OHS Capstone Information
The Capstone serves as the culminating academic requirement of the MS in Oral Health Sciences program. Students select a research topic relevant to the field of dentistry and, under the guidance of a faculty mentor, conduct a comprehensive review and critical synthesis of the scientific literature. Students demonstrate their mastery of the topic and their ability to communicate scientific concepts clearly and professionally through a scholarly oral presentation or written paper.
Topics can cover many different fields related to dentistry, including:
- Community or public health dentistry
- Dental disparities (US or abroad)
- Hot topics in dental research (e.g. tissue regeneration, new materials, artificial intelligence, etc)
- Current clinical approaches and practices
Capstones are graded as Pass/Fail and must follow all content and format guidelines. See the Guidelines (below) for additional details and important information.
All students planning to complete the Capstone must submit the Capstone Proposal form by the deadline.
Capstone Mentor Review Forms
All students must meet with their capstone by the deadline and submit the completed Capstone Mentor Review form. The form must be signed by both the student and mentor. Please download and save the form as a pdf. Once completed, send to your mentor as a pdf for their signature before submitting to the program.
Capstone Presentation Mentor Review Form
Capstone Paper Mentor Review Form
Capstone Paper: Outline and Introduction Draft Information
Submit the following as two separate documents to your mentor by the deadline.
Outline
- Use the outline template provided during the Biomedical Information course
- Use bullets in all sections
- Always include citations when applicable
- Include your annotated bibliography
- All references must be in APA format
- Send the draft to your mentor in .docx format
Introduction
- The draft of your Introduction section must be written using the Capstone Template
- Only include references that you have cited in your written capstone in the References section of the template. Do not include references from your outline that you have not cited in your capstone yet.
- All references must be in APA format
- Send the draft to your mentor in .docx format
- When your mentor reviews your draft, they will be adding comments and using the ‘Track Changes’ feature in MS Word to add their edits. If you are unfamiliar with this feature, please review this Microsoft webpage: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/track-changes-in-word-197ba630-0f5f-4a8e-9a77-3712475e806a
Artificial Intelligence Policy and Disclosure Template
If an AI tool is used, it must be used in a manner that supports learning and academic integrity. Students may not use AI software, tools, or add-ons to generate written content submitted for the capstone project. This includes, but is not limited to, literature summaries, synthesized text, interpretations, or conclusions. However, AI tools may be used for limited support functions such as brainstorming topic ideas, outlining, formatting, and organizing work. In addition, basic grammar and mechanics assistance (e.g. spelling, punctuation, and syntax checks) using tools such as Grammarly is permitted. Students are responsible for ensuring that all submitted work reflects their own original ideas, analysis, and writing.
AI Use Disclosure Statement Template
Turnitin Plagiarism Check
All students should already have access to GMS Plagiarism Check in Blackboard. If it doesn’t appear in your list of courses in Blackboard, do a course search for “Plagiarism”. If it does not appear, then use this link to request access: Plagiarism-Check Blackboard site.
In Blackboard, select the GMS Plagiarism Check course. Next, select ‘Plagiarism Check’ and follow the directions to upload documents. Once the check has completed, download the full Turnitin report (pdf).
- Upload Capstone documents
- Final score must be below 20% for all capstone documents
- Download the full pdf
- See detailed instructions in the Capstone Guidelines
Capstone Submission Checklist