1. Who we are, and who we are not
waldenirb.com is an independent consultation practice. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Walden University, and it does not speak for Walden's Institutional Review Board or any other board. Walden's name and marks belong to Walden University and are used only to say which school's process the desk handles. Every decision about your application rests with the board alone.
2. What the service is
The desk handles the Walden IRB process end to end, in the three packages described on the pricing page: the determination reading and the plan; the preparation of every document the board reads — the application, consent, recruitment materials, instruments alignment, the data security plan, letters of cooperation and data use agreements drafted for signature; and, under Full Handover, the submission in your name and every reply to the board until the approval letter. The free application review is a reading of what you have, returned in writing, with no fee and no obligation.
3. What the service is not
The desk does not conduct research. We do not design your study, collect or analyze data, or author findings; the study, its data and its conclusions are yours and are answered for by you to your committee and to Walden. We do not give legal advice, and nothing on this site or in a letter from the desk is legal advice. We do not substitute our reading for Walden's current handbook or IRB portal, which govern where they speak.
4. Your responsibilities
You remain the researcher of record. You confirm that what you give the desk is accurate and is yours to give; that you hold, or will hold, the training and approvals Walden requires of you; that you will not recruit participants or touch data before the board's approval letter exists; and that you will conduct the study as the approved file describes it. You are responsible for complying with Walden's policies, including its policies on academic integrity and on the conduct of research, and you confirm that engaging the desk for the IRB process is consistent with them as you understand them; where you are unsure, ask Walden first.
5. No guarantee of decision or timing
The board's decision is its own. The desk does not promise that any application will be approved, that it will be approved on a particular path, that it will be returned a particular number of times, or that the board will act within any period. What the desk promises is the work described in the quote letter, done with the care described on this site.
6. Fees
Every fee is a fixed fee for a named package, stated in writing in the quote letter after the free application review. Fees are never hourly and do not change with how many times the board writes back or how long it takes. Payment timing, any instalments, and what happens if an engagement ends early are stated in the quote letter. A candidate may move from one package to another; the step is quoted in writing, and fees already paid count toward the larger package.
7. Confidentiality
What you send the desk stays within the desk, as the privacy notice describes. We do not disclose your engagement to Walden, to any board, or to anyone else without your written instruction, unless the law requires it. Letters published on the testimonials page appear only with the candidate's permission and under a first name and initial.
8. The documents
Documents the desk prepares for you are prepared for your file and your use in the Walden IRB process. Once the fee for them is paid, they are yours to file, revise and keep. The desk keeps its own copy for the period the privacy notice describes, and uses nothing from your file in any other candidate's.
9. Limits
The desk's responsibility under an engagement is limited to the work described in the quote letter and, in money, to the fee paid for it. The desk is not responsible for the board's decisions, for a partner site's refusal or delay in signing, for changes Walden makes to its process, or for consequences that follow from information you gave the desk that was not accurate or not yours to give.
10. Changes, and how to reach us
These terms may change; the revision date at the top changes with them, and an engagement already under way continues on the terms in its quote letter. Questions go to hello@waldenirb.com or the contact page. The accessibility page says how the site is built to be usable, and how to ask for anything on it in another form.
— the desk