Students who plan to graduate on June 30 of year two should follow the below timeline. Those who do not follow the timeline will not be making satisfactory progress in the program, which can result in academic probation and eventually dismissal from the program.

CRTP students who apply and are accepted to the MSCR program and who plan to graduate on June 30 should follow the below timeline:

Students who have been granted permission to delay their graduation to September 30 should follow the below timeline. Those who do not follow the timeline below will not be making satisfactory progress in the program, which can result in academic probation and eventually dismissal from the program.

Master’s Thesis First Draft

A first draft of your master’s thesis should be read and approved by your mentor, and subsequently uploaded using the online Master’s Thesis First Draft Approval form. Your mentor will be able to access the form and approve or not approve your first draft. If approved, the first draft will be forwarded to a CLR Program Director, who will provide a grade of “approved without revisions,” “approved with minor revisions,” or “approved with major revisions.” The Program Director will upload a copy of your first draft along with written feedback and requests for revisions, which the student should integrate into their final draft.

Your first draft should not be an outline of your project; it should be a full first draft. Failure to submit a complete first draft will result in a potential delay of your graduation. The first draft should be submitted as a Word document to allow for tracked changes and feedback provided by the program leadership, and should include all of the sections required in a manuscript including:

• Statement of purpose

• Background

• Hypothesis

• Specific aims

• Research design

• Methods

• Results

• Conclusion

Annual Best MSCR Thesis Prize

Each year, prior to graduation, the best MSCR thesis (or theses) will be selected by the program leadership and awarded a prize for the best thesis, to be presented at the annual graduation achievement awards ceremony. The awardees are selected based upon the first draft of their thesis.

Master’s Thesis Final Draft

When submitting your final draft, be sure to address all questions, concerns, and requested revisions provided to you by the program in your first draft. Your final draft should be read and approved by your mentor and then uploaded as a Word document using the online Master’s Thesis Final Draft Approval form. Your mentor will be able to access the form and approve or not approve the final draft. If approved, the final draft will be forwarded to a CLR Program Director, who will provide a grade of “approved without revisions,” “approved with minor revisions,” or “approved with major revisions.” The Program Director will upload a copy of your final draft along with written feedback and/or requests for revisions. Students who are approved with major or minor revisions must make the requested revisions and submit a new Master’s Thesis Final Draft Approval form along with the revised final draft. Once the final draft has been “approved without revisions,” students may begin the process of depositing the thesis to ProQuest.

In order to graduate, the following materials must submitted in addition to the thesis:

• Master’s thesis evaluation report: The thesis research mentor must complete and sign this form, and the student should then upload to Blackboard.

• PDF of approval pages: Create a title page, copyright page and approval page, according to the templates provided in the Depositing your Master’s Thesis Guide. Obtain your thesis research mentor’s signature on the approval page. Upload all three pages (including the signed approval page) as a single document to Blackboard. The Program Manager will obtain the Program Director’s signature for your approval form, and email to you the signed pages.

• Final formatted version of thesis: Add the title, copyright and signed approval pages to your thesis, which should be formatted according to the Depositing your Master’s Thesis Guide. Upload this final document to both ProQuest and Blackboard.

• Student check-out form: Complete the online Student Checkout form. Once submitted, the bursar, library, registrar and CLR program will provide electronic signatures clearing you for graduation.

• Graduating student exit survey: Upon completion of the Student Checkout form, you will receive a graduating student exit survey via email, which you are required to complete.

Experience researching and writing a thesis provides the MSCR student with an opportunity to explore and further develop ideas from lessons learned during coursework, apply them to a specific research endeavor, and demonstrate the student’s mastery of clinical/translational research within a particular area of interest.

The process of completing a Master's Thesis includes the following steps:

• Registration, Mentor Selection, and Thesis Proposal

• Master's Thesis First and Final Drafts

• Timelines for the Master's Thesis and Forms

• Student Checkout Requirements

Registration for Master’s Thesis Credits (CLR0001)

All students are required to register for at least five master’s thesis credits (course number CLR0001). Students who take CLR0008 Introduction to Health Survey Research Methods for two credits as their chosen elective, must register for at least six credits of CLR0001. Students must register for the master’s thesis credits prior to graduation. They may register for these credits during the Fall, Spring I or Spring II terms of year two. In special cases, student may receive permission from the program to register for these credits in Spring II of year one. In select instances, and in particular for those conducting patient-oriented laboratory research, students will be permitted by the program leadership to apply additional credits towards their master’s thesis in lieu of additional courses.

Mentor Selection and Master’s Thesis Proposal Process

First-year MSCR students should meet early on with their faculty advisors and program administration to identify an appropriate mentor for their thesis project. They may also wish to consult the Emerging Investigators website, which provides advice and resources for students embarking on mentored research projects. The student, together with their thesis mentor(s), should complete the online Research Agreement form indicating willingness to serve as a thesis research mentor, and specifying the research question and data source. The Research Agreement form must be submitted online by June 1 of the first year in the MSCR program. MSCR program leadership will review the Research Agreement form and either approve or not approve the mentor and choice of project. If not approved, program leadership and the faculty advisor will work with the student to make revisions. The student must then resubmit this form for final approval by the CLR leadership.

Master’s Thesis Proposal and Form

The Master’s Thesis Proposal and Form are due on September 10 of year two, and should be completed and uploaded online. The proposal should be no longer than three pages, must be approved by the thesis research mentor before submitting to the program, and contain the following sections:

• Study title

• Rationale for the study/gap in knowledge being addressed

• Hypothesis

• Specific aims

• Patient population

• Study design and analytical methods

• Responsibilities of student and skills that will be acquired by student for the project (include what the student will do and how the mentor will help)

• Timeline for research

• Whether project requires IRB approval or is exempt

• Potential statistical tests

• Possible figures and tables

Once the proposal and form are submitted to the CLR Program, the Director and Associate Director will review and decide if the proposed project is approved or needs to be further refined or revised. If revisions are required, the student must resubmit the proposal for final approval. Students must receive approval from the program before moving forward with their proposed research.

Please note that a student may submit for their Master’s Thesis a first-author manuscript either submitted for publication, accepted for publication or published during their training which is reflective of their Master’s Thesis work. In this instance, a statement of purpose, introduction, and discussion regarding the findings and impact of the work will need to be added.

Students previously in the CRTP Program who transfer into the MSCR Students who are accepted into the MSCR program, having successfully completed the CRTP, will be entering the second year of the MSCR program, since they will have completed in their CRTP program all of the first year MSCR coursework requirements, with the exception of CLR0011 Grant Writing, the three-term Journal Club sequence, and an elective course.

Students who transfer into the MSCR will be required to declare their mentor and research project by submitting the Research Agreement form no later than September 30. Their full proposal will be required by November 15 of that same year.