.
  6. As part of the account setup, you will be asked if you have an existing CITI account. Answer "Yes " and provide the requested information.
  7. Your existing account will be affiliated with Northwestern and you will be able to log in via SSO with your NetID & password going forward.

If You Are Unable to Log In Using the Instructions Above

Submit a request to CITI support.