Welcome to the Lone Star College (LSC) Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research. The LSC IRB exists as a safeguard to promote the ethical and responsible treatment of human subjects in research, and to encourage research within LSC.

**If you are requesting data from Analytics & Institutional Reporting ("AIR") for your research, you MUST complete the Dissertation Data Request Form and submit it to AIR along with your approval letter from the LSC IRB. 

**If you are a Lone Star College Honors Student, please DO NOT send your applications directly to the IRB.  Please review the Honors IRB Cheat Sheet for information regarding approval. 

The LSC Institutional Review Board reviews human subject research to ensure that:

• The rights and welfare of human subjects are protected.
• Risks have been considered and minimized.
• Potential benefits have been identified and maximized.
• All potential participants are being provided with legally effective informed consent.
• All research is completed in an ethical manner, and in compliance with established standards.
• All private information is kept confidential.

The LSC IRB does not give permission to conduct research.  The IRB only approves the method by which you perform your research as it relates to the protection of human subjects.  Permission to conduct research is granted by the appropriate Location Executive Officer ("LEO"), depending upon where the research is being conducted.  The LEO is the President of the individual campus or the Chancellor if the study will be system-wide.

The LSC IRB is composed of faculty members, administrators who have responsibility for research, institutional researchers, and members from the community. The human subjects review process is administered through the office of Resource Development and Administration.

FERPA guidelines protect private information about students in Lone Star College.  Requests for all student information must go through the LSC Analytics and Institutional Reporting (AIR). Approval of your IRB research application does not mean that data from AIR will be made available to you. Please note that researchers from outside LSC may only be given directory information from AIR. For details, see our policy on student records protected by FERPA, which can be accessed here.

If you are a researcher, please click on Getting Started to see the appropriate steps for submitting an application for review. You can access the Research Application Forms from the Getting Started page.  Please note that there is a separate application form for LSC faculty who are doing Class Projects. Current LSC faculty working on dissertations or theses, if not using LSC students, faculty or staff as research subjects, may submit an approved IRB from their home institution in lieu of an LSC IRB application. Approval is not guaranteed.  At the discretion of the IRB Committee,  you may be asked to fill out an LSC application as well.

Research Application Form

Please see Frequently Asked Questions  to get a general overview of the IRB responsibilities and general definitions.  There are several helpful documents in the IRB Links and Training Information section that can help you in filling out your application.

History of Approved Research

IRB History of Approved Research (FY16-FY22)

IRB Committee Members and Staff