submit the thesis

Think of yourself as a member of a jury, listening to a lawyer who is presenting an opening argument. You'll want to know very soon whether the lawyer believes the accused to be guilty or not guilty, and how the lawyer plans to convince you. Readers of academic essays are like jury members: before they have read too far, they want to know what the essay argues as well as how the writer plans to make the argument. After reading your thesis statement, the reader should think, "This essay is going to try to convince me of something. I'm not convinced yet, but I'm interested to see how I might be."

An effective thesis cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." A thesis is not a topic; nor is it a fact; nor is it an opinion. "Reasons for the fall of communism" is a topic. "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" is a fact known by educated people. "The fall of communism is the best thing that ever happened in Europe" is an opinion. (Superlatives like "the best" almost always lead to trouble. It's impossible to weigh every "thing" that ever happened in Europe. And what about the fall of Hitler? Couldn't that be "the best thing"?)

A good thesis has two parts. It should tell what you plan to argue, and it should "telegraph" how you plan to argue—that is, what particular support for your claim is going where in your essay.

Steps in Constructing a Thesis

First, analyze your primary sources.  Look for tension, interest, ambiguity, controversy, and/or complication. Does the author contradict himself or herself? Is a point made and later reversed? What are the deeper implications of the author's argument? Figuring out the why to one or more of these questions, or to related questions, will put you on the path to developing a working thesis. (Without the why, you probably have only come up with an observation—that there are, for instance, many different metaphors in such-and-such a poem—which is not a thesis.)

Once you have a working thesis, write it down.  There is nothing as frustrating as hitting on a great idea for a thesis, then forgetting it when you lose concentration. And by writing down your thesis you will be forced to think of it clearly, logically, and concisely. You probably will not be able to write out a final-draft version of your thesis the first time you try, but you'll get yourself on the right track by writing down what you have.

Keep your thesis prominent in your introduction.  A good, standard place for your thesis statement is at the end of an introductory paragraph, especially in shorter (5-15 page) essays. Readers are used to finding theses there, so they automatically pay more attention when they read the last sentence of your introduction. Although this is not required in all academic essays, it is a good rule of thumb.

Anticipate the counterarguments.  Once you have a working thesis, you should think about what might be said against it. This will help you to refine your thesis, and it will also make you think of the arguments that you'll need to refute later on in your essay. (Every argument has a counterargument. If yours doesn't, then it's not an argument—it may be a fact, or an opinion, but it is not an argument.)

This statement is on its way to being a thesis. However, it is too easy to imagine possible counterarguments. For example, a political observer might believe that Dukakis lost because he suffered from a "soft-on-crime" image. If you complicate your thesis by anticipating the counterargument, you'll strengthen your argument, as shown in the sentence below.

Some Caveats and Some Examples

A thesis is never a question.  Readers of academic essays expect to have questions discussed, explored, or even answered. A question ("Why did communism collapse in Eastern Europe?") is not an argument, and without an argument, a thesis is dead in the water.

A thesis is never a list.  "For political, economic, social and cultural reasons, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe" does a good job of "telegraphing" the reader what to expect in the essay—a section about political reasons, a section about economic reasons, a section about social reasons, and a section about cultural reasons. However, political, economic, social and cultural reasons are pretty much the only possible reasons why communism could collapse. This sentence lacks tension and doesn't advance an argument. Everyone knows that politics, economics, and culture are important.

A thesis should never be vague, combative or confrontational.  An ineffective thesis would be, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because communism is evil." This is hard to argue (evil from whose perspective? what does evil mean?) and it is likely to mark you as moralistic and judgmental rather than rational and thorough. It also may spark a defensive reaction from readers sympathetic to communism. If readers strongly disagree with you right off the bat, they may stop reading.

An effective thesis has a definable, arguable claim.  "While cultural forces contributed to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the disintegration of economies played the key role in driving its decline" is an effective thesis sentence that "telegraphs," so that the reader expects the essay to have a section about cultural forces and another about the disintegration of economies. This thesis makes a definite, arguable claim: that the disintegration of economies played a more important role than cultural forces in defeating communism in Eastern Europe. The reader would react to this statement by thinking, "Perhaps what the author says is true, but I am not convinced. I want to read further to see how the author argues this claim."

A thesis should be as clear and specific as possible.  Avoid overused, general terms and abstractions. For example, "Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe because of the ruling elite's inability to address the economic concerns of the people" is more powerful than "Communism collapsed due to societal discontent."

Copyright 1999, Maxine Rodburg and The Tutors of the Writing Center at Harvard University

How to format and submit your thesis or dissertation

A thesis or dissertation is the culmination of your scholarly work in graduate school submitted as a written document. Most graduate programs at ASU require students to complete a thesis,dissertation or other culminating event. For those required to submit a thesis or dissertation, the Graduate College has specific requirements that must be met for a successful submission. 

The document that you submit for format approval must be a complete, defense-ready document. This means you should choose your style guide in consultation with your chair, write an abstract that meets the Graduate College guidelines, and thoroughly check your document for consistency, grammar, punctuation, etc. You are required to follow a standard style guide or accepted journal in their field in addition to the ASU Graduate College Format Manual . This manual outlines format requirements for theses and dissertations at ASU.  

Use the Format Wizard

To simplify the format process, you should use the Graduate College’s Format Wizard , a helpful tool that generates a Word or LaTeX document that follows ASU’s format standards for theses and dissertations. The Format Wizard will help with formatting the preliminary pages of the document, fixing the margins and setting pagination. Using the tool will result in fewer structural revisions to your document, saving you precious time and effort. 

Before submitting a thesis, dissertation, or other culminating event to the Graduate College, The defense must be scheduled through MyASU at least 10 business days prior to the desired date. Students and their committee should thoroughly review the document and check for technical and grammatical errors before uploading their document for format review.

Students should submit the document through their Independent Plan of Study (iPOS) . The document should be uploaded 10 business days prior to the defense. To submit your document, you will log into your IPOS and select the “Format” tab, and then select “Attach Document” to upload your document.  Additionally, students must be enrolled in at least one credit hour during the semester they plan to defend their thesis or dissertation, while working on format revisions. 

Please do not submit your document to [email protected].  

Once the format team has received your document, the student will receive a notification through their iPOS on format revisions needed.

If format revisions are required after the defense, students will need to make these in time to meet the semester’s final revisions format submission and final pass/fail form deadline.

Once the Graduate College has received a student’s final pass/fail form, a formal advisor will direct them to ProQuest. Students should use their ASU email address to make a ProQuest account. 

On average, each document will go through the format check process 3-4 times, including a review in ProQuest. Once the student has received the final approval email from ProQuest, they have officially completed the formatting process.

The Graduate College hosts virtual formatting workshops each semester, including summer term, so be on the lookout for email announcements. 

Students with questions about formatting their thesis or dissertation can visit the Formatting Your Thesis or Dissertation page of the Graduate College website, email [email protected]   or call 480-965-3521.

Theses and Dissertations

Defense and submission.

Below is an overview of the main steps in preparing, defending, and submitting your thesis or dissertation. For detailed instructions on each step, see The Graduate School's  Guide for Electronic Submission of Thesis and Dissertation (PDF) , in addition to this video recording from a workshop given on the subject. 

• Schedule your defense and apply for graduation in DukeHub ( defense and graduation deadlines ).  
• At least 30 days before your defense: Confirm or update your defense committee.  
• Give your thesis/dissertation to your advisor for inspection, and prompt your advisor to send a letter to [email protected] stating that it is complete and ready to defend. Note: For students in School of Medicine Ph.D. programs, their advisor letters are generated through T3.  
• Request your DGSA to send a departmental defense announcement to  [email protected] . Note: For students in School of Medicine Ph.D. programs, their departmental defense announcements are generated through T3.  
• At least 2 weeks before your defense: Submit your complete, correctly formatted dissertation/thesis to ProQuest (initial submission). Also provide it to each member of your committee.  
• Optional: After you receive an email through ProQuest from the Graduate School administrator who reviewed your thesis/dissertation format, you may make an appointment for a brief, virtual meeting with the administrator to discuss any questions you have about the defense process or the recommended formatting revisions.  
• A few days before your defense, The Graduate School will generate your final examination certificate and email it to the chair/co-chair(s) of your examination committee and the DGSA of your department. Note:  For students in School of Medicine Ph.D. programs, their final examination certificates are generated and released through T3.  
• Defend your dissertation. After your final examination, your committee members will vote on whether you passed or failed. Your chair and DGS will record the votes on your final examination certificate, sign it, and submit it to The Graduate School. Your committee may vote that you passed but still require minor edits or corrections before final submission.  
• As soon as possible after your defense, submit to [email protected] the Non-Exclusive Distribution License and Thesis/Dissertation Availability Agreement (“embargo agreement”) signed by yourself and your thesis/dissertation advisor.  
• Within 30 days after your successful defense, or by the established final submission deadline (whichever is first): Submit the final version of your dissertation/thesis to ProQuest.

Guide for Electronic Submission of Thesis and Dissertation (PDF)

We provide the following templates for your convenience and to help you eliminate common formatting errors. However,  all submitted theses and dissertations must meet the specifications listed in the ETD guide . The manuscript must be a completed document, formatted correctly, with no sections left blank.

• Word Template for Thesis/Dissertation (Word)
• LaTeX Template for Thesis/Dissertation (ZIP)

Notes about the LaTeX Template

• This LaTeX template is for both master's and Ph.D. students. Master's theses must also have an abstract title page.
• Neither The Graduate School nor OIT supports LaTeX beyond providing this template.

Ph.D. and master’s students are required to apply for graduation in  DukeHub  by the established application deadline for the semester in which they plan to graduate.

Review the full graduation guidelines on the  Graduation Information and Deadlines  page. 

When you submit your thesis or dissertation electronically, you will also permit Duke University to make it available online through  DukeSpace  at Duke Libraries. See the pages below for more information about ETDs:

• ETDs Overview
• ETD Availability
• ETD Copyright Information 
• ETD Technical Help 

Check out the writing support  offered by The Graduate School, such as writing spaces, consultations, and access to online writing workshops, communities, and resources.

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="submit the thesis"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Submitting your thesis/dissertation.

Submission of the final thesis/dissertation must be within 60 days of the final exam. Students who miss the 60 day submission deadline are ineligible to register in future terms.

The Graduate School uses ProQuest to administer the electronic thesis/dissertation (ETD) submission and committee approval process that results in publication in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database and Cornell’s Library Repository, eCommons. Before initiating the electronic process, students are required to complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (for doctoral students only). A SED Certification of Completion is provided to the student when the survey has been completed. Once the survey is completed, the final ETD can then be submitted to the Graduate School using the ProQuest system. The SED Certification of Completion is required for submission to ProQuest.

ProQuest Submission Steps

In order to complete the submission process, you will need to have the following:

• A single PDF file of your thesis or dissertation
• Your abstract
• Supplemental material
• SED Certification of Completion 

Step 1: Begin Submission Process

Master’s students go to  Cornell Master’s ProQuest site, doctoral students go to  Cornell Doctoral ProQuest site. Click on the “sign up and get started today” button and follow instructions to begin the submission process.

Submission Process: Submission steps are outlined on the left menu. You will see the items checked off as you progress through the submission steps. You must click “Save & Continue” at the bottom of each page, even pages on which you do not enter any information. Using the left menu, you can return to any page and make changes until the point of final submission.

Step 2: Publishing Options

Traditional Publishing:  “Traditional Publishing” is automatically selected and is included in the Cornell Thesis and Dissertation filing fees.

Delayed Release:  ProQuest provides six months, and one and two year embargoes. The Graduate School recommends you discuss the publishing options with your advisor. If your advisor is unavailable or has no opinion, the conservative approach is to choose a two-year embargo.

Step 3: Read and Agree to ProQuest and University Distribution License

Both ProQuest and Cornell University distribution licenses will be presented for your acceptance.

Step 4: Enter Thesis/Dissertation Information

In addition to the mandatory information, such as title and abstract, you will have the opportunity to select up to three categories (subject areas) and six key words that describe your ETD. This information will make it easier for others to find your work when searching the web.

Step 5: Upload PDF and Supplemental Files

Upload PDF: Whether you use the PDF conversion tool provided by ProQuest or you convert your document to PDF yourself, review your PDF to ensure your formatting remains as you intended after conversion.

Supplementary Materials: If supplementary materials – such as audio, video, and spreadsheets – are an integral part of your ETD, you can submit them as supplementary files during the online submission process.

Step 6: Upload Required Documents

The SED Certification of Completion if you are a Ph.D. candidate is required for submission to ProQuest.

Step 7: Register for Copyright

You can complete this process through ProQuest for a fee, or you complete the process independently through the U.S. Copyright Office.

Step 8: Order Copies

If you would like to purchase additional copies of your thesis/dissertation for yourself, your field, or your committee members, you may order bound copies through ProQuest (Order Copies page). The required bound archival copy for the library is automatically ordered for you and included in the Cornell thesis and dissertation filing fees.

Select the “Decline – do not order” option if you don’t wish to order additional copies.

Bound copies can also be ordered through Cornell Print Services .

Step 9: Review and Submit

Once the thesis editor has reviewed the formatting of your thesis/dissertation, you will receive an email to let you know whether any corrections are required. You will then have five days to make the changes and upload the revised PDF. You will not be certified for graduation until the formatting of your ETD has been fully approved by the Graduate School. You will receive a confirmation email of final acceptance.

Step 10: Submitting Revised PDF (if needed)

You will receive an email describing the formatting changes needed with instructions and a link for resubmission.

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Writing Tutorial Services

How to write a thesis statement, what is a thesis statement.

Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement.

Why Should Your Essay Contain a Thesis Statement?

• to test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two
• to better organize and develop your argument
• to provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument

In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores.

How Can You Write a Good Thesis Statement?

Here are some helpful hints to get you started. You can either scroll down or select a link to a specific topic.

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One

How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned

Almost all assignments, no matter how complicated, can be reduced to a single question. Your first step, then, is to distill the assignment into a specific question. For example, if your assignment is, “Write a report to the local school board explaining the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class,” turn the request into a question like, “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” After you’ve chosen the question your essay will answer, compose one or two complete sentences answering that question.

Q: “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” A: “The potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class are . . .”

A: “Using computers in a fourth-grade class promises to improve . . .”

The answer to the question is the thesis statement for the essay.

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How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned

Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, your job is to figure out what question you’d like to write about.

A good thesis statement will usually include the following four attributes:

• take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree
• deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment
• express one main idea
• assert your conclusions about a subject

Let’s see how to generate a thesis statement for a social policy paper.

Brainstorm the topic . Let’s say that your class focuses upon the problems posed by changes in the dietary habits of Americans. You find that you are interested in the amount of sugar Americans consume.

You start out with a thesis statement like this:

Sugar consumption.

This fragment isn’t a thesis statement. Instead, it simply indicates a general subject. Furthermore, your reader doesn’t know what you want to say about sugar consumption.

Narrow the topic . Your readings about the topic, however, have led you to the conclusion that elementary school children are consuming far more sugar than is healthy.

You change your thesis to look like this:

Reducing sugar consumption by elementary school children.

This fragment not only announces your subject, but it focuses on one segment of the population: elementary school children. Furthermore, it raises a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree, because while most people might agree that children consume more sugar than they used to, not everyone would agree on what should be done or who should do it. You should note that this fragment is not a thesis statement because your reader doesn’t know your conclusions on the topic.

Take a position on the topic. After reflecting on the topic a little while longer, you decide that what you really want to say about this topic is that something should be done to reduce the amount of sugar these children consume.

You revise your thesis statement to look like this:

More attention should be paid to the food and beverage choices available to elementary school children.

This statement asserts your position, but the terms more attention and food and beverage choices are vague.

Use specific language . You decide to explain what you mean about food and beverage choices , so you write:

Experts estimate that half of elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar.

This statement is specific, but it isn’t a thesis. It merely reports a statistic instead of making an assertion.

Make an assertion based on clearly stated support. You finally revise your thesis statement one more time to look like this:

Because half of all American elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar, schools should be required to replace the beverages in soda machines with healthy alternatives.

Notice how the thesis answers the question, “What should be done to reduce sugar consumption by children, and who should do it?” When you started thinking about the paper, you may not have had a specific question in mind, but as you became more involved in the topic, your ideas became more specific. Your thesis changed to reflect your new insights.

How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One

1. a strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand..

Remember that your thesis needs to show your conclusions about a subject. For example, if you are writing a paper for a class on fitness, you might be asked to choose a popular weight-loss product to evaluate. Here are two thesis statements:

There are some negative and positive aspects to the Banana Herb Tea Supplement.

This is a weak thesis statement. First, it fails to take a stand. Second, the phrase negative and positive aspects is vague.

Because Banana Herb Tea Supplement promotes rapid weight loss that results in the loss of muscle and lean body mass, it poses a potential danger to customers.

This is a strong thesis because it takes a stand, and because it's specific.

2. A strong thesis statement justifies discussion.

Your thesis should indicate the point of the discussion. If your assignment is to write a paper on kinship systems, using your own family as an example, you might come up with either of these two thesis statements:

My family is an extended family.

This is a weak thesis because it merely states an observation. Your reader won’t be able to tell the point of the statement, and will probably stop reading.

While most American families would view consanguineal marriage as a threat to the nuclear family structure, many Iranian families, like my own, believe that these marriages help reinforce kinship ties in an extended family.

This is a strong thesis because it shows how your experience contradicts a widely-accepted view. A good strategy for creating a strong thesis is to show that the topic is controversial. Readers will be interested in reading the rest of the essay to see how you support your point.

3. A strong thesis statement expresses one main idea.

Readers need to be able to see that your paper has one main point. If your thesis statement expresses more than one idea, then you might confuse your readers about the subject of your paper. For example:

Companies need to exploit the marketing potential of the Internet, and Web pages can provide both advertising and customer support.

This is a weak thesis statement because the reader can’t decide whether the paper is about marketing on the Internet or Web pages. To revise the thesis, the relationship between the two ideas needs to become more clear. One way to revise the thesis would be to write:

Because the Internet is filled with tremendous marketing potential, companies should exploit this potential by using Web pages that offer both advertising and customer support.

This is a strong thesis because it shows that the two ideas are related. Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis statements contain words like because , since , so , although , unless , and however .

4. A strong thesis statement is specific.

A thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable topic. For example, if you're writing a seven-to-ten page paper on hunger, you might say:

World hunger has many causes and effects.

This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons. First, world hunger can’t be discussed thoroughly in seven to ten pages. Second, many causes and effects is vague. You should be able to identify specific causes and effects. A revised thesis might look like this:

Hunger persists in Glandelinia because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable.

This is a strong thesis statement because it narrows the subject to a more specific and manageable topic, and it also identifies the specific causes for the existence of hunger.

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Thesis & Dissertation Guidelines

These guidelines provide students at Vanderbilt University with essential information about how to prepare and submit theses and dissertations in a format acceptable to the Graduate School. You can either explore the guidelines by topic below or review the complete Format Guidelines document .

General Information

Manuscript preparation.

• NEW: Dissertation Template
• Approved LATEX Template for Dissertations

Submission Requirements

Students in foreign language departments may submit manuscripts in a language other than English. The abstract, however, must be in English.

You may use a multi-part presentation format for combining original research that has been conducted in two or more related or non-related areas, or for presentation of combined journal articles (published or submitted for publication). You should organize the parts or articles into chapters, with well-defined subheadings, including an introduction, methods, results and discussion. Each chapter may contain its own list of references and appendices, or you may list them all at the end, depending on the custom of your discipline.

When using this format, the thesis or dissertation should nonetheless consist of an integrated argument that binds the chapters together. You should include the appropriate preliminary pages, an introduction presenting the general theme of the research, and a conclusion summarizing and integrating the major findings. Any additional appendices related to the dissertation as a whole or any general references from the introduction, conclusion or transitional sections should come at the end of the dissertation.

When you have previously published portions of your thesis or dissertation as an article or book chapter, you must ensure the work may also be published as part of the dissertation or thesis. The  standard provisions of copyright law  regarding quoted and previously published material under copyright apply to the publication of theses and dissertations. Many publishers provide exceptions to work published as part of graduation requirements and this is often clearly outlined as part of the publication agreement signed by the author.

In order to include your own previously published or co-authored material in your thesis or dissertation, you must comply with the following:

• You must be the first author, or obtain permission from your committee, to be uploaded as an Administrative file in Vireo.
• The article must be based on research completed while you were enrolled at Vanderbilt University.
• You must have permission from the publisher to reuse the work, which should be uploaded to VIREO as an Administrative file. The record of permission may take the form of the publishing agreement, a copy of the publisher’s webpage describing reuse rights, or an email approval from the publisher. You should also identify which chapters are associated with which articles when prompted within VIREO.
• If there are co-authors, you must obtain the permission of all co-authors to include the work in the thesis or dissertation as a matter of both copyright law and professional courtesy. Include these permissions (email approval is acceptable) as an Administrative file in VIREO.
• You must properly acknowledge previously published material and any co-authors within the text of your manuscript. This would typically take the form of a footnote, or, alternately, an italicized statement beneath the relevant chapter heading. The rubric should be: “This chapter is adapted from [Title] published in [Journal] and has been reproduced with the permission of the publisher and my co-authors [List co-authors]” and include the full citation required by the publisher, if any, or appropriate to your discipline.

If the work is submitted to the ProQuest database, ProQuest will scan the document to ensure it contains no copyrighted material without consent and proper citation.

Inclusion of Third-Party Content

If you are including content in your dissertation not authored or created by you, consider copyright issues. If your use of the content would exceed fair use under the Copyright Act, then you will need to seek the copyright holder’s permission in order to use the material. Obtaining copyright permissions often takes time and should not be left until the last minute.

You should discuss questions about copyrighted material with your dissertation advisor or contact the VU Librarian for Copyright and Scholarly Communications at  [email protected]  for help evaluating fair use or obtaining permissions.

Your thesis or dissertation is automatically protected by copyright as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form, such as being saved as an electronic file.  Although not required, it is good practice to include the copyright symbol, your name, and the year on the title page of your work (© 2017 by [your name]).

You also may choose to register your copyright, which will gain you additional protections in case of litigation for copyright infringement. You can file a copyright registration online directly with the  U.S. Copyright Office  for a fee of $45.00.

You will be asked to agree to the license to deposit your submission to the Vanderbilt Institutional Repository.  The Library, with the Vanderbilt Institutional Repository, enhances the metadata provided with your dissertation and adds your record to discovery tools like the Library Catalog and WorldCat, making it easily findable for scholars worldwide. The library also maintains the technical infrastructure of the repository.  If you plan to make your dissertation open access, we can assist you in understanding the options for licensing. If your dissertation makes use of copyrighted content, you will want to think early on about whether you may rely on fair use or need to acquire licenses. We will be glad to meet with you to discuss the requirements of your particular project.

PhD students also have the option to request deposit of your submission with ProQuest, at no additional cost to you. If you elect to deposit your submission with ProQuest, you must also agree to the ProQuest license. This agreement is entirely between you and ProQuest.  Vanderbilt’s sole responsibility is to pass on the license agreement and your work to ProQuest.  Please contact ProQuest Dissertation Publishing, at 1(800) 521-0600 or  [email protected]  with any questions.

The expectation of the Graduate School is that all theses and dissertations will be made publicly available absent these limited circumstances.  You have the option to make your submission available immediately or to temporarily embargo its release for a limited period of time. Students may elect to embargo their work if they anticipate publication, are making a patent application, have restrictions imposed by sponsors, or privacy concerns.  Metadata, including the abstract, about your submission will still be visible in the Vanderbilt Institutional Repository, thereby indicating that your submission was accepted.  You should discuss any anticipated hold on publication with your advisor. If selecting the ProQuest publishing option, be sure that you make the same embargo selection under the Vanderbilt options. Once your submission has been released to ProQuest, we have no ability to retract it.

If, after consultation with your advisor, you would like to request a temporary embargo, you can elect from the following:

• No embargo and release immediately for worldwide access
• Six (6) month embargo
• Twelve (12) month embargo
• Twenty-four (24) month embargo

If you, after consultation with your advisor, determine that you need to extend your embargo beyond your initial selection, you can only do so with permission from the Graduate School. If you have questions about your embargo, you may email  [email protected]

The Graduate School recommends Campus Copy for procuring bound copies of theses and dissertations. You may contact them directly at 615-936-4544, or online at  Printing Services .

These guidelines provide students at Vanderbilt University with essential information about how to prepare and submit theses and dissertations in a format acceptable to the Graduate School. The topics range from writing style to the completion of required forms. There are instructions and sample pages on the Graduate School website for guidance through this process.

There is a distinct difference between submitting a manuscript to a publisher and providing a completed thesis or dissertation to the Graduate School. A manuscript represents a pre-publication format; a thesis or dissertation is a final, completely edited, published document. Students should use these guidelines, not other style manuals, as the final authority on issues of format and style. Areas not covered in this document or deviation from any of the specifications should be discussed with a Graduate School format editor. Do not use previously accepted theses and dissertations as definite models for style.

Manuscripts consist of four major sections and must be placed in the order listed:

• Title Page (required)
• Copyright (optional)
• Dedication (optional)
• Acknowledgments/Acknowledgment of Support (optional)
• Table of Contents (required)
• List of Tables (required)
• List of Figures (required)
• List of Abbreviations/Nomenclature/Symbols (optional)
• Introduction (may be referred to as Chapter 1)

Body of Manuscript

• References  (required)
• Appendices  (optional)

The dedication is an optional portion of the academic manuscript. It is a personal message from the author in tribute to a person, group, or cause. Most dedications are brief statements beginning with “To…” or “For…” such as “To my family” or “For my daughter, Samantha.” The dedication, if any, is considered to be the sole work of the author and does not reflect endorsement of the views and opinions expressed therein by Vanderbilt University, the Graduate School, or the members of the faculty committee.

The acknowledgment is another optional portion of the academic manuscript. It is appropriately used to thank those people and organizations that have helped or encouraged the author in the process of obtaining the degree or otherwise making the graduate degree possible: advisers, the committee, labmates or members of one’s cohort, family, friends, etc. Typically, an acknowledgment is no more than 1 page in length.

Acknowledgment of grant/contract or other financial support may be included on the acknowledgment page. Similarly, permission to reprint copyrighted material may be included here.

The acknowledgment, if any, is considered to be the sole work of the author and does not reflect endorsement of the views and opinions expressed therein by Vanderbilt University, the Graduate School, or the members of the faculty committee.

The abstract is a separate document from the manuscript; it is not bound with the thesis or dissertation. Abstracts must be printed on white, 8 ½ x 11-inch paper. No page numbers are printed on the abstract. One copy is required. Abstracts must have the original signature(s) of the faculty advisor(s). The maximum length of the thesis abstract is 250 words. The maximum length of the dissertation abstract is 350 words, including the dissertation title. Majors are listed on the last pages of these guidelines.

NEW: Abstract sample

The title page must be printed on white, 8 ½ x 11-inch paper. Committee member signatures on the title page must be originals. Spacing on the title page will vary according to the length of the title. The five lines following your name must be formatted exactly as found on the sample title page. The title page is considered page ‘i’ but the page number is not printed on the page.  The month, day, and year representing the conferral date must be listed on the title page.

• NEW: ETD Title Page sample
• NEW: Title Page With Signatures sample

Use a standard font consistently throughout the manuscript. Font size should be 10 to 12-point for all text, including titles and headings. It is permissible to change point size in tables, figures, captions, footnotes, and appendix material. Retain the same font, where possible. When charts, graphs, or spreadsheets are “imported,” it is permissible to use alternate fonts. Italics are appropriate for book and journal titles, foreign terms, and scientific terminology.  Boldface  may be used within the text for emphasis and/or for headings and subheadings. Use both in moderation.

Measure the top margin from the edge of the page to the top of the first line of text. Measure the bottom page margin from the bottom of the last line of text to the bottom edge of the page. Page margins should be a minimum of one-half inch from top, bottom, left, and right and a maximum of one inch from top, bottom, left, and right. Right margins may be justified or ragged, depending upon departmental requirements or student preference.

The title page is considered to be page ‘i’ but the page number should not be printed on this page. All other pages should have a page number centered about ½ inch from the bottom of the page. Number the preliminary pages in lowercase Roman numerals. Arabic numerals begin on the first page of text. Pages are numbered consecutively throughout the remainder of the manuscript. The Introduction may be placed before the first page of Chapter 1, if it is not considered a chapter. The use of Arabic numbers may begin on the first page of the Introduction.

The entire text may be single-spaced, one and one-half spaced, or double-spaced. Block quotations, footnotes, endnotes, table and figure captions, titles longer than one line, and individual reference entries may be single-spaced. With spacing set, the following guidelines should be applied: Two enters after chapter numbers, chapter titles and major section titles (Dedication, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, List of Tables, List of Figures, List of Abbreviations, Appendices, and References). Two enters before each first- level and second-level heading. Two enters before and after tables and figures embedded in the text. One enter after sub-level headings.

Chapters may be identified with uppercase Roman numerals or Arabic numbers. Styles used on the Table of Contents should be consistent within the text. Tables, figures, footnotes, and equations should be numbered consecutively throughout the manuscript with Arabic numerals. These may also be numbered consecutively by each chapter. Equation numbers should be placed to the right of the equation and contained within parentheses or brackets. Use uppercase letters to designate appendices.

Departments will determine acceptable standards for organizing master’s theses into chapters, sections, or parts.  Usually, if a thesis has headings, a Table of Contents should be included. The dissertation must be divided into chapters. The use of parts, in addition to chapters, is acceptable.

Words and Sentences

Take care to divide words correctly. Do not divide words from one page to the next. Word processing software provides for “widow and orphan” protection. Utilize this feature to help in the proper division of sentences from one page to another. In general, a single line of text should not be left at the bottom or top of a page. Blank space may be left at the bottom of a page, where necessary.

Headings and Subheadings

Use headings and subheadings to describe briefly the material in the section that follows. Be consistent with your choice of “levels” and refer to the instructions on spacing for proper spacing between headings, subheadings, and text. First-level headings must be listed on the Table of Contents. Second-level and subsequent subheadings may be included.

Acronyms/Abbreviations/Capitalization

Abbreviations on the title page should appear as they do in the body of the thesis or dissertation. (Examples:  Xenopus laevis , Ca, Mg, Pb, Zn; TGF-β, p53.) Capitalize only the first letter of words of importance, distinction, or emphasis in titles and headings. Do not alter the all-cap style used for acronyms (Example: AIDS) and organizational names (Example: IBM). Use the conventional style for Latin words (Examples:  in vitro, in vivo, in situ ). Genus and species should be italicized. Capitalize the first letter of the genus, but not that of the species name (Example:  Streptococcus aureus ).

Figures commonly refer to photographs, images, maps, charts, graphs, and drawings. Tables generally list tabulated numerical data. These items should appear as close as possible to their first mention in the text. Tables and figures may be placed in appendices, if this is a departmental requirement or standard in the field. Tables and figures should be numbered with Arabic numerals, either consecutively or by chapter. Be consistent in the style used in the placement of tables and figure captions. Tables and figures may be embedded within the text or placed on a page alone. When placed on its own page, a figure or table may be centered on the page. When included with text, a table or figure should be set apart from the text. Tables and figures, including captions, may be oriented in landscape. Make sure to use landscape page positioning on landscape-oriented pages. Table data and figure data must be kept together, if the information fits on one page.

The submission process for theses and dissertations begins at the Graduate School. Forms must be digitally submitted to the Graduate School.

View the Checklist for Graduation

The Vanderbilt Libraries have recently implemented  VIREO , an Electronic Thesis & Dissertation review and submission system for the Graduate School. The Graduate School requires electronic submission of all theses and dissertations through this new platform. Format reviews now occur within the VIREO submission process. If you have questions or would like an in-person format review,  contact administrators .

Students will use their VUnet ID and password to log in and begin completing the appropriate information, as outlined below.

Verify Your Information

• Orcid ID (can obtain in VIREO)
• Department/Program, Degree, Major
• Phone & Address

 License & Publication Agreements

• Vanderbilt License Agreement (required)
• ProQuest Publication (optional)

 Document Information

• Title, degree month/year, defense date, abstract, keywords, subjects, language
• Your committee, Chair email
• Previously published material (optional)
• Embargo options

Upload Your Files

• Primary document: thesis/dissertation
• Additional files: supplemental, source, administrative (CV, Survey of Earned Doctorates (additional SED information is in the Ph.D. Dissertation Requirements accordion below))

Confirm and Submit

• Students will receive a confirmation email once submitted

Any documents you will be uploading into VIREO as administrative files should be saved as a PDF, and named with your last name, first name-file-conferral month and year. Examples:

• King, Amanda-IntraTermApp-032021.pdf
• King, Amanda-CV-052021.pdf
• King, Amanda-SED-052021.pdf
• King, Amanda-Title Page-052021.pdf
• King, Amanda-Permissions-052021.pdf
• King, Amanda-DGS Approval-052021.pdf

Intent to Graduate OR Intra-term Application

Please note all students must submit either an Intent to Graduate form or an Intra-Term Application. Students planning to graduate at the end of the fall, spring, or summer term should submit the Intent to Graduate form through YES. Students planning to graduate on one of the  intra-term dates  should instead complete the Intra-Term Application and submit as an administrative file in their VIREO profile.

Format Review

A format review is required before thesis or dissertation approval. Review will take place through VIREO when you first upload your document. Allow time before the deadline for review and revisions. For questions contact  [email protected] .

Submit one copy of the title page, with original signatures of the advisor and a second reader (either a member of the committee or DGS of the program). The date on the title page will reflect the month, day, year of degree conferral.

Submit one copy of the abstract with the signature of the advisor.

Completion of Master's Degree Form

Form must be completed and signed by the advisor and the DGS, then submitted securely by the program.

Please note all students must submit either an Intent to Graduate form or an Intra-Term Application. Students planning to graduate at the end of the fall, spring, or summer term should submit the Intent to Graduate form through YES. Students planning to graduate on one of the  intra-term dates  should instead complete the Intra-Term Application and submit as an administrative file in their VIREO profile.

Defense Results

Students must schedule the Defense Exam with the Graduate School two weeks prior to the exam. Students will bring the Defense Results Form (along with the Title Page & Abstract) to obtain committee signatures. Upload the signed title page and abstract as one administrative file (title pate first followed by abstract) to VIREO as an administrative file, and have your department submit the defense results to the  graduate school submissions portal.

Title Page (+ Extra Copy)

Upload your signed title page as an administrative file in VIREO. The date on the title page will reflect the month, day, year of degree conferral. Be sure it is the date of conferral and not the date of your defense.

Upload your signed abstract as an administrative file in VIREO.

Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)

Students finishing a doctorate degree are required to complete the  SED survey . Information provided to the National Opinion Research Council remains confidential and will be used for research or statistical purposes. Submit the Certificate of Completion with your VIREO submission as an administrative file.

Curriculum Vitae

Submit your CV through your VIREO submission as an administrative file. Directions on preparing a curriculum vitae are available here.

The Thesis Process

The thesis is an opportunity to work independently on a research project of your own design and contribute to the scholarly literature in your field. You emerge from the thesis process with a solid understanding of how original research is executed and how to best communicate research results. Many students have gone on to publish their research in academic or professional journals.

To ensure affordability, the per-credit tuition rate for the 8-credit thesis is the same as our regular course tuition. There are no additional fees (regular per-credit graduate tuition x 8 credits).

Below are the steps that you need to follow to fulfill the thesis requirement. Please know that through each step, you will receive guidance and mentorship.

1. Determine Your Thesis Topic and Tentative Question

When you have completed between 24 and 32 credits, you work with your assigned research advisor to narrow down your academic interests to a relevant and manageable thesis topic. Log in to MyDCE , then ALB/ALM Community to schedule an appointment with your assigned research advisor via the Degree Candidate Portal.

Thesis Topic Selection

We’ve put together this guide  to help frame your thinking about thesis topic selection.

Every effort is made to support your research interests that are grounded in your ALM course work, but faculty guidance is not available for all possible projects. Therefore, revision or a change of thesis topic may be necessary.

• The point about topic selection is particularly pertinent to scientific research that is dependent upon laboratory space, project funding, and access to private databases. It is also critical for our candidates in ALM, liberal arts fields (English, government, history, international relations, psychology, etc.) who are required to have Harvard faculty direct their thesis projects. Review Harvard’s course catalog online ( my.harvard.edu ) to be sure that there are faculty teaching courses related to your thesis topic. If not, you’ll need to choose an alternative topic.
• Your topic choice must be a new area of research for you. Thesis work represents thoughtful engagement in new academic scholarship. You cannot re-purpose prior research. If you want to draw or expand upon your own previous scholarship for a small portion of your thesis, you need to obtain the explicit permission of your research advisor and cite the work in both the proposal and thesis. Violations of this policy will be referred to the Administrative Board.

2. Prepare Prework for the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP) Course or Tutorial

The next step in the process is to prepare and submit Prework in order to gain registration approval for the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP) tutorial or course. The Prework process ensures that you have done enough prior reading and thinking about your thesis topic to benefit from the CTP.

The CTP provides an essential onramp to the thesis, mapping critical issues of research design, such as scope, relevance to the field, prior scholarly debate, methodology, and perhaps, metrics for evaluating impact as well as bench-marking. The CTP identifies and works through potential hurdles to successful thesis completion, allowing the thesis project to get off to a good start.

In addition to preparing, submitting, and having your Prework approved, to be eligible for the CTP, you need to be in good standing, have completed a minimum of 32 degree-applicable credits, including the statistics/research methods requirement (if pertinent to your field). You also need to have completed Engaging in Scholarly Conversation (if pertinent to your field). If you were admitted after 9/1/2023 Engaging in Scholarly Conversation (A and B) is required, if admitted before 9/1/2023 this series is encouraged.

Advising Note for Biology, Biotechnology, and Bioengineering and Nanotechnology Candidates : Thesis projects in these fields are designed to support ongoing scientific research happening in Harvard University, other academic institutions, or life science industry labs and usually these are done under the direction of a principal investigator (PI). Hence, you need to have a thesis director approved by your research advisor  prior  to submitting CTP prework. Your CTP prework is then framed by the lab’s research. Schedule an appointment with your research advisor a few months in advance of the CTP prework deadlines in order to discuss potential research projects and thesis director assignment.

CTP Prework is sent to our central email box:  [email protected]  between the following firm deadlines:

• April 1 and June 1 for fall CTP
• September 1 and November 1 for spring CTP.  
• August 1 and October 1 for the three-week January session (ALM sustainability candidates only)
• International students who need a student visa to attend Harvard Summer School should submit their prework on January 1, so they can register for the CTP on March 1 and submit timely I-20 paperwork. See international students guidelines for more information.

Your research advisor will provide feedback on your prework submission to gain CTP registration approval.  If your prework is not approved after 3 submissions, your research advisor cannot approve your CTP registration.  If not approved, you’ll need to take additional time for further revisions, and submit new prework during the next CTP prework submission time period for the following term (if your five-year degree completion deadline allows).

3. Register and Successfully Complete the Crafting the Thesis Proposal Tutorial or Course

Once CTP prework is approved, you register for the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP) course or tutorial as you would any other course. The goal of the CTP is to produce a complete, well-written draft of a proposal containing all of the sections required by your research advisor. Creating an academically strong thesis proposal sets the foundation for a high-quality thesis and helps garner the attention of a well-respected thesis director. The proposal is normally between 15 to 25 pages in length.

The CTP  tutorial  is not a course in the traditional sense. You work independently on your proposal with your research advisor by submitting multiple proposal drafts and scheduling individual appointments. You need to make self-directed progress on the proposal without special prompting from the research advisor. You receive a final grade of SAT or UNSAT (failing grade).

The CTP for sustainability is a three-week course in the traditional sense and you receive a letter grade, and it must be B- or higher to receive degree credit for the course.

You are expected to incorporate all of your research advisor’s feedback and be fully committed to producing an academically strong proposal leading to a thesis worthy of a Harvard degree. If you are unable to take advice from your research advisor, follow directions, or produce an acceptable proposal, you will not pass the CTP.

Successful CTP completion also includes a check on the proper use of sources according to our academic integrity guidelines. Violations of our academic integrity policy will be referred to the Administrative Board.

Maximum of two attempts . If you don’t pass that CTP, you’ll have — if your five-year, degree-completion date allows — just one more attempt to complete the CTP before being required to withdraw from the program. If you fail the CTP just once and have no more time to complete the degree, your candidacy will automatically expire. Please note that a WD grade counts as an attempt.

If by not passing the CTP you fall into poor academic standing, you will need to take additional degree-applicable courses to return to good standing before enrolling in the CTP for your second and final time, only if your five-year, degree-completion date allows. If you have no more time on your five-year clock, you will be required to withdraw.

Human Subjects

If your thesis, regardless of field, will involve the use of human subjects (e.g., interviews, surveys, observations), you will need to have your research vetted by the  Committee on the Use of Human Subjects  (CUHS) of Harvard University. Please review the IRB LIFECYCLE GUIDE located on the CUHS website. Your research advisor will help you prepare a draft copy of the project protocol form that you will need to send to CUHS. The vetting process needs to be started during the CTP tutorial, before a thesis director has been assigned.

4. Thesis Director Assignment and Thesis Registration

We expect you to be registered in thesis soon after CTP completion or within 3 months — no later. You cannot delay. It is critical that once a research project has been approved through the CTP process, the project must commence in a timely fashion to ensure the academic integrity of the thesis process.

Once you (1) successfully complete the CTP and (2) have your proposal officially approved by your research advisor (RA), you move to the thesis director assignment phase. Successful completion of the CTP is not the same as having an officially approved proposal. These are two distinct steps.

If you are a life science student (e.g., biology), your thesis director was identified prior to the CTP, and now you need the thesis director to approve the proposal.

The research advisor places you with a thesis director. Do not approach faculty to ask about directing your thesis.  You may suggest names of any potential thesis directors to your research advisor, who will contact them, if they are eligible/available to direct your thesis, after you have an approved thesis proposal.

When a thesis director has been identified or the thesis proposal has been fully vetted by the preassigned life science thesis director, you will receive a letter of authorization from the Assistant Dean of Academic Programs officially approving your thesis work and providing you with instructions on how to register for the eight-credit Master’s Thesis. The letter will also have a tentative graduation date as well as four mandatory thesis submission dates (see Thesis Timetable below).

Continuous Registration Tip: If you want to maintain continued registration from CTP to thesis, you should meet with your RA prior to prework to settle on a workable topic, submit well-documented prework, work diligently throughout the CTP to produce a high-quality proposal that is ready to be matched with a thesis director as soon as the CTP is complete.

Good academic standing. You must be good academic standing to register for the thesis. If not, you’ll need to complete additional courses to bring your GPA up to the 3.0 minimum prior to registration.

Thesis Timetable

The thesis is a 9 to 12 month project that begins after the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP); when your research advisor has approved your proposal and identified a Thesis Director.

The date for the appointment of your Thesis Director determines the graduation cycle that will be automatically assigned to you:

Once registered in the thesis, we will do a 3-month check-in with you and your thesis director to ensure progress is being made. If your thesis director reports little to no progress, the Dean of Academic Programs reserves the right to issue a thesis not complete (TNC) grade (see Thesis Grading below).

As you can see above, you do not submit your thesis all at once at the end, but in four phases: (1) complete draft to TA, (2) final draft to RA for format review and academic integrity check, (3) format approved draft submitted to TA for grading, and (4) upload your 100% complete graded thesis to ETDs.

Due dates for all phases for your assigned graduation cycle cannot be missed.  You must submit materials by the date indicated by 5 PM EST (even if the date falls on a weekend). If you are late, you will not be able to graduate during your assigned cycle.

If you need additional time to complete your thesis after the date it is due to the Thesis Director (phase 1), you need to formally request an extension (which needs to be approved by your Director) by emailing that petition to:  [email protected] .  The maximum allotted time to write your thesis, including any granted extensions of time is 12 months.

Timing Tip: If you want to graduate in May, you should complete the CTP in the fall term two years prior or, if a sustainability student, in the January session one year prior. For example, to graduate in May 2025:

• Complete the CTP in fall 2023 (or in January 2024, if a sustainability student)
• Be assigned a thesis director (TD) in March/April 2024
• Begin the 9-12 month thesis project with TD
• Submit a complete draft of your thesis to your TD by February 1, 2025
• Follow through with all other submission deadlines (April 1, April 15 and May 1 — see table above)
• Graduate in May 2025

5. Conduct Thesis Research

When registered in the thesis, you work diligently and independently, following the advice of your thesis director, in a consistent, regular manner equivalent to full-time academic work to complete the research by your required timeline.

You are required to produce at least 50 pages of text (not including front matter and appendices). Chapter topics (e.g., introduction, background, methods, findings, conclusion) vary by field.

6. Format Review — Required of all Harvard Graduate Students and Part of Your Graduation Requirements

All ALM thesis projects must written in Microsoft Word and follow a specific Harvard University format. A properly formatted thesis is an explicit degree requirement; you cannot graduate without it.

Your research advisor will complete the format review prior to submitting your thesis to your director for final grading according to the Thesis Timetable (see above).

You must use our Microsoft Word ALM Thesis Template or Microsoft ALM Thesis Template Creative Writing (just for creative writing degree candidates). It has all the mandatory thesis formatting built in. Besides saving you a considerable amount of time as you write your thesis, the preprogrammed form ensures that your submitted thesis meets the mandatory style guidelines for margins, font, title page, table of contents, and chapter headings. If you use the template, format review should go smoothly, if not, a delayed graduation is highly likely.

Format review also includes a check on the proper use of sources according to our academic integrity guidelines. Violations of our academic integrity policy will be referred directly to the Administrative Board.

7. Mandatory Thesis Archiving — Required of all Harvard Graduate Students and Part of Your Graduation Requirements

Once your thesis is finalized, meaning that the required grade has been earned and all edits have been completed, you must upload your thesis to Harvard University’s electronic thesis and dissertation submission system (ETDs). Uploading your thesis ETDs is an explicit degree requirement; you cannot graduate without completing this step.

The thesis project will be sent to several downstream systems:

• Your work will be preserved using Harvard’s digital repository DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard).
• Metadata about your work will be sent to HOLLIS (the Harvard Library catalog).
• Your work will be preserved in Harvard Library’s DRS2 (digital preservation repository).

By submitting work through ETDs @ Harvard you will be signing the Harvard Author Agreement. This license does not constrain your rights to publish your work subsequently. You retain all intellectual property rights.

For more information on Harvard’s open access initiatives, we recommend you view the Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC), Peter Suber’s brief introduction .

Thesis Grading

You need to earn a grade of B- or higher in the thesis. All standard course letter grades are available to your thesis director. If you fail to complete substantial work on the thesis, you will earn a grade of TNC (thesis not complete). If you have already earned two withdrawal grades, the TNC grade will count as a zero in your cumulative GPA.

If you earn a grade below B-, you will need to petition the Administrative Board for permission to attempt the thesis for a second and final time. The petition process is only available if you are in good academic standing and your five-year, degree-completion deadline allows for more time. Your candidacy will automatically expire if you do not successfully complete the thesis by your required deadline.

If approved for a second attempt, you may be required to develop a new proposal on a different topic by re-enrolling in the CTP and being assigned a different thesis director. Tuition for the second attempt is calculated at the current year’s rate.

If by not passing the thesis you fall into poor academic standing, you’ll need to take additional degree-applicable courses to return to good standing before re-engaging with the thesis process for the second and final time. This is only an option if your five-year, degree-completion deadline allows for more time.

The Board only reviews cases in which extenuating circumstances prevented the successful completion of the thesis.

Harvard Division of Continuing Education

The Division of Continuing Education (DCE) at Harvard University is dedicated to bringing rigorous academics and innovative teaching capabilities to those seeking to improve their lives through education. We make Harvard education accessible to lifelong learners from high school to retirement.

Submit Your Dissertation or Thesis

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To assist you during the submission process, review this Checklist for Submitting My Dissertation or Thesis .

Submission Requirements

You will not be able to submit your dissertation or thesis through the Dissertation & Thesis Center in Axess unless you have met all requirements outlined below.

• You must be registered for classes or on an approved Graduation Quarter during the term in which your dissertation or thesis is submitted. 

An application to graduate should be filed through Axess early in the degree quarter but no later than the date specified in the academic calendar for that quarter. View details in this article: How do I Apply to Graduate?

When you apply to graduate, you will be instructed to enter the title of your dissertation or thesis. You are not eligible to submit your work until an application to graduate has been filed for the current quarter.  

In order to submit your work in Axess, you must ensure:

• Your candidacy is valid
• Your reading committee is accurate
• You’ve completed all relevant milestones

If you have any questions about the status of your milestones, accuracy of your reading committee, or your candidacy end date, reach out to the Student Services Officer in your department.  

• You will be unable to submit your dissertation or thesis until your eForm has been approved. Please see How to Submit Your Reading Committee Signature Page for full instructions.

Please note: Students with unmet financial obligations resulting in the placement of a hold will not receive a diploma until the hold is released by Student Financial Services. Be sure your financial obligations are in order before submission of the dissertation. 

Considerations During Submission

Consider these other items during the submission process of your dissertation or thesis.

Managing copyright is an important responsibility in your academic career.

For this reason, all students are required to review a resource on Copyright Considerations prior to submission of a thesis or dissertation for publication by Stanford, produced by Stanford Libraries in consultation with the Office of the General Counsel.

You are encouraged to review this resource as early as possible in the dissertation or thesis preparation process.

During the online submission process, you, as the author, will sign the Stanford University Thesis and Dissertation Publication License.

By accepting the terms of this agreement, you are granting Stanford the non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable right to reproduce, distribute, display and transmit the dissertation or thesis. Read the full text of the agreement.

Stanford will make your full dissertation or thesis available online through its library website, and may also make it available through third-party search engines and distributors. Supplementary material submitted along with the dissertation or thesis will be available only from Stanford Libraries website .

On occasion, when a dissertation or thesis author enters into a contract with a publisher, the publisher requests the author to "pull back" their dissertation or thesis to limit accessibility. Stanford can often accommodate these requests, in which case the thesis or dissertation will be available only to those in hard copy, or those with a Stanford network account. Indexing of the document will continue to be allowed, however.  Pull-back requests should be submitted using a Services Ticket:  http://services.stanford.edu    Be sure to include a copy of the publisher's request in your ticket.

A dissertation or thesis author has the option to apply a Creative Commons license during submission.

Because Stanford will make your dissertation or thesis publicly accessible, readers may locate your publication and may wish to use parts of it in their own work. Because you hold the copyright to your work, your permission for that reuse is necessary.

By applying a Creative Commons license to your work, you make clear to users the terms and conditions under which they may reuse your material, obviating the need for them to contact you directly. Applying a Creative Commons license does not take away any of your rights; rather, it makes clear to readers of your work what kind of reuse you permit.

You may optionally apply for one Creative Commons license. Stanford Libraries recommends the "Attribution Non-Commercial" license, because it encourages open access and collaboration in the scholarly process. For more information on Creative Commons license options, please visit the Creative Commons website .

For specific questions about applying a Creative Commons license to your submission, please submit a help request , which will be reviewed by the library.

You, as the author, have the option to delay the release of a dissertation or thesis to search engines outside of Stanford and other third-party distributors. Under an embargo, the dissertation or thesis will be available online to Stanford-authenticated users, but not to readers outside the Stanford network.

Release delay options are: six months, one year, or two years. Embargos of longer than two years require the review and approval of the Subcommittee on Exceptions to Graduate Policy (S-EGP).

The embargo option may be appropriate for a student who wants to delay access to the dissertation or thesis for a limited amount of time in order to pursue other publications.

Embargos and Patent Protection

Please note that the laws of different jurisdictions vary on what constitutes a public disclosure that could prevent or impede one’s ability to obtain patent protection for inventions disclosed therein.

Stanford takes no position with regards to whether the delayed release of a dissertation or thesis will safeguard the ability to obtain patent protection for inventions disclosed therein.  Instead, Stanford recommends that any patent filings relating to material described in the dissertation or thesis occur prior to submission, whether or not the dissertation or thesis is under delayed release.

If you have any questions, please contact Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing at (650) 723-0651 or [email protected] .

Embargos and Grant-Funded Research

If your thesis or dissertation includes any research conducted as part of an active grant-funded project, discuss the embargo option with the project's principal investigator. 

Embargos and Multiple Authorship

Multiple authorship has implications with respect to copyright and public release of the material. Be sure to discuss copyright clearance and embargo options with your co-authors and your advisor well in advance of preparing your dissertation or thesis for submission.  Embargoes may be lifted early at the request of the author.

Embargos and Copyright Permissions

You may not select embargoed status in lieu of obtaining appropriate copyright permissions. A dissertation or thesis, in its entirety, will be governed by only one level of distribution at any given time; the work may not be subdivided with sections disseminated under differing levels of distribution.

If you have any questions about whether you should embargo your dissertation or thesis, please consult with your advisor.

Extending Embargos

Students who designate an embargo period (of six months or one year) during the initial submission, may later wish to either extend their original embargo period (to one year or two years from the time of submission).

To make such a request, submit a help request to the Office of the Registrar no later than four weeks before your original embargo selection expires.

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Thesis/Dissertation

To graduate with a master’s (thesis program) or doctoral (dissertation program) degree, students are required to submit an Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) and a Committee Approval Form to the Graduate School through the  UW ETD Administrator Site . ETDs are distributed by ProQuest/UMI Dissertation Publishing and made available on an open access basis through UW Libraries  ResearchWorks Service .

The Graduate School partners with the UW Libraries to provide comprehensive resources for students as they write, submit, and publish academic theses or dissertations. These pages outline information and policies related to preparing your thesis/dissertation, including formatting, deadlines, copyright and distribution decisions, and, ultimately, graduation. We also encourage you to review the  ETD Library Guide  for additional information.

For comprehensive information on preparing to graduate, please refer to our graduation requirements information page .

Writing Your Thesis or Dissertation

Etd resources.

As a starting point, students submitting an ETD are encouraged to review the below resources:

• Hacking the Academy: UW Theses & Dissertations (Recording of July 29, 2020 event) This session helps students think through their options for how and when to share their work, including the copyright and publishing considerations they may need to take into account.
• Electronic Theses & Dissertations with the UW Libraries The University Libraries welcomes you to this self-guided course on electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) at the UW. In this five-part learning experience, you will learn a lot about the ETD process including how the submission process works, how to give and receive recognition for your work, how to find and interpret publisher policies and how to read and inspect publishing contracts.

Formatting Guidelines

After you submit your ETD, the Graduate School will review your document as part of the graduation process at the end of each quarter. We will review for information accuracy, consistency, and to ensure your ETD meets the formatting requirements described below. There are three required sections (pages) that must be included at the beginning of your manuscript: 1) Title Page, 2) Copyright Page, 3) Abstract. Templates for these sections are provided below.

Apart from these first three pages, the Graduate School does not adhere to any specific formatting or publishing requirements unless explicitly stated by the ProQuest Author Guide: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission (provided below). You should refer to the citation, formatting, and style specifications of your discipline and the guidance of your supervisory committee.  Note: theses and dissertations must be submitted in PDF format.

For a complete overview of the graduation process, please review  Preparing to Graduate .

Required Sections:

• Must include all items listed in the sample title page and placed in the same order
• May be the first or second page of your document
• Title of document
• Author’s Full Name
• Name of degree as it will appear on your diploma
• Year of graduation
• Names of chair/committee members (do not include signatures or professional titles, e.g. Dr. or PhD, before/after faculty names)
• Program authorized to offer degree (school or department)
• Name and year must match title pages
• List the year of graduation
• Place abstract after copyright and title page

Master’s Thesis Approval Form:

You are required to upload a completed and signed Master’s Thesis Approval Form into the UW ETD Administrator (ProQuest) site; the Approval Form is part of your ETD submission. This Approval Form is a separate PDF and should not be included as a page in the thesis or dissertation itself.

• Master’s Thesis Approval Form

Electronic Doctoral Dissertation Approval:

Final Exams scheduled after March 3, 2020 include a link for Reading Committee Members to approve the dissertation online at MyGrad Committee View.

ETD Formatting Resources:

• Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Checklist  – a quick reference guide of the formatting do’s and don’ts provided below.
• ProQuest Dissertation Publishing — Author Guide: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission
• ProQuest Online Submission FAQs
• Master’s Thesis Title Page – Fillable PDF Template 
• Doctoral Dissertation Title Page – Fillable PDF Template
• Word Templates  – Alex Mamishev, Professor in Electrical Engineering maintains a Word file that other students may find useful when formatting their document.

Common ETD Formatting Revisions Requested

To ensure timely graduating, take some time before you submit to review this information and ProQuest’s document formatting guidelines. These are all common errors and revisions the Graduate School will request when reviewing ETD formatting. You will be required to resubmit if revisions are needed. Be precise, and consistent as you format your document.  Many formatting errors result from following a fellow or former student’s example, so it’s important to review the most current templates and guidelines.

Title Page, Copyright Page, Abstract

Language requirement.

Your document must be written in English ( policy 1.1.4.3 ). If you need to write your document in another language to accommodate the main audience, you must get prior approval to do so by  submitting a petition the dean via MyGrad . If the petition is approved, the required sections (title page, copyright page, abstract) must still be written in English.

Plagiarism is using words, ideas, diagrams, and other content from publicly available work without appropriately acknowledging the sources of these materials. This definition constitutes plagiarism whether it is intentional or unintentional and whether it is the work of another or your own, previously published work.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense that the University of Washington does not tolerate. Evidence of plagiarism may prevent granting of your degree.

Submitting and Publishing

Submitting for dissemination and access.

The Graduate School and the Libraries require that all UW theses and dissertations be submitted electronically for management efficiency, cost control, ease of dissemination, and long-term preservation reasons. In addition, your ETD must eventually be made available openly on the web. Your ETD will be hosted in both UW’s institutional repository,  ResearchWorks , and in  ProQuest’s ETD Database .  Consequently, you will need to indicate your choices in two sections about how your ETD is made available. Most students choose to make their work available immediately, but you can choose to limit access  temporarily  before making it available openly.

Students may restrict access to their theses and dissertations…

• while seeking to publish journal articles or books based on them,
• to protect intellectual property during the patent application process, or
• to prevent the disclosure of sensitive or classified information.

During the submission process, you will select ProQuest and ResearchWorks (Institutional Repository, or IR) publication options. The options are summarized on a table below, followed by selected scenarios to assist you in making your decisions.

IMPORTANT: The metadata describing your ETD, including the citation and abstract, is openly available  immediately— regardless of the embargo or restriction status. This information is searchable by Google, Bing and other search engines, so take care that neither the descriptive information nor the text contain confidential or sensitive information.

Selecting Access Options

Selected etd access scenarios.

The UW Libraries and the Graduate School are committed to the goal of sharing graduate students’ research as soon and as widely as possible, while allowing students to temporarily limit access to their theses and dissertations for such reasons as to support formal publication in journal article or book form or to allow time for filing patents. Below are some examples of how students may wish to use these options to support their publishing or intellectual property-protection goals.

Discussion of Scenarios

• Journal Article Publishing. In recent years graduate students – especially in scientific, medical and technical fields — have increasingly been publishing results of their research in journals.
• The “Research Article” Dissertation. In some disciplines students may be expected to publish 2 or more journal articles during the course of their studies and submit them as the core of their thesis or dissertation — along with an introduction, literature review, and conclusions. Because this has become so common, most journals now permit authors to immediately republish their articles within their theses or dissertations as long as they provide the full article citation and a statement that an article is being “reprinted with permission” of the journal. However, some other journals allow the practice but require that an article not appear on an open access basis before a delay of 6 or 12 months. The Libraries strongly suggests that students become familiar with the policies in place at the journals in which they would like to publish their work, and choose appropriate access restrictions if needed when they submit their ETD’s.
• Book Publishing. Some students in such humanities and social science disciplines as history and political science may hope to publish a revised version of their dissertation as their first book. As they consider that possibility they may be concerned they might undermine their prospects by making their dissertations widely available via ProQuest and/or on an open access basis.Before deciding whether or for how long to limit access to their work based on these concerns, The Libraries recommends students become familiar with the arguments and evidence put forward on these issues. For example, Cirasella and Thistlethwaite 3 and Courtney and Kilcer 4 provide excellent discussions of issues and review recent literature, while William Germano’s classic From Dissertation to Book 5 and Beth Luey’s Revising Your Dissertation 6 offer important insight into what might be involved during the dissertation revision process. While the Libraries recommends that most students hoping to publish their dissertations as books make them widely available while they work toward that goal, they should feel free to consider choosing otherwise, such as “Immediate Access” for ProQuest and limiting to UW for five years – at the end of which students may request additional time.
• Patent Protection Strategies. Students whose theses or dissertations describe work for which patent protection might be appropriate should contact Jesse Kindra at CoMotion ( [email protected] or 206 616-9658) prior to submitting their work to ProQuest and choosing access restrictions. Depending on the circumstances, a student may choose to completely withhold access for one year, but should recognize that doing so will prevent anyone else at the UW from having access to it during the restricted access period. To exercise this option, students should delay releasing their work to ProQuest for 1 or 2 years, and then choose “No access for 1 year, then make Open Access” from the Institutional Repository (IR) Publishing Options menu for the UW copy. In unusual circumstances, requests for access to be withheld an additional year may be considered. To make such a request, students should describe the reason(s) for it in an email to [email protected] prior to expiration of the original embargo period.

1 Marisa L. Ramirez, Joan T. Dalton, Gail McMillan, Max Read and Nancy H. Seamans, “Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities,” College and Research Libraries 74 (July 2013): 368‐80, http://crl.acrl.org/content/74/4/368.full.pdf+html .

2 Marisa Ramirez, Gail McMillan, Joan T. Dalton, Ann Hanlon, Heather S. Smith and Chelsea Kern, “Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?” College and Research Libraries 75 (November 2014): 808-21, http://crl.acrl.org/content/75/6/808.full.pdf+html .

3 Jill Cirasella and Polly Thistlethwaite, “Open Access and the Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual,” pp. 203-224 in Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication: Implementation (Kevin L. Smith and Katherine A. Dickson, eds.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), http://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/286/ .

4 Kyle K. Courtney and Emily Kilcer, “From Apprehension to Comprehension: Addressing Anxieties about Open Access to ETD’s,” pp. 225-244 in Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication: Implementation (Kevin L. Smith and Katherine A. Dickson, eds.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017).

5 William Germano. 2013. From Dissertation to Book, 2d. ed. : University of Chicago Press.

6 Beth Luey (ed.). 2008. Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors. University of California Press.

Publishing Agreements

When you submit your ETD for review and publication, you will be required to read and accept two separate publishing agreements. You will also have to decide whether to publish your work right away or to delay its release. Additional pages within this section will outline all the considerations to keep in mind, when deciding how to make your work available to the scholarly community.

All students writing a thesis or dissertation should review the UW Libraries Copyright Research Guide . Understanding copyright law is another critical aspect as you write your thesis or dissertation.  As you compose your work, ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you referenced others’ work? If so, you either need to get explicit permission from the rights holder or to determine that your use is Fair.
• Have you previously published any part of the work? If you’ve signed your copyright over to your publisher, you will need permission to use your material in your thesis.

Ordering Paper Copies

There are no required fees , although you have the option to register your copyright via ProQuest for a fee. If you want to order bound (paper) copies of your document, you may do so through the UW Copy Centers or through ProQuest. Questions should be directed to the UW Copy Centers or to ProQuest at 1.800.521.0600 ext. 77020 — available 8 a.m.–5 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday (excluding U.S. holidays).

Frequently Asked Questions

I created an account in the etd administrator site, but i’m not ready to submit my etd. can i come back to my account later.

Yes. If you need to finish your submission later (for instance, if you need to update your PDF file before uploading it), you can save your information and come back to finish. No information will be lost.

I submitted my ETD but would like to make an edit to the document. How can I edit my submission?

Once your thesis/dissertation is submitted, no additional changes to the document are allowed with the exception of a major data error in the document. In this circumstance, a letter outlining the necessary changes is required from your supervisory committee chair.

What will the Graduate School be reviewing after I submit my ETD?

Submissions are reviewed by GEMS advisors for formatting requirements for the three required sections — title page, copyright page, abstract — before they are delivered to ProQuest for publication. We are checking for accuracy and consistency. Refer to the Formatting Guidelines section on this page for detailed information.

I submitted my ETD and haven't heard anything yet. When will it be reviewed?

We try to review all ETDs as they are received, but if you submit early in the quarter it may not be acted on immediately. If you need to confirm completion of your degree requirements to an external agency or employer, please access the request for letter of certification in the forms section of our Additional Resources page (once your degree has posted to your UW transcript, we can no longer issue this letter). In general, ETDs are reviewed in the last two to three weeks before the quarter ends and after the last day of the quarter. When your submission has been accepted by a GEMS advisor, you will receive email confirmation.

How can I tell if my ETD was submitted and received by the Graduate School?

When your ETD is successfully submitted and pending review, the status will read “submission in review.”

When will my ETD be made available for access?

This depends on the type of access restrictions you selected when creating your account. However, your submission will be delivered to ProQuest for publishing four to six weeks after graduation and you will receive email confirmation when this has occurred. It should be available in UW ResearchWorks around the same time.

When will the printed dissertation / thesis copies I ordered from ProQuest be ready?

After you receive the email confirmation that UW has “delivered” your submission (ETD) to ProQuest, you should please refer to the ProQuest customer service guidelines for the expected delivery date of your order.

What if I am missing a faculty signature for my thesis or dissertation, or I have encountered difficulties in uploading my ETD? Must I pay the graduate registration waiver fee and graduate in the following quarter?

If you encounter these types of situations, contact Graduate Enrollment Management Services (206.685.2630 or  [email protected] ) as early as possible and no later than the last day of the quarter in which you intend to graduate.

Additional Resources

• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) Guide  (start here!)
• Copyright and Fair Use
• Open Access
• Scholarly Publishing
• ProQuest/UMI Agreement — Traditional Publishing Agreement
• University Agreement — UW Libraries Thesis and Dissertation Submission Agreement
• UW Human Subjects Division (HSD)
• UW CoMotion

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Submitting your thesis for examination (PhD, EdD, MD, BusD, MLitt, MSc)

Format of the thesis, the thesis must:.

be written in British English, apart from quotations and recognised technical formulae

be in A4 portrait format

use one-and-a-half spaced type

include any photographs or other illustrations scanned into the text

be saved in the electronic format and naming style specified by your Degree Committee

Examiners are not expected to edit work. They will deal with errors of fact and typographical errors that affect the meaning of your work, as well as larger structural issues. The extent to which the text has or has not been properly prepared may influence their recommendation concerning the award of the degree. You are therefore advised to check your thesis thoroughly prior to submission to ensure clear, formal British English has been used throughout and that there are minimal typing and/or spelling mistakes.

How and when to present the thesis for examination

You must submit an electronic copy of your thesis for examination, and any required accompanying documents, to your Degree Committee by your submission deadline (which can be found under 'Thesis Submission details' on the Academic tile in your CamSIS self-service). If you are not a self-funded student, the terms and conditions of your funding may require you to submit your thesis earlier than the date shown in CamSIS. If you are unsure what your funder-expected submission date is, you should contact your Funding Administrator. You are required to submit your thesis for examination by your deadline even if the date falls over a weekend or holiday period.

Your Degree Committee should provide you with guidance for electronic submission; please contact them directly if you require any assistance.

The thesis you submit to your Degree Committee will be the thesis forwarded to the examiners for examination. It is not possible to 'retract submission' or to send a revised copy directly to your examiners. Therefore you should carefully check the file(s) you upload when submitting your thesis.

Postgraduate students must keep a minimum number of terms of research before they can submit (for example, 9 for the full-time PhD or 15 for the part-time PhD or EdD) unless they have been granted an allowance or exemption of terms . If you attempt to submit too early and have not had an allowance or exemption of terms approved, your thesis submission will not be accepted or will be kept on hold and not forwarded to your examiners until the first day of your 9th (full-time) or 15th (part-time) term.

Requirements

You must include the following bound inside your thesis:

Please ensure the pages are in the correct order. This is very important - if these preliminary pages are in a different order in your final hardbound thesis to your thesis submitted for examination, this could cause problems and delay approval for your degree.

1. A title page displaying:

the full title of the thesis

your full legal name (as it appears on your passport, marriage certificate or deed poll)

your college

the date of submission (month and year)

a declaration stating: "This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy/Doctor of Education/Doctor of Business/Doctor of Medicine/Master of Science/Master of Letters (as appropriate)."

2. A declaration in the preface stating:

'This thesis is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except as declared in the preface and specified in the text. It is not substantially the same as any work that has already been submitted, or, is being concurrently submitted, for any degree, diploma or other qualification at the University of Cambridge or any other University or similar institution except as declared in the preface and specified in the text. It does not exceed the prescribed word limit for the relevant Degree Committee.'

The declaration does not need to be signed . For more information on the word limits for the respective Degree Committees see Word Limits and Requirements of your Degree Committee )

3. An abstract/summary of your thesis

4. [if applicable] the list of additional materials that were approved for submission alongside the thesis

You must also submit the following documents (not included inside the thesis):

Required: One declaration form

Optional: Research Impact Statement If pandemic, war/conflict, or natural disaster have significantly impacted on your research, you are invited to submit a Research Impact Statement with your thesis using the template provided. The purpose of the statement is for you to describe any restrictions or difficulties experienced in undertaking your research as a result of pandemic, war/conflict, or natural disaster, and to provide details of any alternative arrangements made to complete the work for your thesis. Further details for students and supervisors can be found in the Research Impact Statement guidance  and the Research Impact Statement form can be downloaded here . 

Inclusion of additional materials

Students other than those in the Faculty of Music must seek permission through their  CamSIS Self Service page if they wish to submit additional materials for examination alongside their thesis. Additional materials are integral to the thesis but in a format that cannot be easily included in the main body of the thesis (for example, 3D graphics). You should refer to the ' Policy on the inclusion of additional materials with a thesis ' before making an application to include additional materials. This process should be initiated prior to the thesis submission. If a thesis is submitted with additional materials and without permission to include them, it will be held by the Degree Committee until approval is confirmed.

Please bear in mind that if you are granted permission to submit additional materials, you are required to upload the same materials to the University repository, Apollo , when you submit your approved thesis  post-examination (doctoral candidates only). Therefore, the inclusion of additional material that contains uncleared third-party copyright or sensitive material may affect the access level that is most appropriate for your thesis.

Submitting a revised thesis

If you are resubmitting your thesis following a viva outcome of being allowed to revise and resubmit the thesis for examination for a doctoral degree, you need to follow the same procedure as for the original thesis submission .

What happens following submission of the thesis for examination 

When you submit your thesis for examination the Degree Committee will check the submission, acknowledge receipt, and inform Student Registry you have submitted. The Student Registry will update your CamSIS record.

The Degree Committee will forward your thesis to your examiners. If you have not received confirmation of the date of your viva (oral examination) within six weeks of submitting your thesis, or if you have any questions with regard to your thesis at this stage, you should contact your Degree Committee. 

Your Examiners should not ask you for a printed copy of your thesis or other material in advance of your viva (oral examination). If they do, please seek advice from your Degree Committee.

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How to Submit a Master's Thesis

•  /  Complete Your Degree
•  /  Thesis and Dissertation Information
•  /  How to Submit a Master's Thesis
• Become familiar with the format requirements by reading the  Thesis and Dissertation Handbook .
• Apply to graduate on LionPATH during the semester in which you plan to graduate. Deadlines for submitting your thesis can be viewed on the Thesis, Dissertation, Performance, and Oral Presentation Calendar.
• Upload a draft of your thesis for format review (PDF only) to the eTD website by the specified deadline. Corrections and detailed instructions will be returned to you by email.
• Make any changes required by adviser and/or readers.
• Review the thesis one final time to be sure that no further changes are needed. It will not be possible to make corrections after final approval by the Office of Theses and Dissertations. Convert the file into a PDF for eTD submission. If you cannot do this, contact the Office of Theses and Dissertations for assistance.
• Go to the eTD website and upload the final eTD; and pay $10 thesis fee. The fee can be paid at the Payment Section of the Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Information webpage.
• Await notification of eTD approval by email. If changes are required, you will be notified. Your eTD will be accessible on the eTD website immediately after graduation, unless you have chosen restricted access.

If bound copies are needed, contact any Multimedia & Print Center on campus or you may use an off-campus source. All copies are the author’s responsibility. The Graduate School does not provide copies.

Research Guides

Submit and publish your thesis.

• The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
• Thesis Defences
• Deadlines and Fees
• Formatting in MS Word
• Formatting in LaTeX
• Making Thesis Accessible
• Thesis Embargo
• Review and Release
• Your Rights as an Author
• Re-using Third Party Materials
• Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Turning Thesis into an Article
• Turning Thesis into a Book
• Other Venues of Publication

Publishing from your thesis before or after graduation

"Will repository submission affect my publishing plans?"

... this is a common question for someone looking to publish from their thesis before or after graduation.

Most journals welcome submissions based on a thesis or dissertation. Some may have additional requirements, such as to:

• Let them know about the university’s requirement to make your thesis publicly available
• Submit a manuscript that is substantially different than the thesis content
• Embargo the thesis until after publication, etc.

Your steps will depend on the following scenarios:

Scenario 1 - you ARE NOT planning on publishing your thesis before or after graduation

In this case:

• You can submit your thesis without an embargo
• Your thesis will become publicly available in TSpace  and Library and Archives Canada after your convocation and will be widely indexed via search engines and indexes
• Use the TSpace-generated permanent URL to share and cite your thesis - see example of such citation below

Tajdaran, K. (2015). Enhancement of Peripheral Nerve Regeneration with Controlled Release of Glial Cell Line-derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) (Master’s Thesis, University of Toronto). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1807/74747

Scenario 2 - You ARE planning on publishing your thesis AFTER graduation

Most journals are interested in “original, previously unpublished” research. Some journals consider theses as a form of “prior publications”, others do not, and the majority does not have a clear definition. It will be best to check journal policy before you submit your thesis.

Nature Research will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis which has been published according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification.

►►►How to check journal policies:

• MIT Libraries' list of policy excerpts from major publishers
• Journal’s website - usually under Information for Authors or Copyright / Permissions or Editorial Policy; or in the publication agreement if available online
• If such information cannot be located online, contact the editors directly
• If the journal requires that you place an embargo on your thesis until after publication, see the SGS instructions on how to request an embargo on your thesis .

Scenario 3 - You ARE planning on publishing (or have already published) from your thesis BEFORE graduation

You may want or be expected to publish parts of your thesis before your thesis is submitted, such as with an integrated/publication-based/sandwich thesis. The most important thing to keep in mind here is copyright. You own copyright of your written materials, and a publisher may require copyright transfer of your manuscript.

You need to ensure you retain certain rights or obtain permission in order to satisfy the university’s requirement of making your thesis openly accessible via TSpace, ProQuest and Library and Archives Canada (LAC). For more details on these repositories, see the  Review and Release  section of this guide.

Check whether the journal requires prior notification about U of T’s open access requirement for theses. Some journals want to be notified of this mandate whether or not they restrict the re-use of articles in theses.

Check whether the publisher requires copyright transfer . This should be stated on their website, in the publication agreement, or you can inquire directly with the journal.

If the publisher does not require copyright transfer , i.e. author retains copyright, then you can reuse your article/chapter in your thesis; no permission needed.

If the publisher requires copyright transfer , follow these steps:

Check if the publisher has special provisions for reusing your published work in your thesis. They may permit the inclusion of a non-final version, such as your submitted or accepted manuscript. See more below on understanding different article versions for sharing .

►►►How to check journal policies:  See MIT Libraries' list of policy excerpts from major publishers or the journal/publisher website.

For example, Taylor and Francis policy allows to:

Include your article Author’s Original Manuscript (AOM) or Accepted Manuscript(AM) , depending on the embargo period in your thesis or dissertation. The Version of Record cannot be used. https://authorservices.taylorandfrancis.com/copyright-and-you/

Check if the article is distributed under a Creative Commons license. This may allow re-use.

►►►How to check journal's CC license:  See the journal/publisher website or contact the journal directly.

If the publisher requires copyright transfer, has no special provisions and does not publish under a CC license, you will need to contact them to request permission to include your article in your thesis. You can:

• Negotiate making the article available as part of the thesis in TSpace, ProQuest, and LAC Theses Portal; 
• Request an embargo [link to Lisa’ section on embargo] if the publisher only permits open sharing after some time post-publication;
• If permission is denied you may include in place of the chapter an abstract and a link to the article on the journal website.

If you have specific questions about your situation, publisher policy or author rights, contact the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office at [email protected] for a consultation (best before you publish!)

Understanding different versions of a published article

A publisher may distinguish between the versions of an article that you may be allowed to include in your thesis:

• Submitted manuscript / pre-print - version you initially send in (often permitted)
• Accepted manuscript / post-print - version after peer review but before copyediting, layout editing, formatting, etc. (sometimes permitted; publisher may require an embargo/access restriction for a period of time)
• Version of record / final publisher’s PDF - version that appears in the journal (many publishers do not permit sharing this version)

►►►How to check article versions permitted for sharing:

• MIT Libraries’s list of policy excerpts from major publishers
• Sherpa/RoMEO database of publisher policies
• Journal’s website - usually under Information for Authors or Copyright/Permissions or Editorial Policy; or in the publication agreement if available online
• << Previous: Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Next: Turning Thesis into an Article >>
• Last Updated: Sep 15, 2023 3:23 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/thesis

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• Writing Tips

The Ultimate Guide to Getting Your Thesis Published in a Journal

7-minute read

• 25th February 2023

Writing your thesis and getting it published are huge accomplishments. However, publishing your thesis in an academic journal is another journey for scholars. Beyond how much hard work, time, and research you invest, having your findings published in a scholarly journal is vital for your reputation as a scholar and also advances research findings within your field.

This guide will walk you through how to make sure your thesis is ready for publication in a journal. We’ll go over how to prepare for pre-publication, how to submit your research, and what to do after acceptance.

Pre-Publication Preparations

Understanding the publishing process.

Ideally, you have already considered what type of publication outlet you want your thesis research to appear in. If not, it’s best to do this so you can tailor your writing and overall presentation to fit that publication outlet’s expectations. When selecting an outlet for your research, consider the following:

●  How well will my research fit the journal?

●  Are the reputation and quality of this journal high?

●  Who is this journal’s readership/audience?

●  How long does it take the journal to respond to a submission?

●  What’s the journal’s rejection rate?

Once you finish writing, revising, editing, and proofreading your work (which can take months or years), expect the publication process to be an additional three months or so.

Revising Your Thesis

Your thesis will need to be thoroughly revised, reworked, reorganized, and edited before a journal will accept it. Journals have specific requirements for all submissions, so read everything on a journal’s submission requirements page before you submit. Make a checklist of all the requirements to be sure you don’t overlook anything. Failing to meet the submission requirements could result in your paper being rejected.

Areas for Improvement

No doubt, the biggest challenge academics face in this journey is reducing the word count of their thesis to meet journal publication requirements. Remember that the average thesis is between 60,000 and 80,000 words, not including footnotes, appendices, and references. On the other hand, the average academic journal article is 4,000 to 7,000 words. Reducing the number of words this much may seem impossible when you are staring at the year or more of research your thesis required, but remember, many have done this before, and many will do it again. You can do it too. Be patient with the process.

Additional areas of improvement include>

·   having to reorganize your thesis to meet the section requirements of the journal you submit to ( abstract, intro , methods, results, and discussion).

·   Possibly changing your reference system to match the journal requirements or reducing the number of references.

·   Reformatting tables and figures.

·   Going through an extensive editing process to make sure everything is in place and ready.

Identifying Potential Publishers

Many options exist for publishing your academic research in a journal. However, along with the many credible and legitimate publishers available online, just as many predatory publishers are out there looking to take advantage of academics. Be sure to always check unfamiliar publishers’ credentials before commencing the process. If in doubt, ask your mentor or peer whether they think the publisher is legitimate, or you can use Think. Check. Submit .

If you need help identifying which journals your research is best suited to, there are many tools to help. Here’s a short list:

○  Elsevier JournalFinder

○  EndNote Matcher

○  Journal/Author Name Estimator (JANE)

○  Publish & Flourish Open Access

·   The topics the journal publishes and whether your research will be a good fit.

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·   The journal’s audience (whom you want to read your research).

·   The types of articles the journal publishes (e.g., reviews, case studies).

·   Your personal requirements (e.g., whether you’re willing to wait a long time to see your research published).

Submitting Your Thesis

Now that you have thoroughly prepared, it’s time to submit your thesis for publication. This can also be a long process, depending on peer review feedback.

Preparing Your Submission

Many publishers require you to write and submit a cover letter along with your research. The cover letter is your sales pitch to the journal’s editor. In the letter, you should not only introduce your work but also emphasize why it’s new, important, and worth the journal’s time to publish. Be sure to check the journal’s website to see whether submission requires you to include specific information in your cover letter, such as a list of reviewers.

Whenever you submit your thesis for publication in a journal article, it should be in its “final form” – that is, completely ready for publication. Do not submit your thesis if it has not been thoroughly edited, formatted, and proofread. Specifically, check that you’ve met all the journal-specific requirements to avoid rejection.

Navigating the Peer Review Process

Once you submit your thesis to the journal, it will undergo the peer review process. This process may vary among journals, but in general, peer reviews all address the same points. Once submitted, your paper will go through the relevant editors and offices at the journal, then one or more scholars will peer-review it. They will submit their reviews to the journal, which will use the information in its final decision (to accept or reject your submission).

While many academics wait for an acceptance letter that says “no revisions necessary,” this verdict does not appear very often. Instead, the publisher will likely give you a list of necessary revisions based on peer review feedback (these revisions could be major, minor, or a combination of the two). The purpose of the feedback is to verify and strengthen your research. When you respond to the feedback, keep these tips in mind:

●  Always be respectful and polite in your responses, even if you disagree.

●  If you do disagree, be prepared to provide supporting evidence.

●  Respond to all the comments, questions, and feedback in a clear and organized manner.

●  Make sure you have sufficient time to make any changes (e.g., whether you will need to conduct additional experiments).

After Publication

Once the journal accepts your article officially, with no further revisions needed, take a moment to enjoy the fruits of your hard work. After all, having your work appear in a distinguished journal is not an easy feat. Once you’ve finished celebrating, it’s time to promote your work. Here’s how you can do that:

●  Connect with other experts online (like their posts, follow them, and comment on their work).

●  Email your academic mentors.

●  Share your article on social media so others in your field may see your work.

●  Add the article to your LinkedIn publications.

●  Respond to any comments with a “Thank you.”

Getting your thesis research published in a journal is a long process that goes from reworking your thesis to promoting your article online. Be sure you take your time in the pre-publication process so you don’t have to make lots of revisions. You can do this by thoroughly revising, editing, formatting, and proofreading your article.

During this process, make sure you and your co-authors (if any) are going over one another’s work and having outsiders read it to make sure no comma is out of place.

What are the benefits of getting your thesis published?

Having your thesis published builds your reputation as a scholar in your field. It also means you are contributing to the body of work in your field by promoting research and communication with other scholars.

How long does it typically take to get a thesis published?

Once you have finished writing, revising, editing, formatting, and proofreading your thesis – processes that can add up to months or years of work – publication can take around three months. The exact length of time will depend on the journal you submit your work to and the peer review feedback timeline.

How can I ensure the quality of my thesis when attempting to get it published?

If you want to make sure your thesis is of the highest quality, consider having professionals proofread it before submission (some journals even require submissions to be professionally proofread). Proofed has helped thousands of researchers proofread their theses. Check out our free trial today.

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Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines

• Overview of the Library Submission Process
• MA/MS/PhD Students: Next Steps for Online Submission
• MFA Students: Next Steps for Online Submission
• Common Formatting Issues
• Frequently Asked Questions and Tutorials

Deadlines for Completion of Library Requirements

The library submission process has multiple steps. In order to meet all deadlines for conferral of graduate degrees, the entire process (including submission to Chapman University Digital Commons and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, as applicable) must be completed by 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on the following dates as per the deadlines set by the Office of the Associate Vice President for Graduate Education :

• Spring 2024 : May 10, 2024

It is recommended to make the initial submission to the library at least one week in advance of these dates to allow time for any necessary revisions. Do not count on being able to start and complete the library submission process on the due date.

Initial Steps for Library Submission

• Complete the appropriate Checklist (below) and obtain the necessary signature(s) from the committee chair or advisor. (Please check the "Last updated" dates to ensure you are using the current version.)  

Email the following to the Dissertations and Theses Librarian at [email protected] as two separate files:

Signed checklist , with both pages in one file.

The dissertation or thesis , with signed approval page. PDF format is preferred.

Submissions without signatures or using an older version of a checklist will not be accepted .

• The Dissertations and Theses Librarian will evaluate the dissertation/thesis for compliance.  Please allow at least 2 business days for a response. If changes are needed, the Dissertations and Theses Librarian will contact the student. The library will review each dissertation/thesis up to  two times  (including the initial review). If the dissertation/thesis does not meet the formatting requirements after two reviews, the student may be asked to work with a professional editor and/or have their chair review and submit a new checklist.

Solutions to many common formatting issues are available under the Formatting Questions tab of the  Frequently Asked Questions  page. You may also wish to consult the Common Formatting Issues page to learn about common issues to avoid.

• If no changes are needed, the Dissertations and Theses Librarian sends an approval email to the student with instructions to move on to the appropriate next steps for online submission.

Checklist and Formatting Requirements

The Dissertation/Thesis Checklist is mandatory for all library submissions . The Checklist allows the Committee Chair and the Leatherby Libraries' Dissertations and Theses Librarian to verify that all format requirements have been completed properly. Please use the appropriate checklist for your program.

• MA/MS Thesis Checklist Last updated: 09/07/2021
• MFA Thesis Checklist Last updated: 08/29/2023
• Ph.D. Dissertation Checklist Last updated: 09/07/2021

Fillable Templates (optional) Though you are not required to use them, fillable templates for your thesis and dissertation are also provided to use during the writing process. Please note that these templates are optional and are offered on an as-is basis . They are not formatted according to a single citation style (APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.), and thus their specific formatting may not be ideal for all dissertations and theses. You may customize the look of many elements in the template or create your own document from scratch, so long as the elements required by the checklist are formatted appropriately. In the case of any discrepancies between checklist and template, the checklist has authority and is the final word on formatting requirements.

If you have any questions about the checklist or templates, please check the Formatting Questions tab of the  Frequently Asked Questions  page.

• MA/MS Thesis Template (optional)
• MFA Thesis Template (optional)
• Ph.D. Dissertation Template (optional)
• << Previous: Overview of the Library Submission Process
• Next: MA/MS/PhD Students: Next Steps for Online Submission >>
• Last Updated: May 14, 2024 8:31 AM
• URL: https://libguides.chapman.edu/dissertations

Format, bind and submit your thesis: general guidance

You no longer need to submit a physical copy of your thesis. Please refer directly to the “Submit Your Thesis” section below.

This information is for research students submitting a thesis for assessment. It tells you how to:

• format your thesis
• submit your thesis
• bind your thesis 
• submit the final copy of your thesis

There are different requirements for students of fine arts, design, architecture or town planning.

Find out more about these requirements

Format your thesis

UCL theses should be submitted in a specific format, this applies to both the viva and final copies of your thesis. 

View the thesis checklist

Presentation

In the electronic version of your thesis, hyperlinks (including DOIs) should be functional and resolve to the correct webpage.

We would recommend using Arial or Helvetica fonts, at a size of no less than 12.

Find out more about the accessibility guidelines

If printed, please present your thesis in a permanent and legible format.

Illustrations should be permanently mounted on A4 size paper and bound in with the thesis; you may not use sellotape or similar materials.

A4 size paper (210 x 297 mm) should be used. Plain white paper must be used, of good quality and of sufficient opacity for normal reading. Both sides of the paper may be used.

Both sides of the paper may be used.

Margins at the binding edge must not be less than 40 mm (1.5 inches) and other margins not less than 20 mm (.75 inches). Double or one-and-a-half spacing should be used in typescripts, except for indented quotations or footnotes where single spacing may be used.

All pages must be numbered in one continuous sequence, i.e. from the title page of the first volume to the last page of type, in Arabic numerals from 1 onwards. This sequence must include everything bound in the volume, including maps, diagrams, blank pages, etc. Any material which cannot be bound in with the text must be placed in a pocket inside or attached to the back cover or in a rigid container similar in format to the bound thesis (see Illustrative material ).

The title page must bear the following:

• the officially-approved title of the thesis
• the candidates full name as registered
• the institution name 'UCL'
• the degree for which the thesis is submitted

The title page should be followed by a signed declaration that the work presented in the thesis is the candidate’s own e.g.

‘I, [full name] confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis.'

Please see the section below entitled ‘Inclusion of published works in doctoral theses’ for more information about how to indicate when you have re-used material that you have previously published.

The signed declaration should be followed by an abstract consisting of no more than 300 words.

Impact Statement

The abstract should be followed by an impact statement consisting of no more than 500 words. For further information on the content of the Impact Statement, please see the Impact Statement Guidance Notes for Research Students and Supervisors on the Doctoral School's website. 

Find out more about the Impact Statement

Inclusion of published works in doctoral theses

If you have included any work in your thesis that you have published (e.g. in a journal) previously, then you will need to insert a completed copy of the UCL Research Paper Declaration Form into your thesis after the Impact Statement. The form, and information about how to complete it is available on the Doctoral School’s website.

Find out more about the UCL Research Paper Declaration Form

Table of contents

In each copy of the thesis the abstract should be followed by a full table of contents (including any material not bound in) and a list of tables, photographs and any other materials. It is good practice to use bookmarking within the PDF of the thesis in electronic form to allow readers to jump to the relevant section, figure, table etc. from the table of contents.

Illustrative material

Illustrative material may be submitted on a CD-ROM. If you wish to submit material in any other form, your supervisor must contact Research Degrees well in advance of submission of the thesis.

Any material which cannot be bound in with the text must be placed either in a pocket inside or attached to the back cover or in a rigid container similar in format to the bound thesis. If it is separate from the bound volume it must be clearly labelled with the same information as on the title page. Each copy of the thesis submitted must be accompanied by a full set of this material.

Submit your thesis

Viva copies.

You must submit an electronic version of your thesis to via the UCL OneDrive . You no longer need to submit a printed copy unless your examiners ask for this. 

Find out more on how to submit via the UCL OneDrive

We will check your status and if your examiners have been appointed we will forward the thesis directly to them. They will then be able to download the copy of your thesis to prepare for your exam. 

If an external examiner requests a hard copy of the thesis you will need to arrange for this to be printed and submitted to the Student Enquiries Centre during their walk-in operational hours. We will collect your thesis and post it on to the examiners. 

If your examiners have not been appointed, your thesis will be held securely until your examiners have been formally appointed by UCL.

Covid-19 Impact Form

We have developed a form for you to submit with your thesis if you wish to declare an impact on your research.   The form is optional and your choice to complete it or not will have no bearing on the outcome of your examination. It is intended to set the context of examination and is not a plea for leniency. Your examiners will continue to apply the standard criteria as set out in UCL’s Academic Manual and the joint examiners’ form. Please see the publication from the QAA on Advice on Doctoral Standards for Research Students and Supervisors for further support.

You must submit this form as a separate Word document or PDF when you submit your thesis via the UCL Dropbox as detailed in our guidance above.   We will only accept the form if you submit it at the same time that you submit your thesis.  This will apply if you are making an initial submission or a resubmission.

Download the Covid-19 Impact Form

Find out more about the Student Enquiries Centre

Your examination entry form must be received and logged by Research Degrees before you submit your thesis.

Find out more about examination entry

Re-submission

If you need to re-submit you must:

• submit a new examination entry form to the Research Degrees office at least 4 weeks prior to the expected submission of the thesis
• you must submit an electronic version of your thesis to via the UCL OneDrive . You no longer need to submit a printed copy unless your examiners ask for this.  Find out more on how to submit via the UCL OneDrive

We will check your status and confirm that your examiners are willing to review your revised thesis. We will then forward the thesis directly to them. They will be able to download the copy of your thesis for assessment. 

If an external examiner requests a hard copy of the thesis you will need to arrange for this to be printed and submitted to the Student Enquiries Centre during their walk-in operational hours. We will collect your thesis and post it on to the examiners.

Submitting as a Non-Registered Student

If you do not submit your thesis by the end of your period of Completing Research Status, your registration as a student will end at that point. Your supervisor will then need to apply for permission for you to submit your thesis in writing to the Research Degrees section, at least 3 weeks before your expected submission date. You will be charged a submission extension fee at the point you submit your thesis.

Bind your thesis

If your examiners have request a printed copy of your thesis, please read the following guidance:

Theses have to be robust enough to withstand the examination process and be easily identified. They will need to have your name on the spine to distinguish them.

All theses (whether soft or hard-bound) must:

• be covered in medium blue cloth (e.g. water resistant material) 
• be lettered in gold up the spine with degree, year, name and initials in the same form as UCL records, with letters 16 or 18 point (.25 inch) - thesis submitted for examination in November and December should have the following year lettered on the spine
• have no lettering on front cover of thesis
• have the spine text inverted if the front cover is facing up

An example of how your thesis should be presented.

Hard-bound theses must have the pages sown in (not punched) and soft-bound theses should have the pages glued in. Theses submitted in any other form of binding, including ring binding, will not be accepted.

You are responsible for making sure that your thesis is correctly bound by the company you select.

Final copies

UCL no longer requires a printed copy of your final thesis and we will award your degree once you have met the academic conditions and the Library have confirmed receipt of your e-thesis, the Deposit Agreement form, and you have cleared any outstanding fees.

You will need to deposit an electronic copy of your final thesis (and a completed E-Thesis Deposit Agreement form) via UCL's Research Publications Service (RPS). Please ensure that you remove, or blank out, all personal identifiers such as signatures, addresses and telephone numbers from the e-thesis. Any photographs that you have taken should not show identifiable individuals without their permission and any you have taken of children should mask their faces.

If you do wish to deposit a hard copy you can do so by sending it directly to the Cataloguing & Metadata department of Library Services by post, or in person at the Main Library help desk.  You will find more information about the process on the existing webpage for e-thesis submission. 

Find out more about depositing an electronic and printed copy of your thesis

Related content

• Research degrees: examination entry
• Format, bind and submit your thesis: fine art, design, architecture and town planning
• Viva examinations: guidance

Important Information:

The UCL Student Centre has now moved.  Details of their new location can be found here.  

• The Graduate School >
• Succeed at UB >
• Completing Your Degree >

Electronic Thesis & Dissertation (ETD) Guidelines

As a requirement for graduation, master’s students who complete a thesis and all PhD and EdD students must electronically submit their thesis/dissertation to the Graduate School via the ETD Administrator site . Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations are stored electronically and accessible in perpetuity through the UB Institutional Repository (UBIR) and ProQuest's dissertations and theses database .

Deadlines and Required Documents

In addition to your master’s thesis/doctoral dissertation, submit the following:

• Doctoral degree recipients surveys  (two surveys required for PhD students only).
• Embargo form (if requesting delayed release).

Visit the ETD Administrator website to begin.

Required Format for Electronic Thesis & Dissertation

Your thesis/dissertation must adhere to the formatting guidelines detailed below.   Using the ETD Template (although not required) is an easy way to ensure your document is formatted correctly.

Choosing a Style Manual

When beginning to construct your thesis or dissertation, the very first step is to choose the style appropriate to your specific discipline. If you are unsure what style is appropriate, confer with your advisor and/or department. Be sure to follow the chosen style consistently throughout the document. Listed below are websites of a few widely recognized style manuals:

• American Psychological Association
• Modern Language Association
• University of Chicago, Chicago Manual of Style

Creating an Accessible Document

The University at Buffalo is committed to ensuring equal access to information that is presented online as per UB's Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) Accessibility Policy . As part of this commitment, university web content must be accessible to everyone, including individuals with physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments, with or without the use of assistive technology.

Refer to Microsoft's Accessibility Guide and the UB's ETD Template to help create an accessible document that includes:

• Alternative text for all visuals, including pictures, graphics and charts.
• Meaningful hyperlinked text.
• Logical semantic (heading) structure.
• Logical table structure with proper table headings.

Formatting the Document

The ETD Template can be used to help format your document. Keep in mind the following:

• Font Size:  Select fonts between 10 and 12 characters per inch. Smaller or larger fonts are generally too hard to read and should be avoided. Use the same font style and print size throughout the document.
• Pagination:  The title page is to be  unnumbered,  but should be counted as “page 1”. With the exception of the title page, all of the pages in your document should be numbered, including the principal text, all tables, diagrams, maps, etc. Roman numerals (I, II, III) should be used on the preliminary pages and Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) are used on the pages that follow the abstract.
• Page Numbering Placement:  Generally the page number is placed in the upper right, lower right or bottom center of the page. Regardless of where you place the page numbers, be sure they are consistent throughout the document.
• Spacing:  Use double-spacing consistently throughout the document, except for long quotations, footnotes and endnotes, which are typically single-spaced. Check your selected style manual for further details on spacing.
• Blank Pages:  There should be no blank pages in your PDF. If you wish to leave a blank page, it must be labeled as follows: “This Page Intentionally Left Blank”.

The Title Page

The  ETD Template can be used to help format your (required) title page. Keep in mind the following:

• Do not number the title page. While it is technically Roman numeral i, the number is not displayed on the page itself. 
• The title page must follow the format in the ETD Template.
• Be sure to use your department's official name and your full legal name.
• The title on your manuscript must match the approved title on your M-form.
• When possible, incorporate word substitutes for formulae and symbols.

Page Order and Page Numbering

The ETD Template can be used to help format your document. Your document should adhere the following prescribed order.

• Title page (required).
• Copyright page (required).  The copyright page is required but you are not mandated to file or pay for a copyright. The date of your defense should be listed on the title page and a copyright page follows the title page in the following format. In the center lower third of the page, just above the bottom margin, type the following (*the Roman numeral ii is to be centered at the bottom of the page).

                        Copyright                   Center your name             Center the conferral year                  All Rights Reserved

                              (ii)*

        For reference, a visual of the Copyright page can be found on page ii of the ETD template.

• Dedication and/or acknowledgments pages (optional).  If you decide to have an acknowledgment section, be sure not to omit any members of your committee. While this section is optional, if included, it should be numbered with Roman numerals.
• Table of contents (required).  The table of contents (TOC) page(s) should also be numbered with Roman numerals. Include the dedication/acknowledgment, abstract and any lists within the TOC. Do not include the title page, the copyright page or the TOC page(s). While a TOC is required, it may follow any format acceptable to your advisor and committee as long as it includes all main divisions and subdivisions within your text and the format is consistent.
• Lists of tables, figures, illustrations, charts and graphs (optional).  Follow the format used for your TOC. Use a separate page for each type of list. Be sure to number with the appropriate Roman numerals.
• Abstract (required).  The abstract page should be numbered with the appropriate Roman numeral. An abstract of your thesis or dissertation is required. It should be a succinct and concise narrative description of your work. Briefly state your topic or problem, describe the procedures and methods you used and summarize your findings or conclusions. Do not use tables, graphs or figures in your abstract.
• Chapters or main divisions of the document (required).  The text should be double-spaced and each page must be numbered consecutively beginning with the number 1. As you turn the content of your research into a professional document, be sure to use a writing style appropriate to your subject and discipline. The document also needs to consistently follow acceptable standards of punctuation, spelling and format. See the "Choose a Style Manual" of this guide for a listing of familiar style manuals. Check with your advisor and department for their recommendation. Be sure chapter titles and subheadings follow your style manual. It is best to include tables or other illustrative materials as necessary in the main body of the document when they are essential to the text.
• Subheadings.  For clarity and flow, it is best not to begin any subheadings or other divisions on separate pages unless the preceding page is filled. If the subheading falls at the very end of a page, move it to the next page unless at least two lines of text can follow the subheading on that page. Be sure to keep subheadings consistent in position and style throughout the document.
• Footnotes/Endnotes.  Place footnotes, if used, at the bottom of the appropriate page, at the end of each chapter or at the end of the document. Refer to the style manual you have chosen. Notes are usually single-spaced. If you group your notes at the end of each chapter, begin them on the first page following the text of that chapter. Also begin the first page in each note section with the heading “Endnotes to Chapter___” or “Notes to Chapter___.”
• Appendix (if applicable).  Appendices are used when you wish to add materials (such as charts, graphs, surveys, etc.) not essential to the text. The appendix is generally placed before the bibliography or references section, and after the last page of the last chapter of text. These pages also need to be numbered. Remember to include a list of appendices in your preliminary pages if you have more than one appendix.
• Bibliography or references (required).  The bibliography or list of references should be single-spaced for each entry and then double-spaced between entries. Group all entries in strict alphabetical order or in another way that seems appropriate to your research and helpful to your readers. Be sure to use the format that is consistent with the format style approved by your advisor and committee. These pages must be numbered as well.

Final Check:  Review your document carefully to be sure it is correctly formatted, that all spelling and grammar is correct, and that the document is totally free of errors. Check that there are no blank pages, omitted paragraphs or missing sections. Be sure the preliminary pages of your document are in the proper order and the pagination is correct.

Converting the Document to a PDF

Electronic submission of your thesis or dissertation in PDF format is mandatory. When you are ready to submit your PDF document, go to the ETD Administrator website .

Write your document as you normally would any other research paper while keeping in mind the following tips on how to format your thesis or dissertation in a PDF-friendly manner, to ensure that your later conversion from MS Word, LaTeX, etc., will go smoothly. Refer to the  ProQuest Support Center  for more tips and helpful hints.

• Spacing and pagination:  Use tabs instead of a series of spaces to align text. Insert page breaks instead of a series of paragraphs to start a new page. Use section breaks to change the format between pages in the document. Use your preferred software for creating tables of contents and cross-references to ensure that pagination is consistent even if the generation of the PDF file causes the pages to shift slightly. 
• Fonts:  We recommend using standard fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial. If using unusual fonts, be sure to use embeddable Type 1 or TrueType fonts. 
• Graphics:  JPEG, TIFF, PNG or other appropriate file formats can be added. When possible, it is best to use a high resolution such as 600 dpi. Avoid using graphic editors that are part of a word processor. 
• Equations:  Microsoft Word users should not use Word's Equation Editor. Instead, use italic Times Roman font and Symbol font, along with superscripts and subscripts to create equations.
• Orientation:  Portrait, rather than landscape, orientation is preferred. Utilize standard 8 ½” x 11” page size. Avoid including multiple book pages on one single PDF page, as this will diminish appearance and printing quality.
• Supplemental files (optional):  Supplemental files (images, data, etc.) that are an integral part of the thesis or dissertation, but not part of the full-text should be uploaded along with your PDF during the submission process. Supplemental files should be titled according to the following naming convention: Supplemental_File_Title (i.e., no spaces or punctuation marks in the file name. You may use dashes or underscores).

Need more help?

The ETD Preparation Workshop explains how to properly format your ETD, how to use the ETD Template, tips for creating an accessible document and more.

I submitted my ETD, what's next?

The Graduate School reviews submissions in the order they are received. You'll receive a decision email from [email protected] within one to two weeks.

Decisions  include "accepted" (which requires no additional action by you) or "minor revisions required" (which requires you to complete the outlined revisions). As long as you have submitted your ETD by the published deadline, you have met the deadline.

Approved ETDs are viewable on ProQuest and in the UBIR approximately 10 to 12 weeks after degree conferral (unless an embargo was approved).

Additional Resources

Etd public access and embargo policies.

Per UB's  Public Access of Theses and Dissertations policy , after your degree is awarded, your thesis or dissertation will be delivered to and available in perpetuity through the  UB Institutional Repository (UBIR)  and to ProQuest, where your document will be microfilmed, indexed and stored in  ProQuest’s dissertations and theses database , the world’s largest recognized repository of graduate student research. When you submit your thesis or dissertation as a requirement for conferral of your degree, you are granting a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free perpetual license to the University at Buffalo, as set forth in the Public Access Agreement, which you will sign during the ETD submission process.

If you wish to delay the release of your thesis or dissertation because it contains proprietary data or has patents pending, you must submit an  Request for Embargo (Delayed Release) of Thesis or Dissertation  to the Graduate School at the time of your ETD submission. Please review the Graduate School's  Embargo (Delayed Release) of Thesis and Dissertation policy  for more information.

Fees Associated With the ETD Submission Process

There is no fee for ETD submission and cataloging through the UBIR.

Traditional publishing through ProQuest is free. If you select the ProQuest Open Access publishing option and/or request that ProQuest file copyright on your behalf, there will be associated fees. Open access publishing is $95, copyright filing is $75. Payments will be made via credit card directly to ProQuest during the online ETD submission process.

ProQuest Publishing Options

For publishing with ProQuest, you may choose traditional publishing or open access publishing.

• Traditional publishing  gives ProQuest the right to sell copies of your published thesis and to provide you (the author) with royalties from such sales.
• Open access publishing  provides the broadest means of free and complete access of the thesis or dissertation to students and scholars worldwide. For a comparison of these options, see the  ProQuest Publishing Options Guide .

Copyrighting:  You can choose whether or not to copyright your thesis or dissertation. Copyrighting protects your rights as the author. These rights include the ability to make copies of the work, to distribute them, to make derivative works or to perform or display the work. By copyrighting your thesis or dissertation, you can control the rights to it or may authorize others (i.e., a publisher) to exercise those rights. The copyright will be in effect for your lifetime plus an additional 50 years. You should consult with your advisor and discuss this issue before making your decision.

ProQuest can act as your agent with the Library of Congress Copyright office when your thesis or dissertation is submitted. This is done only if you specifically request such services from ProQuest when you submit your ETD. Please note that it is only mandatory to digitize your thesis or dissertation, while copyrighting is optional. Alternatively, you may apply for copyright registration by filing directly through the  U.S. Copyright Office .

Since theses and dissertations involve considerable effort on the part of the major professor (and sometimes other faculty members) as well as the student, you should make arrangements for publication and/or copyrighting only after consulting with your major professor and committee members.

If you have questions about the ETD submission process or the ETD template, please contact us by phone at 716-645-2939 or by email at [email protected] .

The Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Thesis & dissertation.

Welcome to the Thesis Office! If you are in a program that requires the completion of a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation, we have the resources and information to help you successfully complete your deposit with the Graduate College.

Each deposit period has firm deadlines by which students must apply for graduation, take the doctoral final examination, and deposit the thesis. And it may take several days for the Thesis Office to review and approve your thesis for deposit. Save yourself the stress of a last-minute thesis submission and start planning now! The Thesis Office can direct you to resources and provide support for each stage of the thesis process:

Stage 1: Development

Research, write, and repeat

• Find writing and research support
• Make use of copyright tools
• Become familiar with Graduate College format requirements

Stage 2: Departmental approval

Are you ready to defend?

• Be aware of important deadlines
• File your title page
• Get ready to defend your thesis
• Review release options
• Obtain departmental approval

Stage 3: Graduate College approval

Prepare for your deposit

• Prepare your submission
• Submit your thesis for Graduate College review
• Complete your deposit

Thesis/Dissertation Submission

Congratulations on the completion of your thesis/dissertation! 

Please follow the steps below to ensure the efficient processing of your thesis/dissertation and conferral of your degree. The Office of Student Records and Registrar Services cannot confer your degree until your thesis/dissertation has been submitted and accepted by the Graduate School.

• Prepare your thesis/dissertation to the appropriate standards
• Submit your thesis/dissertation electronically
• Submit Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) -  doctoral students only
• Submit processing fees
• Check your email for notifications

You must complete the first three steps by the   thesis/dissertation submission deadline .

1. Prepare your thesis/dissertation to the appropriate standards.

Please consult with your department or faculty advisor to determine whether you should defend your thesis/dissertation before submitting it electronically. Remember to consider the deadlines.

Use the thesis/dissertation formatting guide and sample below to prepare your thesis/dissertation to meet the formatting requirements. All submissions must adhere to the formatting guidelines. 

• Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Guide
• Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Webinar Recording

Please note that these are visual aids for your reference. If you need assistance with your word processing software, we recommend using online tutorials designed for your software.

The formatting guide covers the following topics:

• Manual of style
• General page formatting (including page margins, font size and color, hand lettering and corrections)
• Sequence of pages (page order)
• Page numbering
• Tables and figures
• Illustrative materials
• Specific page layouts (title page, copyright notice, committee page, etc.)

Below, please find helpful video tutorials for some of the most commonly asked questions about formatting your thesis/dissertation, including how to set page margins. Please refer to the Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Guide above for complete formatting requirements when preparing your thesis/dissertation.

• Setting page margins for your document
• Setting margins for your title and headings

2. Submit your thesis/dissertation electronically.

Binghamton University archives theses and dissertations electronically through ProQuest/University Microfilms International (UMI).*

Have the following items ready before you begin the submission process:

• Full text of your thesis or dissertation in PDF format in one file.   It is generally advisable to convert your own work to PDF format before beginning the electronic submission process. If your manuscript is in Word or RTF format, you may convert it to PDF format on the ProQuest/UMI website.
• ProQuest/UMI abstract.  The ProQuest/UMI abstract may be an edited version of the full abstract in the document.
• Optional supplementary files   (images, sound, etc.) that are an integral part of the dissertation, but not part of the full text.

Go to the  ProQuest/UMI website . Follow the instructions for submitting your document.

• Register at the website.
• Enter basic information about you and your work.
• Complete the non-exclusive publishing agreement.
• Attach your document.
• Click "Submit." The submission is not registered until you click "Submit."

During the submission process, you may request that ProQuest/UMI file on your behalf for copyright for a fee, payable directly to ProQuest/UMI. However, even without registering the thesis/dissertation with the federal copyright office, the copyright notice on the page following the title page is sufficient to effect a copyright for the author.

You may also order bound hard copies of your thesis/dissertation through ProQuest/UMI. Please note that some departments/programs require students to purchase at least one bound hard copy of the thesis/dissertation to be archived with the department. Check with your department for details. See the   Graduate School Manual   for a list of departments/programs that have informed the Graduate School that they do not require bound hard copies.

3. Submit Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) -  doctoral students only.

After submitting your dissertation electronically, please submit the following:

• Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)   - mandatory for all doctoral students. Completion of the survey will be emailed to the Graduate School.

4. Submit processing fees. 

The thesis/dissertation processing fees cover electronic submission; indexing and abstract services; microfilming and archiving; and digital storage and access. The thesis processing fee is $85 (USD) and the dissertation processing fee is $100 (USD). You will receive an email with a link to pay your processing fee when your thesis/dissertation has been fully accepted by the Graduate School .

5. Check your email for notifications.

The Graduate School will review your thesis/dissertation and will notify you via email if your submission has been accepted or if your submission requires formatting revisions.

If your submission requires formatting revisions, submit revisions electronically on the ProQuest/UMI website. The Graduate School recommends that you submit revisions in a timely manner (within 1 week of receiving the notification of the need for revisions). The Graduate School must receive revisions in order to accept your thesis/dissertation and, ultimately, to confer your degree. 

Contact the Graduate School at   [email protected] .

Please also refer to the   Graduate School Manual .

*Among its many advantages, electronic archival allows students to include multimedia in their projects, revise their theses/dissertations long-distance, spend less on photocopying and storage costs, and—most importantly—reach a larger audience. Prior to electronic archival, most hard copy dissertations only received a few library requests each semester. Now, Binghamton University's theses and dissertations are downloaded electronically hundreds of times each year. By archiving with UMI, all theses and dissertations receive double-protection archiving (microfilm and digital) and FREE full-text access to the Binghamton University community. In addition, the Library of Congress retains full rights to the UMI collection.

UMI will prepare archival digital copies and microfilm copies, both of which are maintained in perpetuity and migrated to new storage media as necessary, in accord with UMI's contract with the Library of Congress. UMI then disseminates your work to various bibliographic databases and indexes and publishes a full-text copy of your work on a website available to the Binghamton University community. Readers outside of Binghamton University may find your dissertation and purchase copies directly from UMI.

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Last Updated: 1/22/24

ETD Administrator FAQ - How do I submit a Thesis or Dissertation?

• Article Number: 000029958
• Go to https://www.etdadmin.com and choose "Submit my dissertation/thesis" .
• Select your school from the list provided. (Don't see your school? Learn more )
• Create an account or login using an existing account.
• Once you create an account, the ETD Administrator will walk you through a simple process that involves accepting the publishing agreement and uploading the relevant files and information about your submission.
• After you complete your submission, your graduate school administrator will review the submission before sending it to ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.
• Note that all dissertations and theses must be submitted as a PDF document.
• Rendez-vous sur  http://www.etdadmin.com/ca  et choisissez "Soumettre ma thèse".
• Sélectionnez votre école parmi la liste fournie.
• Créez un compte ou ouvrez une session en utilisant un compte existant.
• Lorsque vous aurez créé un compte, ETD Administrator vous guidera à travers un processus simple qui implique l'acceptation du Contrat ProQuest et le téléversement des fichiers et renseignements en rapport avec votre soumission.
• Une fois votre soumission terminée, l'administrateur de votre école d'études supérieures la révisera avant de l'envoyer au Bureau de Publications ProQuest.
• Notez que toutes les thèses doivent être soumises en tant que document PDF. Pour plus de renseignements sur la création de fichiers PDF, veuillez consulter la  Foire aux questions sur les PDF .

https://support.proquest.com/s/article/ETD-Administrator-FAQ-How-do-I-submit-a-Thesis-or-Dissertation?language=en_US

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FSU | The Graduate School

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The graduate school.

• Current Students
• Thesis, Treatise, and Dissertation

Manuscript Submission Process

Submit manuscript for an initial format review.

Students must create an account in the ProQuest ETD Administrator before they can upload their manuscript for an initial format review. Initial submission and all revised submissions must be completed through the ProQuest ETD Administrator.

Instructions for creating an account can be found here:  Instructions for Submitting your Manuscript

When creating an account on the ProQuest ETD Administrator, a lot of information is required upfront, including access preferences as well as optional paid services like purchasing bound copies of the manuscript and filing for copyright. ProQuest does not complete these instructions using the initial submission. They only publish the final approved manuscript and implement student publishing preferences and any paid services AFTER the manuscript has been approved by the FSU Manuscript Clearance Office and the student's graduation has been confirmed by the Registrar’s Office.

The Graduate School recommends that students submit their completed manuscript for an initial format review at the same time the manuscript is submitted to the committee prior to the defense. However, students must submit their manuscript for an initial format review no later than the relevant initial submission deadline for the semester in which they intend to graduate. Initial reviews are valid for two semesters (the original semester and one semester following). If the defense is delayed further than that, a new initial review must be completed by the appropriate deadline.

While it is understood that content will likely change after the defense, it is expected that manuscripts submitted for the initial format review are at least 90% complete and have been formatted in full accordance with the criteria in the most recent version of the Guidelines and Requirements.

• 90% complete: MUST include the title page, committee page, table of contents, lists (if needed), abstract, chapters, references, biographical sketch and a majority of tables and figures.
• Those manuscripts that do not meet this standard will NOT be reviewed and will NOT count as an initial submission to meet any deadline.

The Manuscript Clearance Office works with 250+ students per semester, so students are always encouraged to submit early.

Students must defend no later than the “last day for submission of final defended, content-approved thesis, dissertation or treatise and required forms” for the semester in which they intend to graduate. The Graduate School allows defenses up to this deadline with the understanding that all content corrections must be completed, approved by the major professor or committee, and submitted to the student's online ETD account no later than 11:59 p.m. on that deadline; however, to allow time for such corrections, the Graduate School recommends defending no later than 1 week prior to the deadline.

Submit Revised Manuscript

Once the student has completed all content changes required and approved by the committee, and incorporated all formatting corrections noted in the initial review, the student submits the revised version through their ETD account using the Revise option. The student should not create a new submission. This must be completed by 11:59 p.m. on the “last day for submission of final defended, content-approved thesis, dissertation or treatise and required forms.”

The revised manuscript will be reviewed by the Manuscript Clearance Advisor. If there are additional formatting corrections, the student will be notified. Manuscripts typically require 2-3 revisions to correct formatting issues that may arise after the content is corrected. A manuscript is not considered cleared until the formatting has been approved, all forms have been received and approved by the Manuscript Clearance Office, and the student has received an email from the Manuscript Clearance Office stating that their manuscript has been cleared.

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Inbox adding berg ’71 to the list of thesis notables.

Jimin Kang ’21’s excellent article about the vicissitudes of the senior thesis at Princeton — past, present, and future — reminded me of some true and some apocryphal stories that arose from my graduating class in 1971. In Kang’s examples of theses that lead to national distinction, I would add Scott Berg ’71’s work on Maxwell Perkins, editor extraordinaire to Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, and many others. Berg’s thesis turned into a bestselling biography, the first of many that he has created to critical acclaim.  

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Exploring the Effects of Vicarious Exposure to Police Violence on Implicit and Explicit Perceptions of the Police

• Description

Stults, Madeleine Elizabeth (author)

text bachelor thesis

Negative police-civilian interactions are at the forefront of public discourse, fueled in part by increased media coverage of police violence. Perhaps consequentially, recent research indicates that individuals tend to associate the police with threats to the self, leading to defensive behaviors. Yet it remains unclear what mechanisms facilitate the learning of police-threat associations and what are the downstream psychological and behavioral implications – aside from defensive behaviors – of police-threat associations. This proposal will address these questions by (1) examining whether police-threat associations can result from exposure to videos of negative civilian-police interactions, and (2) exploring a range of downstream consequences for trust in police and behavioral intentions toward the police. In the following sections, I describe a working model by which individuals can learn to associate police with threat through the means of vicarious exposure to police violence, expand on possible psychological implications resulting from the development of such an association, and detail a study to test this idea. People can learn to associate objects or others with physical harm through threat conditioning. Threat conditioning results when an object or person (i.e., the conditioned stimulus; CS) becomes associated with physical threat via the direct pairing of that stimulus with a threat-inducing object (i.e., the unconditioned stimulus, US; e.g., image of a gun). The result is an increased threat association and response upon re-exposure to the now CS. Threat responses in humans include, for example, skin conductance responses, startle eyeblinks, reduced postural sway (i.e., freezing), and sometimes increased self-reported fear. People can also learn threat associations towards certain stimuli absent direct exposure to CS-US pairings (e.g., viewing images of snake [CS] while being shocked [US]) but instead by watching other people who are exposed to those pairings (e.g., viewing a snake [CS] attacking [US] another person). That is, people can learn that stimuli are sources of threat by witnessing them inflicting harm upon other humans. For example, participants in a recent study watched a video where a demonstrator received an electric shock while looking at pictures of snakes or spiders. When participants subsequently underwent the same conditioning paradigm—being shocked while viewing the images themselves—they displayed a stronger threat response towards the object (snakes or spiders) of which the demonstrator was conditioned. This reveals that participants learned an enhanced threat response vicariously through witnessing the pairing of snakes (i.e., the CS) with shock (i.e., the US) occur to the demonstrator. Traditionally, laboratory research on human threat conditioning utilizes novel and arbitrary symbols as conditioned stimuli, offering researchers a controlled environment free from existing associations. Yet recently, several studies have explored threat conditioning using social groups as CS’s. These studies find that pairing a threat US with both in- and out-group faces can produce a threat conditioned response. Specifically, one study used electric shock as the threat US and faces varying in race and emotion as the CS. However, threat conditioned responses also demonstrate a greater resistance to extinction (i.e., unlearning following the unpairing of a CS+ with a US) in CS-US pairings involving out-group versus in-group faces. Resistance to extinction is also common in stimuli the individual sees as detrimental to survival, including out-group faces. This effect has been found when using as CS’s Black American (vs. White), Central African and Middle-Eastern (vs. North European), and minimal outgroup faces. Biased fear extinction to out- versus in-group faces suggests that out (vs. in) group faces are at least partially biologically prepared fear stimuli. That is, people readily learn that certain groups are sources of danger and have a more difficult time unlearning these associations. In light of these findings, I suggest that threat conditioning may also contribute to shaping attitudes towards law enforcement officers. First, to civilians, police officers are a distinct outgroup coalition and thus potentially a prepared threat. Moreover, because exposure to police often co-occurs within the context of violence and physical aggression, civilians may passively learn to associate police with danger via vicarious threat conditioning. Merely witnessing a violent interaction between an officer and a civilian, then, may lead to vicariously fear-conditioned police-threat association. Vicarious conditioned police-threat associations may develop, for example, from something as simple as witnessing footage of police violence shared on social media or in the news or from watching a violent arrest unfold in real-time. In this scenario, police function as the CS and the presence of physical aggression functions as the US. The repeated pairing of police with a threat-provoking stimulus or context may strengthen such an association between police and threat, so that when encountering police in the future, the conditioned threat response may become active. Supporting this idea, bystanders of police brutality develop persistent threat responses linked to the event. Specifically, individuals who experience repeated vicarious exposure to police violence describe long-lasting aversion towards police. It is also likely that these negative experiences with police violence are more vital to the shaping of a threat association with police, as an individual’s past negative police-civilian interactions have a greater influence than positive police-civilian interactions on their self-reported perceptions of police as responsive to community concerns and effective. The goal of the current work is to test whether vicarious exposure to police violence affects a police-threat association and to examine possible consequences of this association for behavioral intentions. Specifically, I expose participants to vicarious police violence to test the effect on police-threat associations and explore the degree to which such associations affect important social outcomes and beliefs, including trust, perceived procedural fairness and justice, and legitimacy and effectiveness of the police. Additionally, this study will explore the consequences of a police-threat association for behavioral intentions like willingness to call the police when in danger, perceived obligation to obey, and overall expectations about police encounters. I expect that vicarious exposure to police-violence and aggression will affect a police-threat association that leads to general mistrust and aversion towards police as psychological consequences

psychology, police, violence, threat, social, video, social media, police violence, threat, fear, danger

https://doi.org/10.33009/FSU_7872612f-ea99-4426-a4c3-ab4c37e11e6f

honors_thesis_submission-7872612f-ea99-4426-a4c3-ab4c37e11e6f 10.33009/FSU_7872612f-ea99-4426-a4c3-ab4c37e11e6f

Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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• Undergraduate Honors Theses

M.A. Thesis Defense: R. Shaw Bridges

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Robert Shaw Bridges will defend his Master's thesis, "" To Be Considered As Salvors": Risk and Value in the Brokered World of the Early Nineteenth Century American Whale Fishery " in conference with his graduate advisory committee. The Major Professor is Dr. Stephen Mihm. The university community is invited. If you wish to attend please contact the graduate program office at least 48 hours in advance.

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Mom delivers baby in car hours before defending her Rutgers doctoral thesis

• Updated: May. 08, 2024, 3:05 p.m. |
• Published: May. 08, 2024, 11:30 a.m.

Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez delivered her son, Enzo, hours before defending her dissertation at the Rutgers-New Brunswick Graduate School of Education. Nick Romanenko/Rutgers University

• Tina Kelley | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Giving birth and defending a doctoral dissertation could easily be considered among the most stressful items on a bucket list. For Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez, it was all in a day’s work. One day’s work.

She even grabbed a shower in between.

On March 24, Brevard-Rodriguez, director of Aresty Research Center at Rutgers University, was finishing up preparations for her doctoral defense the next day. Eight months pregnant with her second child, she didn’t feel terrific, but she persisted.

She was trying to hone down to 20 minutes her remarks on “The Beauty Performances of Black College Women: A Narrative Inquiry Study Exploring the Realities of Race, Respectability, and Beauty Standards on a Historically White Campus.” The Zoom link had gone out to family, friends, and colleagues for the defense, scheduled for 1 p.m. the next day.

“Operation Dissertation before Baby,” as she called it, was a go.

But at 2:15 a.m. on March 25 her water broke, a month and a day early.

As the contractions came closer and closer, her wife drove her down the Garden State Parkway, trying to get to Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center in Montclair before Baby Enzo showed up.

But the baby was faster than a speeding Maserati and arrived in the front seat at 5:55 a.m., after just three pushes. He weighed in at 5-pounds 12-ounces, 19 inches long, and in perfect health for a baby four weeks early.

“I did have to detail her car afterward,” the new mom said of her wife.

Brevard-Rodriguez was feeling so good after the birth that she decided against asking to reschedule her thesis defense.

“I had more than enough time to regroup, shower, eat and proceed with the dissertation,” she said. She had a quick nap, too. The doctors and nurses supported her decision and made sure she had access to reliable wifi at the hospital.

She gave her defense with a Rutgers background screen. When she learned she had passed, she dropped the fake background, and people could see Brevard-Rodriguez in her maternity bed, and Enzo in her wife’s arms.

“I said, ‘You guys missed the big news,’ and they just fell out,” said Brevard-Rodriguez, who waited for the reveal because she didn’t want extra sympathy from her dissertation committee.

Melina Mangin, chair of the Educational Theory, Policy & Administration Department at the Graduate School of Education, was astounded.

“Tamiah had delivered a flawless defense with zero indication that she had just given birth,” she said. “She really took the idea of productivity to the next level!”

Finishing her doctorate in education and having her last child were fitting 40th birthday presents to herself, Brevard-Rodriguez said. She turned 40 in November and returns to work in late August.

Stories by Tina Kelley

• This N.J. student just won one of the nation’s biggest scholarships. He started college in prison.
• Quintuplets graduate together from N.J. university
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Tina Kelley may be reached at [email protected] .

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Mathematics > Dynamical Systems

Title: an algorithmic classification of generalized pseudo-anosov homeomorphisms via geometric markov partitions.

Abstract: This thesis provides a classification of generalized pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms up to topological conjugacy using an algorithmic approach. A Markov partition of a generalized pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism is a decomposition of the surface into a finite number of rectangles with disjoint interiors, such that their images intersect with any other rectangle in the Markov partition along a finite number of horizontal sub-rectangles. Every generalized pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism has a Markov partition, and, by using the surface's orientation, we can endow any Markov partition with a geometrization. The geometric type of a geometric Markov partition was defined by Bonatti and Langevin in their book, "Diffeomorphismes de Smale des surfaces", to classify saddle-type basic pieces for structurally stable diffeomorphisms on surfaces. A geometric type is an abstract combinatorial object that generalizes the incidence matrix of a Markov partition. It takes into account not only the number of times the image of a rectangle intersects with any other rectangle in the family but also the order and change of orientation induced by the homeomorphisms. This thesis employs the geometric type of a geometric Markov partition to classify conjugacy classes of pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms. The classification is provided by the three main results in this manuscript: I) The geometric type is a complete invariant of conjugation. II) A criterion is provided for determining whether an abstract geometric type is realized by a geometric Markov partition of a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism. III) An algorithm is described for determining whether two geometric types in the pseudo-Anosov class are realized by generalized pseudo-Anosov homeomorphisms that are topologically conjugated or not.

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