IAN Subject Recruitment Sample Letter for Researcher Submission to the IRB

  • Purple indicates instructions or examples and should be removed prior to submission to your IRB.
  • Please have the IAN Research team review your subject recruitment letter prior to you submitting it to your IRB. The IAN Research team can be reached at .
  • Remember to include your IAN Subject Recruitment ID# in the subject line of all correspondence.
  • The four lines before the salutation are used for administrative and set-up purposes, so please include them even though they are not technically part of the email that IAN will send out.

IAN Subject Recruitment ID#(see online application confirmation email): SR????

Study Title(this verbiage appears where it says @@URLLink; keep the SR ID# in the title): Study Title(SR????)

Email Subject Line(this should be fewer than 60 characters, including spaces): Email Subject Line

Link(this is the link to where you will be directing your participants, which may be to a survey or a contact page; you do not need to know the link in order to subject your subject recruitment letter to your IRB): <Link>

Dear @@RecipientFirstName @@RecipientLastName,Do not change this paragraph.
When you joined the Interactive Autism Network (IAN) Research Project, we promised to inform you about research projects that might be of interest to you. Here is an invitation from a team of researchers seeking IAN Research Project participants. Do not change this paragraph.

This is an IAN 1-Click study! Please click on the appropriate link below to indicate whether or not you are interested in the study. Once you have clicked on either the "Interested" or "Not Interested/Don’t Qualify" link below, IAN will no longer send you notifications about this study.Do not change this paragraph.
Researchers at [put your institution here]are conducting an online study on [topic of study].This survey may help autism researchers learn about ….Put the name of your institution, your study title or topic, and the rationale for your study in this paragraph. Let potential participants know why you are doing the study and the value of your study.

Who qualifies?Parents of teens ages 13 – 17 years,with or without an autism spectrum disorder. Parents should reside in the United States.Put eligibility,relationship (e.g., parent), age, diagnosis, and geographic information in this paragraph. The included text is an example.

What is involved? Parents of eligible children are asked to completeaconfidential online survey regarding their teen’s use of technology. Thesurvey takesabout 30 minutes to complete andcan be completed in more than one sitting. Parents with more than one eligible teen may complete additional surveys. Put information about your survey, including what will be asked and how long it will take, in this paragraph. The included text is an example.

Questions?Please contact the Principal Investigator, Dr. John Scientist, at or xxx-xxx-xxxx.Put in contact information so that the PI or the research coordinator may be reached if the potential participant has a question. You should include an email address, if at all possible; however, you do not need to include a phone number if you have included an email address, although this would be preferable.

Please click on the appropriate link to indicate whether or not you are interested in this study:

Interested? Please click on this link when you are ready to start the survey:@@URLLink

Adjust the instructions as appropriate. Note whether the participant is going to a survey or a contact form.Indicate whether the survey or contact form has to be accessed via a desktop computer in the event that it is not mobile-device compatible. If the potential participant has to complete a survey all in one sitting, advise them to click on the link when they are ready to start the survey, as in the example above.

Not Interested/Don’t Qualify? @@NotInterestedLink
This link will take the IAN participant to a webpage that will let them know that their response has been recorded.

IAN Subject Recruitment ID:SR???.Enter your IAN SR ID# here. Your IRB may wish you to include information about your Principal Investigator and/or your IRB approval. You should keep the rest of this disclaimer.You do not have to participate in this study and your non-participation will neither affect the care you receive from any health provider nor your standing as a participant in IAN Research. IAN Research is serving as a resource linking the autism community and researchers. This study is not endorsed by or performed under the auspices of the IAN Research project at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Please email if you are no longer interested in receiving information about subject recruitment opportunities from IAN, or if you have any questions or concerns that you would like to share.