Graduate Research Supporting Services

Advancement of knowledge through research at Oregon State University is encouraged and assisted by several institutional agencies. These efforts are coordinated through the University Research Office.

Opportunities for research as an integral part of graduate education are afforded in a wide range of fields sponsored by experiment stations, institutes, centers, and individual departments. Graduate students normally develop research programs and apply for assistantships through the academic units. In this way, the expertise, guidance, and facilities of the research agencies support and supplement the graduate education opportunities of the university.

Certain university-wide services are available as an aid to thesis research. These include statistical consulting by the Department of Statistics, laboratory animal support from the Laboratory Animal Resources Center, approval of human subjects research by the Institutional Review Board, and the Illinois Researcher Information Service (IRIS) from the OSU Libraries. The IRIS database is available to OSU students through the World Wide Web and may be searched by subject key words, academic discipline, or sponsor: http://www.epa.gov/iris/.

The OSU Libraries subscribe to hundreds of research databases and online journals, most accessible from the libraries’ Web site at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/. Information about off-campus access to library resources is available at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/offcampus/remote.htm.  

The OSU Libraries Online Catalog identifies books and journals owned by OSU and held in the OSU Valley Library (Corvallis), Guin Library (Hatfield Marine Science Center–Newport, Oregon) and on the OSU-Cascades campus (Bend, Oregon). The online catalog also provides access to the collections of other Oregon and Washington academic libraries through the Orbis Cascade Alliance Summit catalog. Books not available at OSU can be requested through Summit for delivery within three business days. Interlibrary loan (ILL) service is offered for graduate students and faculty for articles not available at OSU or books not available through the Alliance libraries. Articles are generally delivered electronically. The length of time and conditions of use for borrowed items are set by the lending library. Additional information about ILL services is at: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/ill/.  

Subject librarians are available to answer questions, to meet for individual research consultations and can provide library instruction for classes. Librarians for each department are listed at http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/staff/sublist.html. For OSU-Cascades see http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/cascades/ and for Guin Library see http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/guin/.

Faculty members and doctoral candidates are eligible to apply for 90-day access to research rooms. PhD candidates are cautioned to ask for assignment for the period when they will have the most need of such a facility. More information, including application procedures are available at: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/circ/rooms.html.  

For more information on these services and a complete listing of library services for graduate students, visit http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/services/graduate.html. For in person assistance, visit the library’s reference desk or contact the subject librarian for your department.

Many departments offer departmental libraries, journal clubs, and outside seminar speakers, as well as opportunities for graduate students to present seminars.

Complete information regarding the university’s libraries; museums, galleries, and collections; information services; and the Research Office, may be found under the University Information heading on the home page of this catalog.

Institutional Review Board Approval of Human Subjects Research

The requirement for IRB review of research involving human subjects is based upon research ethics and federal law, and the implications of conducting human subjects research without IRB approval are significant. Failure to follow this policy places both the individual and the institution at risk: the individual may be subject to university sanctions and/or incur personal liability for negligence and harm; the university could loose access to federal funding or be forced to cease all human subjects research. Consult the OSU Human Subjects Handbook (which is available on the Web at http://oregonstate.edu/research/ori/humansubjects.htm for more details.