A basic tenet of the MSCI-TS Program is the expectation that MSCI-TS students should make a significant contribution to the peer reviewed literature. Thus, upon satisfactory completion of all required courses, and with the approval of the Supervising Professor and Research Supervising Committee (RSC), each student is required to submit a manuscript to the MSCI-TS COGS for review and approval towards their eligibility for candidacy for the MSCI-TS degree.
The manuscript must have already been submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal – it may have been submitted, in press, or published during the interval that the student was enrolled in the MSCI-TS Program.
- Manuscripts unrelated to the approved research project, such as case reports or book chapters, are not acceptable for completion of the manuscript requirement of the MSCI-TS degree.
- Students are not required to be the first author on the manuscript but must be a primary author. It is the consensus of the MSCI-TS COGS that the primary author is demonstrated as the 1st or 2nd author on a peer-reviewed publication. It is expected that students will be (or will share the position of) the primary author and that the manuscript will address the research project that was approved by the MSCI-TS COGS. If either of these is not the case, a detailed written explanation must be provided by the Supervising Professor.
- The manuscript should be provided to the Research Supervising Committee for review and approval at least 2 weeks prior to submission to the MSCI-TS COGS. When submitted to the RSC:
- It is required that the manuscript be evaluated by the Research Supervising Committee prior to submission for publication.
- The manuscript must be accompanied by a letter from the Supervising Professor that details the extent of the student’s participation in each stage of the research as well as their involvement/role in the development and preparation of the manuscript.
- After approval by the Research Supervising Committee, the Manuscript Approval Form should be completed and signed/dated by all members of the Research Supervising Committee.
- The manuscript can be submitted to the MSCI-TS COGS at any time; however, in cases with impending graduation deadlines, the approved manuscript should be provided to the MSCI-TS COGS at least two months (OCT/MAR) prior to the regularly scheduled graduation date established by the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS).
- When the manuscript is submitted to the MSCI-TS COGS, it should be accompanied by:
- Manuscript Approval Form
- Supervising Professor’s Letter (described above)
- Journal Submission Date: A dated notice (letter or e-mail) from the publisher that indicates manuscript submission/acceptance
- Student’s Manuscript, including tables and figures
- Manuscript Assessment Form (see Appendix)
- In keeping with the responsible conduct of research, all manuscripts must comply with the specific requirements of the journal (e.g., responsibilities of the corresponding author, conflict of interest statement). There will be no exception to this requirement.
- The MSCI-TS manuscript requirement applies to all students who seek to complete the MSCI-TS Program.
Once the Manuscript is approved and all other requirements have been completed successfully, the MSCI-TS COGS will then submit a graduation recommendation to the Dean of the Graduate School for Biomedical Science for awarding of the MSCI-TS degree.