Student Research

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Honors in Research Guidelines

 

I. Objective

The Honors in Research Program (HRP) is an educational plan that provides an opportunity for eligible dental students to choose advanced study in dental research or basic health science and recognizes their accomplishments.

II. Goals

The goals of the HRP are to encourage critical thinking, support evidence-based approaches, and increase interest in academic and research careers as well as to recognize individual students who have acquired research skills and participated in research activities in addition to the required dental program.

III. Eligibility

Only students who are in good academic standing are eligible for the HRP. Participation in the HRP is on a voluntary basis. The selection of students to receive Honors in Research will be made by the Dean at the recommendation of the Research Advisory Committee.

IV. Description

Honors work consists of research in some aspect of dental or basic health science. Students are required to collect original research data. The work must be hypothesis driven. Library research papers (literature reviews) will not be accepted. A UMMC faculty member will directly supervise students. The HRP provides no stipends or fixed remuneration. However, students may receive payment for research assistance at the discretion of the sponsoring faculty member and/or department.

V. Guidelines

Each student is expected to abide by these guidelines:

  1. The student must be in good academic standing.
  2. The student must identify and obtain a faculty sponsor.
  3. The student must submit a written plan of study which clearly states the objectives to be accomplished to the Associate Dean for Research by the first day of October of his/her junior year. The plan of study must have the approval of the sponsoring faculty member. The requirement of submitting a plan of study may by waived in the case of a student who has already finished his/her junior year prior to the establishment of the HRP. The plan of study must contain:
  1. Student Honors in Research Transmittal Form
  2. Summary (abstract of no more than 200 words)
  3. Background (a review of the work previously done by others in the same area)
  4. Objective (statement of the hypotheses to be answered)
  5. Methods (details of the study protocols including materials/test subjects to be used, the statistical design and analysis methods, techniques, and a tentative schedule)
  6. Significance (a short paragraph describing the importance and/or novelty of the study)
  7. A list of all references cited
  8. Written permission of all pertinent compliance committees (Institutional Review Board, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Institutional Biosafety Committee, Radiation/Laser Safety Committee)
  1. Before beginning a study involving human subjects, the student must complete the IRB-approved continuing education course (CITI) in ethics and the protection of human research participants, and the student must continue the training annually while completing his/her study.
  2. If the student fails to maintain good academic standing, he/she will be disqualified from the HRP.
  3. If a student’s work in the HRP becomes unsatisfactory to the faculty sponsor member, the Associate Dean for Research will be so notified by the faculty sponsor. The Research Advisory Committee will decide whether the student should be disqualified from the HRP or encouraged to choose work in another field of dental science with another faculty member.

VI. Requirements

Before a student will be given credit for completion of his/her HRP the following requirements must be met:

  1. The student must have the approval of the Research Advisory Committee and the faculty sponsor.
  2. The student must disseminate his/her results outside of the UMMC SOD (e.g., abstract or poster at a national meeting, journal article).
  3. The student must present his/her results at the UMMC SOD Research Day.
  4. The student must submit a final report of his/her work to the Associate Dean for Research. To be acknowledged at commencement this report must be submitted by January 1st of his/her senior year.

The final report must contain:

  1. HRP transmittal form
  2. Summary (abstract of no more than 300 words)
  3. Background (a review of the work previously done by others in the same area)
  4. Objective (statement of the hypotheses answered)
  5. Methods (description of the study protocols including materials/test subjects used and their sources, the statistical design and analysis methods, and techniques described in such detail as to allow another researcher to reproduce the experiments)
  6. Results
  7. Discussion (description of important findings, a comparison of results to the previous results of others in the same area, an acknowledgement of the limitations of the study, and a list of unanswered questions)
  8. Conclusions (answers to the tested hypotheses based directly on observations made in the study)

When all requirements have been met, the Research Advisory Committee will then recommend to the Dean that the student receive Honors in Research. If the honors are awarded, they will be included on the student’s transcript upon completion of all requirements for graduation. Students who have met the January 1st deadline will be presented with a certificate at the appropriate school honors event, be listed in the graduation program at commencement, and be recognized by the student’s graduation attire (e.g., honor cords in gold to indicate science).