Terms of service

1. Who we are

aspenirb.com is operated by an independent consultation practice (“the practice,” “we”). We are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Aspen University. Aspen University and its related names and marks belong to their respective owners and appear on this site only to identify the institution whose review process is discussed. We are not an institutional review board, we do not sit on one, and we do not represent any university.

2. What the service is

IRB consultation and preparation, end to end: reading a file the way the board will and writing the findings (the free application review); settling the review category from the design with a written rationale and fixing the plan; preparing every document in the file — application, consent, recruitment materials, instruments alignment, data-security plan, site permission letters drafted for signature; preparing the submission and filing it with you; and drafting every reply to the board — revision responses, amendments, continuing review, closure — until the board has decided. Which of these a given engagement includes is stated in the written quote you accept.

3. What the service is not

• We do not conduct research. We do not design your study for you, recruit participants, collect or analyse data, or author findings. The project, its design, its data and its findings are yours.
• We do not submit anything under our own name. You are the investigator of record; the board hears from you, and documents go to the board under your signature and through the process Aspen currently prescribes for your program.
• We do not represent any university and cannot speak for, predict, or influence any board. The board’s decision is always its own.
• We do not give legal advice. Content on this site is general information about review processes, offered without warranty, and is not a substitute for Aspen’s current handbook, IRB portal, or policies, which govern.

4. No guarantee of outcome

Nothing on this site and nothing in an engagement promises, predicts, or guarantees a determination, an approval, a review level, or a date. What we undertake is the quality and completeness of the file the board reads and, where the engagement includes it, that every letter the board writes is answered. Track-record figures on this site describe the practice’s history; they are not a forecast for any individual file.

5. Fees

• The application review is free and carries no obligation.
• Work beyond it is quoted in writing as a fixed fee for a named package — Determination & Plan, The Complete File, or Full Handover — with what it covers, what it does not, and the payment schedule. There is no hourly billing.
• Work starts on your written acceptance. Changes of scope are quoted in writing before work on them begins.
• Within Full Handover, every reply to the board until its decision is included in the fee.
• Invoices follow the schedule in the quote. No charge appears that was not in the quote.

6. Your responsibilities

• To give us accurate information and the file as it stands, and to tell us when something changes — the design, a site, a supervisor’s instruction.
• To obtain signatures from people with authority to give them, and to review and approve every document before it is filed under your name.
• To follow Aspen’s current handbook, policies and academic-integrity requirements, and your program’s instructions about outside assistance. You are responsible for what is submitted under your name; if your program restricts the help you may receive, it is your responsibility to know and to tell us.
• Not to collect any data before the board’s written determination.

7. Confidentiality

What you send us is read by the practice and nobody else, held under access control, and never shared with Aspen University, any board, any site, or any third party except where a law compels disclosure. The privacy page sets out what is kept and for how long.

8. The documents we prepare

Documents prepared for you under an accepted quote are yours on payment of the fee: you may file them, revise them, and keep them. We keep working copies for the purposes and period described on the privacy page. Materials on this site — text, drawings, the inspection instrument — belong to the practice and may be quoted with attribution but not reproduced wholesale.

9. Limits of liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, the practice’s liability for any claim arising from an engagement is limited to the fees paid for that engagement, and the practice is not liable for indirect or consequential loss — including a delayed or unfavourable board decision, a missed program deadline, or loss of data held by others. Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited.

10. Using this site

You may read, link to and quote this site. You may not scrape it for resale, attack it, or use its forms and chat to send anything unlawful. The widgets — forms, chat, the seasonal offer — are offered as they are and may be unavailable from time to time.

11. Changes, and how to reach us

When these terms change, the revision date at the top changes with it; an accepted quote is governed by the terms in force when it was accepted. Questions go to hello@aspenirb.com or the contact page.