Grade point: All graduate students are required to have a minimum grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 for graduation.
Time to completion: Ph.D. students are required to complete the program within eight years from the date of acceptance into candidacy. All requirements for the M.S. degree must be met within eight years from date of entry.
Registration: M.S. Candidates do not have to be registered the semester they graduate. The EEFE program will send a letter to the Graduate School when all requirements are met. Ph.D. Candidates must have continuous registration from passing comprehensives through graduation. However, if they have successfully defended their dissertation before the graduation semester starts, but after submission deadline for the current semester, they do not have to register for the graduation semester, e.g., complete defense by mid-August, which is too late for Summer graduation but before Fall semester begins, the student would not have to register for Fall even though that is when they would officially graduate. Students do not need to register for summer semesters unless the student will officially graduate at the end of the summer semester (August).
Scholarship and Research Integrity (SARI): Penn State requires graduate students to complete the Scholarship and Research Integrity (SARI) program as a requirement for graduation. The The SARI program has two parts:
Part I: CITI Online RCR Training Program
During the first year of enrollment, graduate students are required to complete an online Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training program provided by the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI). The training program is available at http://www.citiprogram.org/\. The first step is to register at this website. When doing so, please be sure to select Penn State as your affiliation. Once you have logged in and answered the appropriate question ("I need to take RCR training to satisfy requirements"). The online course consists of a series of modules. Each module contains text and case studies related to a topic followed by a quiz. Please note that it will take several hours (>5 hours) to complete the entire course, so it would be best to pace yourself and complete it one module at a time.
Student participation will be monitored by the Graduate Program Coordinator. Once you have completed the on-line training program, you will be required to upload the CITI certificate to LionPath. Students should also send a copy of the certificate that is received to the EEFE Graduate Program Coordinator to be kept in the student files. This will also notify the Graduate Program Coordinator that this has been completed and they can update your records in LionPath as fulfilling this requirement.
Part II: Five Hours of Discussion Based RCR Education
Graduate students are also required to engage in an additional 5 hours of discussion based RCR education prior to degree completion. This requirement is met in different ways by different graduate programs. The EEFE program requires students to take 2 credits of workshops offered on RCR topics by the Penn State Office or Research Protections (ORP). These workshops may be taken in the first or second year, but the EEFE program recommends students the second year.
In addition to these workshops, EEFE students are required to have 3 hours of discussion-based training in the second year of their program addressing the following topics: (1) Acquisition, management, sharing, and ownership of data; and (2) Publication practices and responsible authorship, and (3) Conducting peer review of scientific research, including manuscripts and proposals. The workshops are conducted by EEFE faculty (individually or in teams) with expertise in the workshop topics. Students are assigned readings to provide background information and principles for each topic. The workshops review principles but make extensive use of case studies to generate discussion. These three hours are fulfilled by taking EEFE 590.
Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines: M.S. and Ph.D. theses must conform to the regulations of the Graduate School as given in the Thesis Guide.
When the M.S. thesis or the Ph.D. dissertation is completed to the satisfaction of the student’s graduate committee and the final oral examination has been passed, the members of the candidate’s committee will sign the appropriate signatory page. After the foregoing are completed, the thesis/dissertation is to be submitted to the EEFE Program Chair for signature. The EEFE Program Chair will review the thesis/dissertation before providing the required signature. Each candidate is responsible for determining the time the EEFE Program Chair wishes for review far enough in advance of the submission deadline of the Graduate School that the review can be accomplished without undue time pressure. Do not make assumptions about the EEFE Program Chair schedule immediately before the Graduate School deadline. Inquire early!
A library containing electronic copies of student theses is maintained in by the EEFE program. Students are expected to provide the EEFE program a "pdf" copy of their theses for the library. A listserv has been created through which they can be sent – L-EEFE-Thesis@lists.psu.edu.
Penn State also maintains an electronic library of student theses for all graduate programs. Information on the availability of microfilm copies and/or descriptions of dissertations at other universities may be obtained through the Reference EEFE program of Pattee Library, 105 East Pattee. Students also submit electronic copies of their theses to the University's electronic theses and dissertations (eTD) program.
