1. An Independent Research Project may be initiated in two ways: a) a faculty member may propose a research project or b) a student may write his or her own research proposal, solely authored or co-authored with other students and/or faculty. In the latter case, the student(s) must have the approval and sign-off of the proposal by the faculty member serving as the Instructor for the course offering prior to its submission to the Research Sequence Chair.
2. A proposal for an Independent Research Project must include the title, a statement of purpose of the research project, research methodology, the research tasks to be required from the student and the intended field(s) of practice Specialization(s). The proposal, especially if faculty generated, may also include other pertinent information such as a reading list, timing of assignments, grading criteria and other instructional information.
3. An Independent Research Project may consist of the entire research process including problem formulation, data collection/analysis, and reporting, or it may include only one or more of these major activities. If only some research activity or activities will be included, the research experience for students should be sufficiently substantive for co-authorship and should be done with a clear understanding of the meaning of the tasks within the context of the entire research process.
4. The research methodology should be explicit and logically sound for the research problem and ethically appropriate for studying the population involved. Each independent Research Project proposal must be submitted to the Research Sequence which will determine if it qualifies as satisfying the advanced research requirement. Since projects involving data from or about human subjects must be approved by IRB (see 5) and all proposals must be approved by the student's Specialization Chair, an Independent Research Project proposal should be submitted to the Research Sequence Chair and the Associate Dean for the Masters Program according to the following schedule:
For the Spring Semester: faculty proposals by September 30th, student initiated proposals by October 30th.
For the Fall Semester: faculty proposals by February 28, student initiated proposal by March 28th
Proposals submitted after these dates will not be received or considered by the Research Sequence Faculty.
5. If the 789 Project involves collecting data from or about human subjects, the proposal must be approved by the University of Maryland Baltimore Institutional Review Board prior to collecting any data. Forms, deadlines, and/or information about IRB requirements may be obtained from the IRB Administrator, Room 14-016 Bressler Building, 706-5388.
6. Decisions by the Research Sequence will be forwarded to the author(s), the Instructor, and the Associate Dean. Subsequent to approval by the Research Sequence and prior to registration, the independent Research Project proposal must be submitted to each student's Specialization Chair who will determine if it satisfies the student's specialization requirement.
7. The expected outcome of an Independent Research Project is a research report, including an abstract, authored or co-authored by the student(s), in journal article, APA, or other standard academic style. This report with the Instructor's signature of approval, should be submitted to the Associate Dean for the Master's Program.
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