Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Projects done for class credit that involve conducting research on human subjects, such as surveys or interviews, must seek approval from the IRB. Students must have faculty approval to submit an IRB application.

Sometimes students feel like they need to create their own data for courses like statistics; however, collecting your own data means you have to seek IRB approval (which can take time and effort). There are lots of ways to gather data that don't require going to the IRB. Here are a couple of suggestions.

• Simple observation. To create a simple data set, observe something happening for a set period of time, like 30 minutes. Count how many people bring their own bags to the grocery store, vs. paying for store bags. Or count how many cars vs. trucks pass through a particular intersection.
• Download a data set. Here are some authorized (governmental) websites that allow you to download data:
  • United States Census Bureau
  • NOAA - historical weather by zip code
  • National Center for Education Statistics - Data Explorer
  • Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (K-12 data)

People from outside LCC that seek to conduct research on any person or group within the LCC community must seek IRB approval.

If you have received IRB approval from another entity, please include documentation with your LCC application. You must still seek approval from LCC before proceeding with your project.

LCC's Institutional Review Board is made up of representatives from institutional research, faculty, classified staff, and exempt staff. The department head for institutional research typically serves as chair.

LCC's review process is typically not lengthy, but please allow at least two weeks before you plan to start on your project.

Projects that do not comply with federal laws and college policy regarding protecting human subjects will not receive approval. For example, asking people to disclose illegal activity (which is protected by federal law) or asking questions that could negatively affect a person's mental state (such as asking them about past abuse or trauma) will generally not be approved. LCC is a community college, not a research or medical university. Other types of entities have access to resources to conduct those types of studies that LCC just doesn't have. 

Students and employees who violate LCC's Human Subject Protection policy, like other college policies, are subject to disciplinary action.