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Many things compete for a students’ time. Conducting research should be one them. When you conduct research, you produce original work under the guidance of a professor. It is an opportunity to work more closely with a professor on a topic of personal interest or pursue an independent project. Research can take many forms, from a creative activity like an original work of art, music or writing; the development of a computer app; or a series of experiments that answer a question or provides a new perspective. Participating in a research project builds job skills and professional relationships. It can lead to university recognition, conference presentations, or publication of an article. If graduate school is part of your future, research is a critical step to achieving that goal.

 

Don't wait for someone to contact you. Learn more about how to conduct research.

Each discipline conducts research differently, and the methods, tools, and evidence vary in the worlds of the hard sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Despite this diversity of approaches in conducting research, there are certain tools that most every researcher will employ in the process of inventing a research topic, exploring past work on the subject, performing original research, arranging the research results into an appropriate form for sharing with the larger research community, and presenting the finished product.

Undergraduate research is not complete until the results have been shared—it should never just be filed away in a drawer. There are numerous opportunities to present your research, including discipline-specific conferences in your field of study and undergraduate conferences held here on campus and at the statewide and regional level.

The Commonwealth Honors Program fulfills Salem State's commitment to provide a stimulating academic environment that offers a high quality education at an affordable cost. It's designed to offer a more challenging curriculum to students whose abilities and previous performance are demonstrably higher than the norm. All majors are eligible to participate in honors. All students in the honors program conduct a significant undergraduate research project, the honors thesis, as  part of the program requirements to graduate as a Commonwealth Honors Scholar. This honors thesis experience is supported by two courses,  the junior and senior seminars, which assist students in generating and pursuing their thesis project, and all students complete the project in a directed study or capstone course with a designated honors thesis advisor.