Review board Thank you for your interest in the tarrant county college district's institutional review board process. I will refer to the institutional review board simply as irb throughout this Article. 


I hope the next few minutes help you understand the irb process better. Federal regulations tccd's federal wide assurance require an irb review for all human subject research proposals. The tccd irb was established to protect the rights of human research subjects who participate in tccd research to ensure that these subjects receive appropriate information regarding their participation to ensure that researchers protect private information and to provide oversight of researcher qualification credentials.

  1. To determine if you need to go through the irb process first ask yourself is your project considered research and does your research involve human subjects tccd defines research as systematic investigation including research development, testing and evaluation designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge a human subject is a living person some examples participant data collection include but are not limited to questionnaires and surveys interviews and behavioral or classroom observations.

  2. If your research involves human subjects or identifiable data on human participants you must gain irb approval prior to conducting your research and if your project is considered research and your research involves human subjects proceed to step two.


  • The next step is completing irb training if you're planning to submit a research proposal through the irb you must complete training prior to any submissions for approval training is offered online through the national institutes of health.

  •  Further details about registering for training and course completion can be found on the tccd irb website the third step is to determine what type of review you require. There are three types of initial irb reviews: exempt, expedited, and full.

In an exempt review research activity is not monitored by the irb.The ethical principles of conducting human subject research still apply to exempt research and expedited review is typically carried out by the irb chair or their designee and involves research that doesn't involve more than minimal risk to participants.

Minimal risk is defined as the probability and magnitude of harm or discomfort anticipated in the research are not greater and those encountered in daily life or through the performance of routine physical or psychological axioms or tests.

A full review is necessary when the irb chair deems participant risk is more than minimal or when the chair disapproved an expedited review and moves the research project to full committee review.

Note that it is not up to you to determine whether your project is exempt. If you believe your project is exempt, please submit your research application to the irb selecting exempt from the category of review once it's been determined which review is necessary for your research please fill out the appropriate forms. These include the review form the principal investigator cover sheet the informed consent form checklist and any other necessary forms email the documents to the tccd irb at irb.

Irpe2 @tccd.Edu these review forms are available through the tccd irb website.

Now it's time to wait while the irb reviews your proposal. There are many considerations that the irb must remember when going through your proposal but first and foremost the irb's priority is to focus on factors promoting tccd's mission.

Any submitted proposal must meet the minimum standard of having the likelihood of providing knowledge that contributes to the long-term success of tccd's faculty staff and students. Some other considerations examined are:

Has the proposal clearly articulated how findings will be communicated to the tccd community?

If you are a student have you identified a tccd full-time faculty or staff member who is willing to serve as the internal sponsor for your research obtained written acceptance your sponsorship and identified the value of your research findings to your area of responsibility in the opinion irb have the individuals making up their research sample been overly burdened with requests to serve as research subjects?

Have all costs which will be incurred by the tccd community been fully considered do the benefits outweigh the costs and have provisions been made to reimburse tccd for any unusual data collection expenses.

  1. Has your research been determined to be in compliance with family educational rights and privacy act or ferpa requirements. And lastly in the opinion of the irb is your research design sufficiently vigorous to lead to meaningful insights.
  2. The irb will attempt to review proposals within four weeks of their receipt. Proposals submitted during the summer during district holidays may be delayed since the proposal may not be approved as submitted you should allow sufficient time for the committee to re-review your proposal. The irb will notify you in writing a decision regarding your proposal.


Once you gain approval from the irb you can begin your research maintain related research records request research modifications if required and report any adverse events. If you're still working on your research study at the eleven month mark, you must re-submit your research and obtain continued irb approval prior to the one year anniversary.

Federal regulations state that irb approval is only valid for one year. By completing a continuing review form, this document will help you re-evaluate your projects risks, benefits, informed consent, and participant safeguards.

If it is deemed that there is less than minimal risk for participants the continuing review will be reviewed by the irb chair. If there is more than minimal risk, the project will be reviewed by the full irb.

Full reviews require you to provide a summary protocol and a status report on the number of subjects accrued or withdrawn, a summary of adverse events, any research complaints received any new risks that may be present, new informed consent from participants and a summary of any new literature regarding the research topic.

The last step of the process is to submit a research closure form. Once you finish your research study you are required to submit this form along with a copy of your final research report to the irb. This notifies irb that its oversight responsibilities are over.

For a full description of the irb's processes, please see irb charter found on the tccd irb website. Please contact the tccd irb

At 817 515 1516 or irb.Irpe2 @tccd.Edu with further questions.

We look forward to assisting you with your research.