Institutional Review Board (IRB)

The College of Southern Nevada encourages and supports the scholarly endeavors of students, faculty and staff of the College. Pursuit of scholarly work and research will often involve the use of human subjects for data collection and analysis. CSN's Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews research proposals that will involve human subjects to ensure that the rights and welfare of human subjects studies by College personnel are protected; that risks have been considered and minimized; that the potential for benefit has been identified and maximized; that all human subjects only volunteer to participate in research after being provided with legally effective informed consent; that any research is conducted in an ethical manner and in compliance with established standards. Those individuals seeking to conduct such research may not solicit subject participation or begin data collection until they have obtained clearance by the IRB.

Research can take many forms ranging from simple "blind" surveys to more complex interactions and data gathering methods. All of these research proposals need to be submitted to the IRB. While research may be "exempted" from further review because of its simple nature, such a determination must be made by the IRB.

Please review carefully the Institutional Review Board Policy as you begin to formulate your research plan and your request for IRB approval. The Policy addresses surveys and other similar no-risk or low-risk research techniques on Pages 5, and such requests can be submitted for exemption from full Board review. Please reference the Exempt from full Board Review Protocol Guide appended to the Policy.

All submittals should be sent to the IRB Chair, Dr. Margo Martin.

Institutional Review Board Members: