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Style Guide: Graduate Thesis, Capstone Project, and Dissertation

The style guide for Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations at Dominican University of California

Human Subjects Research

If your thesis includes data obtained from human subjects (experiments, surveys, interviews, etc.), you must get approval from Dominican's Institutional Review Board.  Information concerning the use of human subjects is available on the Review Board's webpage.

Human subjects research approval must be obtained from Dominican prior to the initiation of the research (i.e., before recruitment of subjects into the research and before any data is collected), regardless of whether you are doing your research in conjunction with another institution and human subjects research approval has been sought there.  Failure to obtain the necessary approval and submit the appropriate documentation can result in the rejection of your thesis and can cause delays in your graduation.

Once the approval has been obtained, you should attach a copy of the permission letter with the submission of your thesis.  While it is acceptable to include the IRB approval letter as an appendix in the thesis if this is a format required by your department, we recommend omitting any personal contact information (e.g., your address, phone number, signatures), as your thesis will be available to the public. If you need assistance in redacting personal information from the IRB, please contact the Library at dominican.scholar@dominican.edu.