Doctoral and Master's Projects

Select master’s and doctoral programs at CSULB allow students to complete a project as a solo author or in groups as their culminating activity. Each program designates their own guidelines and requirements for their projects, including faculty committee composition, format, and deadlines.

Some CSULB graduate programs require their master’s and doctoral projects to be submitted to the Thesis and Dissertation Office for clearance, thereby adhering to those deadlines and formatting guidelines.  Doctoral projects not submitted to the Thesis and Dissertation Office must be published in ScholarWorks, as outlined below. Master's programs may require or provide the option to master's students to publish their project in ScholarWorks. Projects published in ScholarWorks do not adhere to the Thesis and Dissertation Office deadlines and formatting guidelines.

Select master’s programs at CSULB provide students with the option of completing a project as their culminating activity (click link for policy).

Per California Code of Regulations Title 5, the master’s degree project is defined as a “significant undertaking appropriate to the fine and applied arts or to professional fields. It evidences originality and independent thinking, appropriate form and organization, and a rationale. It is described and summarized in a written abstract that includes the project's significance, objective, methodology, and a conclusion or recommendation.” Thus, the work completed in a project provides creative and innovative productions, adds to the literature, and/or informs policy and practice. Programs may allow master's projects to be completed in groups.

To showcase master’s projects and increase their visibility and accessibility, and maintain projects in perpetuity, projects may be published in CSULB’s ScholarWorks  repository, where they will be publicly available to readers online. “ScholarWorks is a shared institutional repository that collects, preserves, and provides access to scholarship by research communities at The California State University. Collections include CSU faculty publications, student dissertations and theses, datasets, and teaching materials.” Some master’s programs may require students to publish their projects in ScholarWorks; others may require submission to the Thesis and Dissertation Office.

To publish in ScholarWorks, students must:

  1. Inform their project director and graduate advisor of their intent to submit;
  2. Receive final approval for their project;
  3. Complete and sign the Master’s Project Report Approval and Submission Form; and
  4. Submit a digital copy of the approved project to the graduate advisor or other individual who the program designated to upload the project to ScholarWorks.

The academic unit must maintain the signed Master’s Project Report Approval and Submission Form for ScholarWorks for each project. All contributors must sign the form.

Please note: Submitting the project to ScholarWorks for publication does not qualify as clearance to award the degree. For CSULB to award the degree for a particular semester, the program/graduate advisor must notify Enrollment Services that the project was successfully completed prior to the end of that semester. Students shall check the requirements and internal deadlines** set in their program and follow all the appropriate guidelines therein to ensure conditions for the degree are met.

*Each creator/author must sign the Master’s Project Report Approval and Submission Form for ScholarWorks for the work to be published. The academic unit must maintain the signed Master’s Project Agreement Form for ScholarWorks for each project.

**The Office of Graduate Studies, the Thesis & Dissertation Office, and the University Library do not have designated deadlines for publishing master’s projects in ScholarWorks.

Select Doctoral Programs at CSULB require Doctoral Projects as their culminating activity. Per California Code of Regulations Title 5, the doctoral project shall “demonstrate originality and critical and independent thinking… [evidence] the student's doctoral-level mastery of current evidence-based practice…[include] a written component that [– at a minimum –] identifies the research problem and question(s), states the major theoretical perspectives, explains the significance of the undertaking, relates it to the relevant scholarly and professional literature, identifies the methods of gathering and analyzing the data, and offers a conclusion or recommendation.”

To showcase doctoral projects, increase their visibility and accessibility, and maintain records of program completion in perpetuity, doctoral projects may be published in CSULB’s ScholarWorks  repository, where they will be publicly available to readers online. “ScholarWorks is a shared institutional repository that collects, preserves, and provides access to scholarship by research communities at The California State University. Collections include CSU faculty publications, student dissertations, doctoral projects, and theses, datasets, and teaching materials.” 

To publish in ScholarWorks, students must:

  1. Receive final approval for their doctoral project;
  2. Initiate and complete the Doctoral Project Approval and Submission Form in Docusign;
  3. Sign the Doctoral Project Approval and Submission Form*;
  4. Include the completed Doctoral Project Approval and Publication Form with all signatures as an appendix to the final project; and
  5. Submit a digital .pdf copy of the approved doctoral project to the person who the program designated to upload to ScholarWorks.

Please note: Submitting the doctoral project to ScholarWorks for publication does not qualify as clearance to award the degree. Students shall check the requirements and internal deadlines** set in their program and follow all the appropriate guidelines therein to ensure conditions for the degree are met.

*Each creator/author must complete and sign the Doctoral Project Approval and Publication Agreement Form for ScholarWorks for the work to be published. 

**The Office of Graduate Studies, the Thesis & Dissertation Office, and the University Library do not have designated deadlines for publishing doctoral projects in ScholarWorks.