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Graduate Student Research Requirements

September 30, 2025

Are you planning on advising graduate students with their human research or are you a graduate student planning to conduct human research? There are additional requirements to be aware of for graduate student research at MSU. Graduate student research refers to research conducted to fulfill graduate degree requirements, i.e., preparation of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations. Presently, MSU masters’ theses and Ph.D. dissertations are considered to present generalizable knowledge and require submission to the MSU IRB office if the graduate student plans to conduct research or a clinical investigation with human subjects. This submission and a determination from the MSU IRB office must be obtained before any research or clinical investigation with human subjects begins. Graduate students who conduct human subject research for their thesis/dissertation must provide a copy of their MSU IRB determination letter to the Graduate school with their form for final submission of their thesis/dissertation.

In the case of graduate student research for theses or dissertations, the graduate student’s major advisor or another faculty member should be designated on the IRB application as the principal investigator (PI) and the graduate student should be designated as a co-investigator. For more information on who can serve as PI on a human research study, please see HRPP Manual 4-9, Designation as Principal Investigator

If the graduate student research involves collaborations with individuals or institutions beyond MSU, appropriate approvals or permissions must also be obtained. These approvals / permissions are in addition to the required submission to the MSU IRB office.

If you think the graduate student activity is not research or a clinical investigation with human subjects, we highly recommend the graduate student submit an application in Click (IRB online submission system) and attach the HRP-512-Template-Determination of Human Subject Research to obtain a formal letter from the MSU IRB office to provide to the Graduate school.

For more information on graduate student research, please visit https://hrpp.msu.edu/help/A-Z/graduate-student.html

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