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Guide To LLM Dissertation Writing

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Choosing the topic

Five key considerations when choosing your dissertation topic are:

• Why are you studying an LLM in thr first place?
• Which modules have you enjoyed the most?
• Which areas of the law have a good support base at your institution?
• What are the strengths of your law library?
• Is your potential topic a wide enough question?

Obviously, choosing a topic is a necessary stage to get underway before you can start researching and writing your dissertation. You should spend time carefully considering the subject of your dissertation as it might end up being the clincher for that  first job  after you finish your studies. Make sure you pick a topic that you find interesting, but that also has the balance of support from your lecturers and professors.

You'll need to be uniquely motivated to produce a dissertation about a subject that none of your lectures or professors knows much about. Understanding why you have picked the particular subject will ensure you're choosing the right topic, but don't spend too much time considering what to do as you'll need to get on with it. 

Dissertation support

You will have plenty of dissertation support organised through your law school. Some of it might be compulsory sessions that you must undertake as part of your LLM program, while others may be support sessions that can help you stay focused throughout your dissertation work.

Make sure you attend these sessions and don’t hesitate to ask questions if in doubt. It might be a good idea to share your dissertation structure with tutors or designated academic contacts that can give you feedback on your progress. Law school libraries usually have  books  that tell you how best to prepare for your dissertation. Keep an eye out for skills sessions on writing or research methods. These will prove useful when you get down to drafting content for your dissertation and will enable you to put to practice acquired skills that you picked up during these sessions.

Planning and organisation

Some people love creating a filing system and hopefully, you're one of them as this is a great way to organise your LLM dissertation. You'll need to keep your research well organised to enable you to quickly access it when you are writing your dissertation. It's a good idea to have research divided into chapters early on.

It's a good idea to follow a file management procedure to save your dissertation material. This material could consist of both printed (photocopies from the library or print-outs of research articles) and online documents. Try to follow a consistent labelling/naming convention so that you can locate documents quickly. For instance, if you have a vast number of online articles and research papers to go through, then categorise them in such a way that they fall under relevant chapters of your dissertation.

Any research you do online will need to be backed up, and of course, you will have the dissertation itself backed up too. Do not have everything saved on one ancient laptop, instead build in a routine for how you save and backup your data daily so it just becomes part of how you work. If you start as early as you can on your dissertation, then you'll be able to build in planning time and create a realistic timetable for your work, with escapes from your dissertation to let you reflect on what you have done so far. 

Researching

There is no easy or quick way around this, you are just going to have to get going with the research as soon as possible. Remember that law libraries get busy during the second semester so you'll need to get there early in the mornings or stay late sometimes.

You also don't want to wait around for particular texts that have a limited availability. If you realise you need a book that someone else has checked-out of the library, then let the staff know as soon as you know so you have a chance of getting it. Don't forget about online law libraries and resources too, and speak with your academic staff if you are really struggling to access what you need. 

Don't wait until you think you've done all the researching before you start writing up your findings. Writing up an LLM dissertation takes time and thought. Start writing as soon as you start researching and keep planning the chapters of your dissertation as you delve deeper into the research. With a bit of luck and good planning, you will find that the chapters are easy to write. 

Editing and formatting

Find out before you write a single word what format your dissertation needs to be in for printing and submission. Your law school will likely have their own standards, so you should familiarise yourself with this document before you get started. Establish the right format straight away so you are not spending time at the last minute changing formats or the way you have referenced the whole document.

Don't underestimate how long it will take to edit your dissertation – expect to read through each chapter many times as each read through will show you new and interesting mistakes. And if possible, find a willing friend or family member to give it a final read – fresh eyes are likely to pick up small typos or mistakes.  

Printing and submitting

Aim to finish your LLM dissertation with a little time to spare. Towards submission deadlines, university printers are busy places and if you need to print your dissertation at a particular printer then check with them early on to understand how much time they need to get your document ready. You need time for them to print it and time for you to check the printed material as you need to check for formatting errors or any printing mistakes like double pages.  Once you've written your dissertation you can take a calm walk into your submissions office and hand over your dissertation. Obviously, everything went to plan and you've finished your dissertation with time to spare and now it's time to  relax a little .

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HLS Dissertations, Theses, and JD Papers

S.j.d. dissertations, ll.m. papers, ll.m. theses, j.d. papers, submitting your paper to an online collection, other sources for student papers beyond harvard, getting help, introduction.

This is a guide to finding Harvard Law School (“HLS”) student-authored works held by the Library and in online collections. This guide covers HLS S.J.D Dissertations, LL.M. papers, J.D. third-year papers, seminar papers, and prize papers.

There have been changes in the HLS degree requirements for written work. The library’s collection practices and catalog descriptions for these works has varied. Please note that there are gaps in the library’s collection and for J.D. papers, few of these works are being collected any longer.

If we have an S.J.D. dissertation or LL.M. thesis, we have two copies. One is kept in the general collection and one in the Red Set, an archival collection of works authored by HLS affiliates. If we have a J.D. paper, we have only one copy, kept in the Red Set. Red Set copies are last resort copies available only by advance appointment in Historical and Special Collections .

Some papers have not been processed by library staff. If HOLLIS indicates a paper is “ordered-received” please use this form to have library processing completed.

The HLS Doctor of Juridical Science (“S.J.D.”) program began in 1910.  The library collection of these works is not comprehensive. Exceptions are usually due to scholars’ requests to withhold Library deposit. 

• HLS S.J.D. Dissertations in HOLLIS To refine these search results by topic or faculty advisor, or limit by date, click Add a New Line.
• Hein’s Legal Theses and Dissertations Microfiche Mic K556.H45x Drawers 947-949 This microfiche set includes legal theses and dissertations from HLS and other premier law schools. It currently includes about 300 HLS dissertations and theses.
• Hein's Legal Theses and Dissertations Contents List This content list is in order by school only, not by date, subject or author. It references microfiche numbers within the set housed in the Microforms room on the entry level of the library, drawers 947-949. The fiche are a different color for each institution.
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses @ Harvard University (Harvard login) Copy this search syntax: dg(S.J.D.) You will find about 130 SJD Dissertations dated from 1972 to 2004. They are not available in full text.
• DASH Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard Sponsored by Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication, DASH is an open repository for research papers by members of the Harvard community. There are currently about 600 HLS student papers included. Unfortunately it is not possible to search by type of paper or degree awarded.

The Master of Laws (“LL.M.”) degree has been awarded since 1923. Originally, the degree required completion of a major research paper, akin to a thesis. Since 1993, most students have the option of writing the LL.M. "short paper."  This is a 25-page (or longer) paper advised by a faculty supervisor or completed in conjunction with a seminar.  Fewer LL.M. candidates continue to write the more extensive "long-paper." LL.M. candidates holding J.D.s from the U.S. must write the long paper.

• HLS Written Work Requirements for LL.M. Degree The current explanation of the LL.M. written work requirement for the master of laws.

The library generally holds HLS LL.M. long papers and short papers. In recent years, we require author release in order to do so. In HOLLIS, no distinction is made between types of written work created in satisfaction of the LL.M. degree; all are described as LL.M. thesis. Though we describe them as thesis, the law school refers to them solely as papers or in earlier years, essays. HOLLIS records indicate the number of pages, so at the record level, it is possible to distinguish long papers.

• HLS LL.M. Papers in HOLLIS To refine these search results by topic, faculty advisor, seminar or date, click Add a New Line.

HLS LL.M. Papers are sometimes available in DASH and Hein's Legal Dissertations and Theses. See descriptions above .

The HLS J.D. written work requirement has changed over time. The degree formerly required a substantial research paper comparable in scope to a law review article written under faculty supervision, the "third year paper." Since 2008, J.D. students have the option of using two shorter works instead.

Of all those written, the library holds relatively few third-year papers. They were not actively collected but accepted by submission from faculty advisors who deemed a paper worthy of institutional retention. The papers are described in HOLLIS as third year papers, seminar papers, and student papers. Sometimes this distinction was valid, but not always. The faculty deposit tradition more or less ended in 2006, though the possibility of deposit still exists. 

• J.D. Written Work Requirement
• Faculty Deposit of Student Papers with the Library

HLS Third Year Papers in HOLLIS

To refine these search results by topic, faculty advisor, seminar or date, click Add a New Line.

• HLS Student Papers Some third-year papers and LL.M. papers were described in HOLLIS simply as student papers. To refine these search results, click "Add a New Line" and add topic, faculty advisor, or course title.
• HLS Seminar Papers Note that these include legal research pathfinders produced for the Advanced Legal Research course when taught by Virginia Wise.

Prize Papers

HLS has many endowed prizes for student papers and essays. There are currently 16 different writing prizes. See this complete descriptive list with links to lists of winners from 2009 to present. Note that there is not always a winner each year for each award. Prize winners are announced each year in the commencement pamphlet.

The Library has not specifically collected prize papers over the years but has added copies when possible. The HOLLIS record for the paper will usually indicate its status as a prize paper. The most recent prize paper was added to the collection in 2006.

Addison Brown Prize Animal Law & Policy Program Writing Prize Victor Brudney Prize Davis Polk Legal Profession Paper Prize Roger Fisher and Frank E.A. Sander Prize Yong K. Kim ’95 Memorial Prize Islamic Legal Studies Program Prize on Islamic Law Laylin Prize LGBTQ Writing Prize Mancini Prize Irving Oberman Memorial Awards John M. Olin Prize in Law and Economics Project on the Foundations of Private Law Prize Sidney I. Roberts Prize Fund Klemens von Klemperer Prize Stephen L. Werner Prize

• Harvard Law School Prize Essays (1850-1868) A historical collection of handwritten prize essays covering the range of topics covered at that time. See this finding aid for a collection description.

The following information about online repositories is not a recommendation or endorsement to participate.

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses HLS is not an institutional participant to this collection. If you are interested in submitting your work, refer to these instructions and note that there is a fee required, which varies depending on the format of submission.
• EBSCO Open Dissertations Relatively new, this is an open repository of metadata for dissertations. It is an outgrowth of the index American Doctoral Dissertations. The aim is to cover 1933 to present and, for modern works, to link to full text available in institutional repositories. Harvard is not one of the institutional participants.
• DASH Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard

Sponsored by Harvard University’s Office for Scholarly Communication, this is an open repository for research papers by members of the Harvard community. See more information about the project. 

Some HLS students have submitted their degree paper to DASH.  If you would like to submit your paper, you may use this authorization form  or contact June Casey , Librarian for Open Access Initiatives and Scholarly Communication at Harvard Law School.

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (Harvard Login) Covers dissertations and masters' theses from North American graduate schools and many worldwide. Provides full text for many since the 1990s and has descriptive data for older works.
• NDLTD Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations Union Catalog Worldwide in scope, NDLTD contains millions of records of electronic theses and dissertations from the early 1900s to the present.
• Law Commons of the Digital Commons Network The Law Commons has dissertations and theses, as well as many other types of scholarly research such as book chapters and conference proceedings. They aim to collect free, full-text scholarly work from hundreds of academic institutions worldwide.
• EBSCO Open Dissertations Doctoral dissertations from many institutions. Free, open repository.
• Dissertations from Center for Research Libraries Dissertations found in this resource are available to the Harvard University Community through Interlibrary Loan.
• British Library EThOS Dissertation source from the British Library listing doctoral theses awarded in the UK. Some available for immediate download and some others may be requested for scanning.
• BASE from Bielefeld University Library Index of the open repositoris of most academic institutions. Includes many types of documents including doctoral and masters theses.

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• Last Updated: Sep 12, 2023 10:46 AM
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Publishing a Master’s Thesis: A Guide for Novice Authors

Robert g. resta.

1 Swedish Cancer Institute, Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, WA USA

Patricia McCarthy Veach

2 Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN USA

Sarah Charles

3 Jefferson Kimmel Cancer Center, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA USA

Kristen Vogel

4 Center for Medical Genetics, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, IL USA

Terri Blase

5 Department of Maternal Fetal Medicine, Advocate Christ Medical Center, Oak Lawn, IL USA

Christina G. S. Palmer

6 Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA USA

7 Department of Human Genetics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA USA

8 UCLA Semel Institute, 760 Westwood Plaza, Room 47-422, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA

Publication of original research, clinical experiences, and critical reviews of literature are vital to the growth of the genetic counseling field, delivery of genetic counseling services, and professional development of genetic counselors. Busy clinical schedules, lack of time and funding, and training that emphasizes clinical skills over research skills may make it difficult for new genetic counselors to turn their thesis projects into publications. This paper summarizes and elaborates upon a presentation aimed at de-mystifying the publishing process given at the 2008 National Society of Genetic Counselors Annual Education Conference. Specific topics include familiarizing prospective authors, particularly genetic counseling students, with the basics of the publication process and related ethical considerations. Former students’ experiences with publishing master’s theses also are described in hopes of encouraging new genetic counselors to submit for publication papers based on their thesis projects.

Introduction

Scholarship is important for growth of a profession and for clinical care. For these reasons, the American Board of Genetic Counseling (ABGC) endorses scholarly activities through Practice Based Competency IV.5 (American Board of Genetic Counseling 2009 ). Boyer ( 1990 ) describes four types of scholarship (Scholarship of Discovery, Scholarship of Integration, Scholarship of Application, and Scholarship of Teaching), all of which are endorsed by ABGC and required of accredited genetic counseling training programs. The first three types of scholarship, which involve generating new knowledge or applying existing knowledge to an important problem, are the basis of the ABGC’s requirement that students in accredited programs engage in scholarship and complete a scholarly product. The ABGC defines a scholarly product to include: a master’s thesis, an independent research project, a literature review/case report, a formal needs assessment, design and implementation of an innovative patient, professional, or community educational program, and/or preparation of a grant proposal.

The purpose of this article is to encourage students to disseminate their scholarly work (except grant proposals) through a journal publication. This article was developed from an Educational Breakout Session (EBS) at the 2008 National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) Annual Education Conference and draws upon the experiences of a past editor and current assistant editor of the Journal of Genetic Counseling ( JOGC ), a student mentor, and recent genetic counseling graduates who successfully turned their student thesis projects into peer-reviewed publications.

Engaging in scholarship is important for increasing genetic counselors’ self-knowledge, but dissemination of scholarship is essential for the growth of the genetic counseling field. McGaghie and Webster ( 2009 ) identify a wide range of types of scholarly products that promote broad dissemination of information, including peer-reviewed journal articles (e.g., original research, case reports, review articles), book chapters, books or monographs, edited books, essays, editorials, book reviews, letters, conference reports, educational materials, reports of teaching practices, curriculum description, videos, simulations, simulators, and web-based tutorials. As evidence of the importance of disseminating scholarship to the field of genetic counseling, dissemination of scholarly products is actively promoted by the NSGC, the major professional organization for the genetic counseling profession. A prominent example of NSGC’s commitment to dissemination is the JOGC , a professional journal devoted to disseminating peer-reviewed information relevant to the practice of genetic counseling. The success of this journal over nearly two decades is a strong indicator of the value genetic counselors place on publishing journal articles as an essential product of scholarship.

Individuals who have completed a master’s thesis or equivalent should consider publication. This “call to publish” student work is based on evidence that a large proportion of students engage in a scholarly activity with publication potential. A recent survey of 531 genetic counselors suggests that 75% of respondents fulfilled their scholarly activity requirement via a master’s thesis (Clark et al. 2006 ). Among this group, 21% classified their thesis as “hypothesis driven” and 20% classified it as a “descriptive study.” Although the research may be relatively small scale given the time and resource constraints of short training programs (≤2 years), it nonetheless offers a rich and varied source of information about the practice of genetic counseling that could be shared with the broader community through publication. Yet Clark et al. ( 2006 ) found that only 21.6% of respondents who completed a master’s thesis had submitted a manuscript for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It appears that many students do not submit their research for professional publication, perhaps due to a combination of time constraints, lack of mentoring and support, unfamiliarity with the publication process, lack of professional confidence, and fear of rejection (Clark et al. 2006 ; Cohen et al. 2008 ; Driscoll and Driscoll 2002 ; Keen 2006 ). Because this is one aspect of scholarship that has received limited attention, guidance regarding the details and vicissitudes of the publication process, and acknowledgement that master’s theses can be successfully published, are needed.

Of course, one might question why students should or would publish the results of their graduate work. The answer is complex, without a “one size fits all,” because scholarship can be intrinsically and/or extrinsically motivated. McGaghie and Webster ( 2009 ) describe intrinsic motives as including sharing knowledge, career advancement, status improvement, collegial approval, personal pleasure, and response to challenge; extrinsic motives include academic pressure, commitment to patient care, practice improvement, and promoting the use of new technologies. Although the reasons genetic counselors publish articles have not been empirically evaluated, Clark et al. ( 2006 ) (i) concluded that a substantial number of genetic counselors consider active involvement in research (a form of scholarship and precursor to publication) to be a core role, and (ii) found that respondents endorsed a range of intrinsic and extrinsic motives for their involvement in research. These reasons included interest in the subject, contributing to the field, personal development/satisfaction, diversifying job responsibilities, job requirements, lack of existing research on a particular topic, and career advancement. It is reasonable to infer that these reasons would extend to publication as well.

The work that culminates in a master’s thesis provides the basis for a professional journal article. However, writing a professional journal article differs from writing a master’s thesis. This article, therefore, provides practical ideas and considerations about the process for developing a master’s thesis into a peer-reviewed journal article and describes successful case examples. Research and publication occur in stages and include many important topics. Previous genetic counseling professional development articles have partially or comprehensively addressed the topics of developing and conducting a research project (Beeson 1997 ), writing a manuscript (Bowen 2003 ), and the peer-review process (Weil 2004 ). This paper expands on previous articles by describing the publication process and discussing publication ethics, with emphasis on aspects pertinent to publishing a master’s thesis. It is hoped that this article will encourage genetic counselors to publish their research.

The primary audience for this article is genetic counselors who are conducting a master’s thesis or equivalent or who completed a thesis in the last few years which remains unpublished. The secondary audience is other novice authors and affiliated faculty of genetic counseling training programs. Although the focus of this paper is on journal publications which are subject to a peer-review process (e.g., original research, clinical reports, and reviews), some of the basic information applies to a variety of publishing forms.

The Publication Process

Publish before it perishes.

Like produce and dairy products, data have a limited shelf life. Research results may be rendered marginal by new research, social changes, and shifts in research trends. For example, a study of patient reluctance to undergo genetic testing due to concerns about health insurance discrimination conducted in December 2007 would have been obsolete when the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (Pub.L. 110–233, 122 Stat. 881, enacted May 21, 2008) was enacted 5 months later. Or studies of whether patients think they might undergo testing if a gene for a particular condition were identified become less relevant once the gene is actually mapped and sequenced.

The hardest part about writing is actually writing. Making the time to sit down and compose a report of research findings is a very difficult first step. As noted in the three case examples, this is particularly true for a recent graduate whose time is occupied with searching for a new job, moving to a new city, and learning the details of a new job. However, the longer you wait, the more difficult it becomes, and the greater the risk that your data will grow stale. If you do not write it, the paper will likely not get written. The three case examples identify strong mentorship, ongoing communication with co-authors, constructive criticism, and commitment to publication by every author as key elements for successfully preparing a manuscript. The following sections describe basic processes for preparing a paper. See also Table  1 for helpful references about technical aspects of manuscript preparation.

Table 1

Selected Resources For Manuscript Preparation

Choosing a Journal

Research delivered to an inappropriate audience is ignored. Many journals publish genetic counseling research—as demonstrated by the three case examples—and therefore, choosing the right journal is critical (Thompson 2007 ). The first step is to decide who the audience should be. Is it important to reach genetic counselors? Medical geneticists? Or is the audience outside of the genetic counseling community? Some genetic counseling research is of interest to researchers in patient education, decision-making, or the social sciences. Clinicians such as surgeons, radiology technicians, psychologists, and family practice physicians might benefit from a greater understanding of genetic counseling and how it interfaces with their specialties.

The next step is to decide whether the journal is interested in the type of research conducted. For example, does the journal publish articles mostly on medical and clinical issues? Does it publish qualitative research? A description of the scope, aims, and types of research that are published is located in the “Instructions to Contributors” section on the web page of most journals. A look at the journal’s editorial board might also provide a good idea of a journal’s theoretical approaches, philosophical orientation, and research interests. Another strategy is to contact the journal’s editor or a member of the editorial board prior to submitting a manuscript to discuss the appropriateness of the manuscript for the journal. Many editors welcome such pre-submission contact since it reduces their workload of reading inappropriate manuscripts.

A journal’s “impact factor” may be important to some authors when considering where to publish a manuscript. The impact factor is a—perhaps imperfect—statistical measure of a journal’s importance. The impact factor was developed in the early 1960s by Eugene Garfield and Irving Sher and is technically defined as A/B, where A = the number of times articles published in that journal were cited and B = the number of citable articles published by the journal (letters and editorials are not usually citable articles) (Garfield 1994 ). An impact factor of one indicates that on average, articles published in the journal were cited once by other authors.

A journal’s impact factor can vary greatly from year to year, and its practical utility is widely debated (Andersen et al. 2006 ; Chew et al. 2006 ; Greenwood 2007 ; Ha et al. 2006 ; The PLoS Medicine Editors 2006 ). Genetic counselors often publish small studies and case reports. The journals that might publish such papers usually have impact factors of ten or less. Thus the impact factor may be a less important consideration for many genetic counselors when deciding where to publish.

A publisher’s copyright policy may also influence the choice of where to publish. The majority of publishers own the copyright (United States Copyright Office 2008 ) and authors do not have the right to copy, re-use, or distribute their own publications without buying reprints, which can be a significant source of income for publishers. Some journals, like the Public Library of Science (PLoS), are completely Open Access and make all articles fully available online. Other journals have Delayed Open Access, which makes articles publicly available after a specified period of time, often a year or two. Many journals, such as the JOGC , promote Hybrid Open Access in which authors, for a fee, can make their articles publicly available. Some journals will make select articles publicly available, usually those that attract media attention. For grant-funded research, consider the requirements of the funding source; some granting agencies require that the research results be made publicly available at some point.

Peer Review

Peer review is the process in which two or three experts evaluate a manuscript to determine whether it is worthy of publication. Peer review is the backbone of scholarly publishing; no research manuscript gets published until a team of reviewers and journal editors vets it. Ideally, reviewers are objective, constructively critical, open-minded, fair, and insightful. Some journals blind the reviewer to the author’s identity, in hopes that the authors’ reputations or professional relationships will not influence the review. Some journals will let authors suggest reviewers or request that certain people not review a manuscript. A journal’s peer review policies may be another important consideration in choosing where to submit a manuscript.

In practice, peer review is not always ideal (Benose et al. 2007 ; Curfman et al. 2008 ; Hames 2007 ; Wager et al. 2006 ). Nonetheless, no better or viable alternative has been proposed. Reviews may sometimes appear to be arbitrary, unfair, and poorly performed. Reading such reviews can be very difficult and frustrating, even for experienced authors. However, it is a reviewer’s job to be critical, and there may be elements of truth in even the most negative reviews. Some editors may be willing to send a manuscript to another reviewer if an original reviewer produces a harshly critical or poorly thought out critique. Some journals have a formal appeals process if a manuscript is rejected or an author feels a review is inaccurate, inappropriate, or biased. However, sometimes it is simply easier to submit the manuscript to a different journal. Case # 2 describes a successful example where submitting a manuscript to a different journal led to publication.

The manuscript rejection rate varies widely across journals, but about half of all manuscripts are rejected or require significant revisions (Armstrong et al. 2008 ; Hall and Wilcox 2007 ; Liesegang et al. 2007 ). About half of rejected manuscripts are published in other journals (Armstrong et al. 2008 ; Hall and Wilcox 2007 ; Liesegang et al. 2007 ). Even among articles that are accepted for publication, the vast majority will require significant revisions. All three case examples describe manuscripts that underwent significant revision. Thus, prospective authors should not be disheartened if a manuscript is rejected or needs extensive re-writing; this is the rule rather than the exception . Many editors are willing to work with authors who have questions about specific comments or how best to incorporate the reviewers’ suggestions. Busy journal editors would rather answer questions up front than have to laboriously edit a revised manuscript and send it back for further revisions.

Peer review, and the subsequent manuscript revisions, along with the number of manuscripts submitted to the journal, are probably the most critical bottlenecks in determining how long it takes before a manuscript appears in print. Typically, a year or more may pass from the time of submission to the publication date. The three case examples include their timeframes to highlight the need for perseverance and patience with the publication process.

The clearest way for authors to respond to editors’ and reviewers’ comments is to prepare a table that lists each comment and how the authors addressed them, item by item. Some reviewers’ comments may be inaccurate or simply unrealistic (e.g. “The authors should re-do the entire research study...”); these can be discussed in the table or in the cover letter that accompanies the table. Additional information about the peer-review process can be found in Weil ( 2004 ).

Acceptance!

Once a manuscript is accepted for publication, the publisher or the journal editor will send a copyright transfer statement that spells out ownership of the article. This statement must be signed and returned in short order before the manuscript will be published. The corresponding author will receive page proofs, usually electronically, which must be read by the author for accuracy and returned fairly quickly (usually 2–3 days). Many publishers are reluctant to make significant changes in the page proofs, and they may charge for substantial revisions. Thus, the version of the manuscript that is submitted to the journal before the page proofs are generated should be very close to what the author wishes to see in print. Usually at this time publishers will offer the author the option to purchase reprints to allow the author to share the publication with other researchers, co-authors, and colleagues. Some journals will provide a limited number of free reprints or a complimentary copy of the issue of the journal in which the paper appears. The steps in the publication process are summarized in Table  2 .

Table 2

Steps in the Publication Process

a ∼50% of manuscripts are rejected or require significant revision before being accepted for publication

Ethics of Publishing

“Scholarship (like life) is not always fair or precise.” (Thompson 1994 )

Manuscript preparation and submission for publication can be complicated by ethical issues. Many authors may not be aware of these ethical conundrums, let alone have a plan for addressing them. Ethics is not a stagnant concept. As research methodologies and research questions evolve, new ethical issues in publishing arise. This section contains a description of several issues broadly relevant to the publishing practice of genetic counselors, particularly as students or recent graduates. However, it is important for genetic counselors-as-authors to keep abreast of ethical issues relevant to their own work.

“Ethics” are principles that govern the behavior of individuals or groups (Merriam-Webster 1974 ). Ethical codes of conduct exist in order to preserve the integrity of a profession, ensure the public’s welfare, and protect scholars. Ethical issues particularly relevant to writing for publication, include: (1) authorship determination, (2) disclosure and conflicts of interest, (3) plagiarism, (4) subject confidentiality, (5) accuracy of information, and (6) publishing in multiple sources.

Authorship Determination

Consider the following situation: A student conducted an excellent study for her master’s thesis project. At the beginning of the project, her supervisor promised her that she would have first authorship on any manuscripts based on the project. However, when the time came to write the paper, the student procrastinated. Finally, after the supervisor repeatedly “nagged” her, she submitted a draft to her, but it was very poorly written. The supervisor decided the only way to salvage the paper was to totally rewrite it herself. Now the supervisor thinks that she deserves to be the first author. Is this ethical? Does it matter if the project was the student’s master’s thesis rather than a project in which she was voluntarily involved? Are there guidelines that might be implemented in advance to handle this kind of situation?

This complex situation may be all too familiar for many supervisors and students. It raises issues about valuing contributions to the publication process, the power differential between supervisors and students, determining when renegotiation of authorship is warranted, and setting expectations and priorities up front. Whenever manuscripts are authored by more than one individual, order of authorship should be negotiated as early in the process as possible. Only individuals who have actually contributed to the work should be listed as authors. Their order should indicate “...the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their status” (Shadish 1994 ) (p. 1096). In the sciences, the first and last authors typically are the individuals that made the greatest contributions to the project (Laflin et al. 2005 ). Many journals require a listing of each author’s contribution to the manuscript in order to make sure each person meets the journal’s requirements to be listed as an author.

Student authors pose a special situation. Doctoral students usually are the first authors of papers based on their dissertation research (Nguyen and Nguyen 2006 ). Authorship order is less clear for masters’ projects because masters’ students may lack sufficient knowledge and skills to conduct a project and prepare a manuscript of publishable quality without considerable input from their supervisor (Shadish 1994 ). Thompson ( 1994 ) recommends that when there is any question as to who made the primary contribution, the student should receive higher authorship. His recommendation helps to protect the person who has less power in the situation. Often students are involved in studies that are not based on their own master’s or doctoral research, but rather are connected to an existing research program, such as case examples 1 and 2. In those situations, some authors contend that their involvement should be creative and intellectual in order to warrant authorship; otherwise, student input can be credited in an acknowledgement section (Fine and Kurdek 1993 ; Holaday and Yost 1995 ; Thompson 1994 ).

Negotiating authorship is an important step that should begin in the initial stages of a project. This step usually involves assessing and agreeing upon each person’s tasks, contributions, and efforts. The amount of supervision required for an individual’s contributions is usually considered as well (Fine and Kurdek 1993 ). Sometimes renegotiation of authorship order is necessary due to unexpected changes and/or substantial revision of the manuscript. The key is to remember that authorship is negotiated. Questions to consider throughout this negotiation process include: Who had the original idea for the basis of the publication? Who designed and conducted the study that generated the data? Who will write most of the first draft of the paper? Is the study part of someone’s research lab? Students should maintain early and on-going communication with their co-authors about their investment of time and efforts and the outcomes of those efforts (Sandler and Russell 2005 ). However, scholarly contribution is more important than actual time and effort expended when determining authorship. For more information regarding authorship determination, it may be useful to review guidelines for discussing and clarifying authorship order (Gibelman and Gelman 1999 ) or developing individualized contracts for research collaboration (Stith et al. 1992 ). These guidelines also may be useful for initiating discussion of authorship as part of the curriculum in genetic counseling training programs.

Take another look at the authorship scenario. At the time of the original negotiation of authorship, it is likely that the supervisor (and other parties) believed the student warranted first authorship due to her creative contributions and time allotted to the study. In most authors’ minds, first authorship is equated with substantial contribution to writing the manuscript, usually the first draft, so it is important the student understand this is part of the responsibilities of being first author. Typically students have no experience writing a journal article, and so some procrastination is likely. In this scenario, the authorship dilemma may have been averted by having in place a plan to mentor the student, providing support, and delineating a specific process for writing the first draft of the manuscript.

Manuscripts invariably undergo substantial revision as co-authors and reviewers weigh in, so it is not unusual that the supervisor would revise the student’s first draft. This activity does not prima facie warrant a change in authorship order. However, by developing a specific plan to support the student’s writing, it may minimize the extent of the supervisor’s revisions. It is possible, though, that the student’s procrastination and poor writing should initiate a renegotiation of authorship order because the level and nature of her contributions to the work may be changing. The supervisor and student should discuss the reasons for changing authorship order; the supervisor should not unilaterally make this change without discussion. Keep in mind that the bar for changing authorship should be much higher if the paper is based on the student’s master’s thesis than if it is based on a project in which she was voluntarily involved. It is also important to inform students early in the process that most research is a collaborative effort, requiring time, energy, and sometimes funding, and therefore their collaborators have expectations that their contributions will be rewarded through publication. Developing an a priori policy for renegotiation may often reduce misunderstandings and minimize conflict.

Disclosure and Conflicts of Interest

Consider the following situation: A student conducted a study to evaluate a new program that her clinic is offering to its patients. She interviewed ten patients who participated in the program about their experience. Nine of these patients were in general agreement about the value of the program, while the 10th patient was quite negative about her experience. The student’s impression of this patient is that she is a generally negative person. The student believes that the patient came into the program expecting not to like it. Furthermore, the student is concerned her clinic will lose funding for this program if she reports this patient’s responses. The student decides to exclude her data from the paper. Is this decision ethical? Why or why not?

One ethical issue raised in this scenario involves determining when it is appropriate to exclude data points. Data collected from research can be messy, and it is not unusual for some data points to be excluded from analyses. However, there must be an explicit methodology for excluding data points or subjects, and this information usually is reported in the manuscript. Examples for exclusions include: missing data (e.g., a participant did not complete a majority of the items on a questionnaire); measurement error (e.g., the recorded measurement of a biological process or part of the anatomy is simply impossible); small sample sizes (e.g., an insufficient number of individuals from a minority group participated in the research resulting in numbers too small for meaningful analysis). In the scenario described above, the rationale provided for excluding the 10th patient’s experience is not sufficient to warrant exclusion. Instead, it appears that exclusion of this individual is based on a desire to promote the new program in the student’s clinic. In order to eliminate this form of conflict of interest, one could consider involving a clinic outsider in the analysis and interpretation of the data. By including a clinic outsider in the project, editor and reviewer concerns about the integrity of the data, analyses, and conclusions will be allayed.

Most journals provide another “safeguard,” by requiring a statement about possible conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest statement requires the author to acknowledge in writing the nature of any circumstances that might bias the process and/or outcome of their work. For example, any project and published report that might result in direct financial gains for an author(s) should be disclosed to a journal’s editor and to the readership. Examples of possible conflicts of interest include conducting a study of the effectiveness of a genetic test funded by the company that developed and is marketing the test, or a program evaluation study whose outcome would determine the continuation of the investigators/authors’ jobs.

Plagiarism is a familiar concept to most people. Everyone generally understands the importance of “giving credit where credit is due.” Yet, the National Science Foundation estimates that the prevalence of plagiarism may be as high as 50% (Roig 2001 ). Probably many of these incidents are unintentional and/or occur because the authors were unaware of some of the nuances regarding plagiarism. Although there is some variability within and across disciplines about the specific behaviors that constitute plagiarism, there is general agreement about two broad types (Roig 2001 ): cryptamnesia -an individual thinks their idea is original when it actually was presented by someone else previously; and inappropriate paraphrasing —an individual uses another person’s published text without properly citing that use, and/or using their statements with little or no modification. Specific examples of inappropriate paraphrasing include: (1) publishing another person’s work as one’s own; (2) copying part of another author’s paper and claiming it as one’s own; (3) copying text from another source without using quotations marks and without citing that source in the text; (4) paraphrasing text from another source without providing an in-text citation; (5) summarizing material from another source without clearly connecting the summary to that source; and (6) using copyrighted materials without author/publisher permission (East 2006 ; Lester and Lester Jr. 1992 ).

Additional types of plagiarism include ambiguous use of citations. For instance, an individual includes a citation in a paragraph but does not clearly indicate which content in the paragraph is from the cited work. Another type of plagiarism is self-plagiarism . Self-plagiarism occurs when an individual includes published work of their own for which they do not own the copyright (e.g., reprinting a table from one of their previously published papers); repeating verbatim text from a previously published article. Permission to reprint material from the publisher must be obtained.

Plagiarism is a serious ethical breach which can result in a legal penalty. Strategies for avoiding plagiarism include limiting the use of direct quotes; avoiding the use of secondary sources—it is always better to read and cite an original source when available; and restating ideas in one’s own words while providing in-text citation of the work that contains the original ideas (East 2006 ; Lambie et al. 2008 ; Lester and Lester Jr. 1992 ). When in doubt regarding the originality of one’s words, it is best to cite the source(s) on which they are based. In this regard, it may help to bear in mind that readers will assume all words in the paper are the author’s unless the source(s) are cited.

Subject Confidentiality

Published papers must be written in a way that no subjects can be recognized by others without their written consent (Gavey and Braun 1997 ). Given the unique nature of genetics, family members may also need to provide written consent (McCarthy Veach et al. 2001 ). When possible, identifying information should be removed or disguised (e.g., use of pseudonyms) and data based on multiple subjects should be reported in aggregate (group) form. Institutional review boards (IRBs) play a critical role in assuring protection of subject confidentiality. Many journals require authors to indicate either in the paper or a cover letter that they have obtained institutional review board approval to conduct their animal or human subjects study. In some cases, an ethics board may have been consulted regarding ethical dilemmas reported in a clinical paper and this should be acknowledged in the paper.

Accuracy of Information

Authors are responsible for rigorously checking the accuracy of their facts, data, and conclusions. However, despite one’s best efforts, substantial errors sometimes are not discovered until after a paper is published. In that case, the corresponding author should contact the journal immediately and ask that an erratum be published. On a related note, authors have a professional responsibility to make data sets reported in published papers available to other professionals. This practice allows for verification of the findings and conclusions, and it also makes possible research replications and extensions of the original study. The length of time for retaining research records depends on institutional policy and sponsor policy, so it is important to be aware of how these policies apply to the research generated by a master’s thesis. Often institutional review boards require researchers to state how long they will maintain a data set, and the researchers must adhere to that time frame.

Another accuracy issue concerns modifying and reporting the use of published material (e.g., an interview protocol, psychological instrument, curriculum) without clearly describing the precise nature of the modifications. Interpretation of findings and their comparison to other studies using the “same” instrumentation may be severely compromised when an author fails to report modifications. Further, professional courtesy suggests that permission be sought from the author before changing her or his material. Also, use of published material requires crediting the author(s) of that material by including relevant citations.

Publishing in Multiple Sources

In the sciences, a manuscript should not be under review by more than one journal at a time. It is, however, acceptable to submit material for presentation at a conference prior to its actual publication in a journal, as the authors in case examples 1 and 3 did. Some conferences publish proceedings , and some journals will not publish work that is already published in a Proceedings unless the two papers differ substantially. When in doubt, it is good practice to contact a journal’s editor to determine the journal’s policy. Journals typically only publish original work, but on occasion there may be interest in reprinting an article. Reprinting a previously published paper requires written permission from the owner of the publication copyright. As a matter of courtesy, one should also seek the corresponding author’s permission, even if the author does not own the copyright.

Examples of Success

The benefits of sharing knowledge within the medical community and with the public via publication have been delineated. The publication of original work contributes to the advancement of the genetic counseling field overall, and at the individual level, authorship establishes a level of professional credibility, enhancing opportunities for future employability, funding and job satisfaction. The opportunity to develop a genetic counseling master’s thesis into a manuscript should therefore not be overlooked. Below are the personal accounts of three recent graduates who successfully transformed their individual master’s theses into published manuscripts. These examples were not systematically ascertained, and as such, do not necessarily represent all experiences with trying to publish a master’s thesis. These stories provide “first-hand accounts” of the authors’ experiences and, while acknowledging the challenges, demonstrate commitment to publishing their own projects throughout their careers. Table  3 contains a list of helpful hints gleaned from these cases.

Table 3

Helpful Hints for First Time Authors

Case 1: Consider Writing Your Thesis and Journal Article Concurrently

As a result of personal determination, and above all, strong mentorship, I was able to turn my master’s thesis work into a manuscript published in Patient Education and Counseling , titled “Satisfaction with genetic counseling for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations among African American women” (Charles et al. 2006 ). My work was a small component of an existing research project being conducted within a university academically affiliated with my genetic counseling training program. The project was an evaluation of the overall effects of “Culturally Tailored vs. Standard Genetic Counseling Protocol” among African American women.

I started by reviewing previous publications this group of researchers had produced and using these as a guide for my first draft, followed by multiple revisions. Approximately 17 months elapsed between first submission and publication. We submitted the manuscript in its original form in May 2005. We received the reviewers’ comments later that summer, and submitted revisions five months later. The article was accepted in that same month, published online five months later and in print seven months after the online version appeared. Shortly after graduating from my program I submitted an abstract of the work to NSGC for presentation at the 2005 Annual Education Conference, and subsequently learned that it was selected for the NSGC Beth Fine Student Abstract award.

My experience may be unusual because I worked on the manuscript and thesis project concurrently. Composing separate but related documents while still juggling second year genetic counseling student responsibilities was certainly a challenge. Preparing a comprehensive thesis project is a very different task than manuscript composition, the latter of which is more focused and narrow in scope. Challenges posed by this concurrent approach included ensuring that text requirements and deadlines specific to each document were met, as well as incorporating and addressing the reviews of both the training program and peer-reviewers. The main benefits of this approach were that I was still in school and therefore geographically close to my mentors, which facilitated ongoing communication throughout the process, and that the manuscript was under review by a journal before I started my new job.

Factors contributing to the successful publication of this project include mentorship, accountability, and commitment to publication by every author. Supportive, constructively critical, and well published, my mentors had high standards and knew the process. Frankly, I did not want to disappoint them. I found setting deadlines and meeting them, along with the accountability of in-person meetings (as opposed to email), to be effective approaches. Finally, publishing the project was a stated goal of the authors at the initiation of the project. I will not claim that the process was easy, but the goal is certainly attainable and worthwhile.

Case 2: You Need Not Publish Every Thesis Finding—Pick The Most Interesting and Relevant

As is the case for many graduate students, the first time I attempted to publish was after I completed my thesis. My thesis concerned the development of a minority research recruitment database and was the result of my graduate research on underserved populations.

Following graduation, I started my first job as a genetic counselor in a new city. During the overwhelming process of adjusting to “my new life,” my thesis advisor asked me to submit a manuscript to the American Journal of Public Health in response to a call for abstracts on genetics topics. Unfortunately, the deadline was only one week away. I scrambled to cut down my lengthy thesis to a reasonable length and submitted it, knowing that it was not my best work given the time constraint. Needless to say, it was rejected.

I decided that before resubmitting the manuscript to a different journal, I would need to take a different approach to the paper, more or less starting over. While my research results were interesting, they were limited in their application. I decided to publish instead on the success of our research initiative, as other researchers could learn from our process. Since I was changing the focus of the manuscript, I had to do an additional literature search and produce much of the writing from scratch. Most of this work had to be completed in my free time. While it was difficult to stay motivated, working on my manuscript when first starting a job was manageable as my caseload was lightest in the beginning. After several weeks of hard work, I submitted the manuscript to Health Promotion Practice .

About one month later, the editor contacted me and asked me to resubmit my manuscript with revisions. Three different reviewers provided feedback. Initially, it was overwhelming to read through their comments and frustrating, particularly when the reviewers contradicted each other. Despite my frustration, with my co-authors’ guidance I forged ahead and resubmitted, only to have the editor and reviewers ask for additional revisions. There were comments from the same three reviewers, however, far fewer in number. Still, I was beginning to think they would never accept the manuscript. I once again called upon my co-authors for guidance and was able to address the reviewers’ comments and resubmit the manuscript once again.

This time when I heard from the editor, the manuscript was finally accepted. What started out as a 120 page thesis ended up being published as an eight page paper (Vogel et al. 2007 ). It took approximately 8 months of writing and revising before the manuscript was finally accepted and an additional year before it came out in print. While the entire process was a true test of patience and determination, it was ultimately worth it. The experience gave me the foundation to carry on my research career and continue to publish successfully.

Case 3: Expectations and Mentorship are Crucial

I defended my thesis, received my Master’s degree, and was about to move back to the Midwest to start my new job as a genetic counselor, but my long “To-Do” list had one remaining item: Publish master’s thesis. I started the initial master’s thesis process with the expectation from one of my thesis advisors, and now a co-author, that research is not “put down and set aside” until published. I never questioned the process; if I was going to work with this advisor, I would be publishing. I was excited to undertake this challenge and impressed by my thesis advisor’s dedication, mentorship, and desire to see our hard work recognized. Nearly two years later, I could proudly say that this expectation, held by all of my thesis advisors and me, was accomplished. The manuscript, published in the JOGC , describes qualitative research regarding communication of genetic test results within a family (Blase et al. 2007 ).

In the beginning, I was unfamiliar with the publication process, but because of the support and guidance of my advisors, I began to learn the process, and so the frustrations and uncertainties were minimal. I also had a great working relationship with my co-authors that included communicating regularly and setting and meeting deadlines. After deciding the JOGC was the most appropriate venue for my research, I spent a good deal of time reducing and reformatting the 80 page thesis to a 20–25 page manuscript to meet the journal’s guidelines. Given the page constraints, this process necessitated determining which data to focus on and re-framing some information to appropriately fit the readers of my selected journal. Conversations with my advisors were instrumental in this phase.

There was nothing quick about publishing my master’s thesis. I graduated in June 2005, received an email shortly thereafter from one of my advisors about how to begin constructing a first draft of a manuscript, and began working on the manuscript in July 2005. I submitted the manuscript to JOGC in May 2006 and subsequently was informed by the editor that based on the reviews, revisions were required before the manuscript could be considered for publication. In September 2006, after two rounds of revisions, my manuscript was accepted, and by June 2007 it was published in the journal.

Although ultimately I was successful in publishing my master’s thesis, the process had its moments of frustration. I remember getting my first round of comments from the reviewers; I thought I was never going to get to the point of publication. My co-authors supported and encouraged me by explaining that revisions are truly part of the process. I was overwhelmed by the reviewers’ list of questions and changes after my initial submission, followed by additional reviews and revisions. Not only did I have to figure out how to keep the manuscript a priority in light of my new job, but I had to weed through and address the reviewers’ comments, and the suggestions of each co-author. The guidance of my thesis advisors, now co-authors, helped me navigate this process.

I have gained much through this experience. The process has opened doors for me including opportunities to work with other professionals with impressive publishing experiences, as well as speaking and poster presentation opportunities at national conferences. I also have greater confidence about the publishing process. What seemed like such a daunting and impossible task is now an attainable outcome. Although my master’s thesis was my most recent publication, the thought of taking on the publication process again is not nearly as intimidating as I once thought.

Publication of original research, clinical experience, and literature reviews are vital to the growth of the genetic counseling field and to the delivery of genetic counseling services. Publishing also promotes personal growth by counting toward maintenance of ABGC-certification as well as establishing the author as a credible and respected authority both within and outside the genetic counseling field. This professional recognition in turn can lead to employment opportunities, speaking engagements, research funding, and career advancement.

Submitting a manuscript for publication also can be an intellectually challenging, emotionally trying, and time-consuming task. But similar to life’s other difficult tasks, the rewards and satisfaction are commensurately great—to see your name in print, have your work cited by other authors, and know that you have contributed in a meaningful way to the practice and understanding of genetic counseling. Transforming a master’s thesis into a journal article is an obvious first step in developing and sustaining a commitment to publishing for our genetic counseling profession. Common themes in the three success experiences include the importance of mentorship and clear expectations for publishing, recognition of the length of the process and concomitant need for perseverance in the face of revisions, awareness of personal and professional benefits in terms of presentations at national meetings, awards, and motivation to continue publishing. Hopefully the information provided in this article will help to de-mystify the publishing process, promote consideration of ethical issues in publishing, and stimulate genetic counseling students and new graduates to embrace a “Publish for Success” philosophy.

Acknowledgments

This paper was developed from an Educational Breakout Session (EBS) sponsored by the Jane Engelberg Memorial Fellowship Advisory Group at the 2008 NSGC Annual Education Conference.

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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• Wager E, Parkin EC, Tamber PS. Are reviewers suggested by authors as good as those chosen by editors? Results of a rater-blinded, retrospective study. BMC Medicine. 2006; 30 :13. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-4-13. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Weil J. Peer review: an essential step in the publishing process. Journal of Genetic Counseling. 2004; 13 :183–187. doi: 10.1023/B:JOGC.0000028252.93942.40. [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Dissertation & Thesis Publishing: Home

• LIU Post Print Dissertation Retrieval
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How To Publish Your Dissertation or Thesis Online and/or in Digital Commons@LIU repository

You have three options for publishing your dissertation or thesis online:

• Publish your dissertation  or thesis  in Digital Commons @ LIU - our Institutional Respository
• Publish your dissertation  or thesis  with Proquest /UMI Digital Dissertation Publishing (EDT Administrator)
• Publish your dissertation  or thesis  in BOTH of the above.

Proquest/UMI Digital Dissertation & Thesis Publishing

The library provides access to an online dissertation or thesis  publishing platform through Proquest/UMI Digital Dissertation & Thesis Publishing.  When you publish your dissertation or thesis online using this service it will be available in the Proquest Dissertation & Theses  Global   database and in Dissertations & Theses @ LIU database .  These databases can also be found on our library online databases page.  The links are provided below for your convenience. You may submit your dissertation or thesis once you have permission from your department to do so.

 You can go to the LIU dedicated “ETD Administrator” website at:

http://www.etdadmin.com/liu

On this page you will find links to information about publishing your dissertation or thesis online.  You are encouraged to read all of the provided information under the “Resources and Guidelines” tab so that you have a full understanding of the process and of your rights as an author. 

If you have not already done so you will first need to create an account by clicking on the "Sign up and get started today!" button. Once you have logged in and are ready to publish, you will be asked several questions during the process concerning copyright protection, open access publishing, and if you wish to delay (embargo) the publication of your dissertation or thesis.   The “traditional” publishing option is free of cost.  If you choose additional options you can pay online with a credit card. The online resources provided should answer your questions. 

You will be asked for your "Institutional Student ID" number during the process.  This is not your University login.  Your Institutional Student ID number can be found within your "My LIU" account or by contacting your academic department.

During the process you can also choose to order one or several personal print copies. These would be in addition to the bound copies you may have already ordered through the library if your department requires this. This online publishing service for digital dissertations and the bound dissertations oe thesis service in the library are separate programs. Please contact the Dean's office (516-299-2764) concerning ordering print copies of a dissertation through the library.

Once you submit your dissertation, the ETD Administrator will review your submission for formatting and other quality control issues.  The final submittal to the Proquest Dissertation & Theses Full-text database will take place after your graduation.

You must follow the formatting guidelines as stipulated by your department.   It is particularly important that you follow the correct format on the title page so that your dissertation or thesis can be indexed correctly.  For security reasons, do not include a page containing personal signatures.  Please remove the page or submit a replacement page without the signatures .  Proquest has advised not to include signatures.   If you include signatures in the document, you will need to resubmit and the publication of your dissertation or thesis will be delayed.

The Proquest publishing process can take up to 8 to 12 weeks to complete.  You will receive an email from Proquest when your dissertation or thesis is published in the databases.

If you still have questions concerning this program you can contact the ETD administrator, professor Natalia Tomlin ([email protected]).

In addition to submitting your dissertation or thesis to the ProQuest EDT Administrator, you can also submit your dissertation to the LIU Institutional Repository Digital Commons@LIU.  You do not need to submit your dissertation or thesis to the Digital Commons separately. During the submission process to ProQuest, you will be asked to indicate if you want your work to be in the Digital Commons @LIU repository as well. If you chose so, we will upload your work in the repository on your behalf.

Dear  Student,

We would like to invite you to submit your dissertation or thesis (free of charge) to our Digital Commons @LIU open access Institutional Repository.

Your submission to Digital Commons (should you chose to submit) would be in addition to submitting the dissertation or thesis to ProQuest. The advantage is broader dissemination of your scholarship. PLEASE NOTE that if you already indicated that you wish your work to be submitted into repository during ProQuest submission process, you don't need to do the steps outlined below. H owever, if you did not submit the work to ProQuest, OR you forgot to indicate that you wish your work to be in our repository, please follow the procedure " How to submit your thesis/dissertations to Digital Commons@LIU"

How to submit your thesis/dissertations to Digital Commons@LIU:

•  sign the submission agreement  http://digitalcommons.liu.edu/creative_works_permission.pdf  (electronic signature is fine) and scan it.
• email scanned permission and the copy of your thesis/dissertation to  http://digitalcommons.liu.edu . Please note that your paper can be in either World Document or PDF format. The front page has to be free of signatures.
• The library will upload your dissertation or thesis once/if your agreement is received.

Once your dissertation or thesis is posted:

• Once your work is uploaded, the system will automatically create an account for you in BePress. The account will use email address that you supplied during submission. Bepress is the name of platform that hosts our repository. You can log into the system and create/change your password. To do so, log into the site via "My Account" link (you will need to use email address that your supplied during submission process). Click on the "Edit Profile" option from "My Account" page and update email.
• your dissertation or thesis is periodically featured as a Paper of the Day
• you receive URL “for life’ that you can include in social media sites, digital portfolio, blackboard etc.
• you also receive monthly report if your research is downloaded during specific month period
• you have access to personal author dashboard that shows the location in the world where your work is read and downloaded as well as by what kind of organizations (educational, commercial etc.)
• your work is disseminated world-wide
• potential for increased Google citation statistics 

Proquest Dissertation Databases

• Dissertations & Theses @ LIU
• Dissertations & Theses Global

Example Title pages

• Library and Information Science
• Clinical Psychology

ETD WorkFlow

Attribution.

Created by Professor Robert Battenfeld

• Next: LIU Post Print Dissertation Retrieval >>
• Last Updated: Jan 6, 2024 4:05 PM
• URL: https://liu.cwp.libguides.com/dissertations

Dissertation Research—Planning, Researching, Publishing

• Getting Started
• Find Dissertations
• Dissertation Process
• Library Database Searching
• Staying Current
• Qualitative
• Quantitive Research
• Mixed Methods Research
• Dissertation & Fellowship Funding

Other Search Options:

• Open Access Theses and Dissertations
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
• EThOS (E-Theses Online Service)

If a digital copy of the dissertation you want is not available, use GW Libraries'  Interlibrary Loan Service  to borrow a paper version or purchase a personal copy  directly from Proquest/UMI

Author-Initiated Embargoes

In some instances, the author of a dissertation may place it under "embargo". In that case, even though it's been "published", copies are not available. This is the author's decision and is respected by the databases and by the author's home library.

In these cases, GW Libraries will not be able to obtain a copy for you.

More on embargoes is here .

Search for Dissertations

• Dissertations and Theses Online This link opens in a new window Find dissertations on your research topic by searching for key terms in the abstracts of dissertations, or search for other dissertations from GW or from your advisor. Most dissertations have literature reviews, which can be very helpful to your own lit review. The database includes the full text of dissertations from 1997 to the present.

Find GW Dissertations

Want to find dissertations written by other gw students here's how:.

• << Previous: Getting Started
• Next: Dissertation Process >>
• Last Updated: Jan 30, 2024 1:05 PM
• URL: https://libguides.gwu.edu/dissertation

• Law Library

Researching for a Scholarly Article or Seminar (SAW) Paper

• Books on Dissertation Writing (for SJDs and JD/PhDs)
• Introduction and Things to Know
• Organizing Your Research
• Selecting a Topic
• Preemption Checking
• Searching for Scholarly Legal Articles
• Searching for Non-Legal Articles
• Searching for Forthcoming Articles
• Searching for Books
• Searching for Statistics
• Searching for Primary Sources
• Citing Sources
• Books on Legal Writing

Books on Writing Research Proposals

Books on writing dissertations and theses.

• Publishing Your Article
• Getting Help

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• Last Updated: Nov 13, 2023 12:44 PM
• URL: https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/papers

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Outstanding LLM Dissertations 2021

Posted on   monday december 20, 2021   by ula furgal.

We are happy to announce the publication of three outstanding IP LLM dissertations in the CREATe Working Papers series.

The authors of outstanding dissertations: Gabriele Cifrodelli, Eleonora Maroni and Tiarnan Cahill, are recent graduates of the LLM in Intellectual Property & Digital Economy , a programme offered by the University of Glasgow Law School and led by CREATe. The dissertations were selected by the CREATe teaching team following the nominations of IP LLM supervisors. The criteria guiding our choice were simple: we wanted to recognise excellent, well-researched and inquisitive work of our students. By publishing the dissertations in the Working Paper series we would like to bring those outstanding pieces of research to a wider academic community and to inspire our new students when preparing their own dissertations in the future.

The dissertations of Gabriele, Eleonora and Tiarnan represent a wide range of topics, however, they are all linked to the contemporary debates concerning the relationship between intellectual property regulation and digital technologies: artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and blockchain.

In his dissertation titled Patent System and Artificial Intelligence: Towards a New Concept of Inventorship? (CREATe Working Paper 2021/12) Gabriele argues that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot currently be considered an inventor for the purposes of the patent law. For now, only “aided by AI” inventions exist, and in the future when “AI-generated” inventions become a reality, the patent system will require reform and the adaptation of a tailoring approach, with different levels and lengths of patent protection.

Eleonora’s dissertation, The 3D printing: the notion of use in trade mark law under pressure (CREATe Working Paper 2021/13), considers the possibility of trade mark infringement in home-3D printed objects. She argues that whereas such uses remain largely unaddressed by trade mark law, the sale and sharing of CAD files used for 3D printing qualifies as the use of a trade mark in the course of trade and can result in trade mark infringement, making CAD online marketplaces liable.

In Online Service Providers and blockchain: undermining copyright goals? (CREATe Working Paper 2021/14) Tiarnan enquires whether the functioning of online service providers (OSPs) challenges copyright’s ability to i.e. facilitate creativity and ensure fair remuneration for creators, and if the use of blockchain technology could bring change in that regard. He concludes that whereas OSPs pose significant problems to copyright’s goals, blockchain has a great, to this day untapped, potential to shift balance of power in the creative markets.

The full text of all three dissertations is available here .

Click on image to download

Patent System and Artificial Intelligence: Towards a New Concept of Inventorship?

Gabriele cifrodelli.

The objective of this work is to answer the question whether an AI can be considered an inventor, as can a human, through a methodological approach which analyses different documents that are mostly secondary sources, but also case-law and legislation. The answer is negative: there is no such thing as a new concept of AI inventorship for now.

In particular, although there have been attempts by some authors – defined as the “classic literature” – to consider AI as creative and thus capable of generating inventions (the so-called “AI-generated” inventions), a more careful “technical” literature states that AI systems operate through a different intelligence than the human one, and this philosophical difference can be practically envisaged not only in the current case-law of the EPO, but also in the way machines operate in our reality. Indeed, the computational problem solving mechanism requires the human contribution, especially in the phases of abstraction/modelling, defining an algorithm and programming. Therefore, even the most sophisticated soft-computing methods, such as ANNs and EAs, cannot be considered autonomous.

However, this work will not completely underestimate the possibility that in the future there could be something such as an AI inventorship. Unfortunately, not only the very important incentive justification but also other classic IP theories (fairness, personality, and culture) would not be compatible with this hypothetical AI inventorship. As a consequence, the current patent system should be reformed through the implementation of a tailoring approach. The problem is that, in order to do so, legislators and judges should be aware of the optimal patent strength of each industry. However, the information about R&D costs, risk of failure, and level of innovation, is very difficult to obtain. Given this impossibility to reform the patent system, other ways through which AI inventorship can be protected will be mentioned.

3D printing: the notion of use in trade mark law under pressure

Eleonora maroni.

The new frontier of manufacturing, 3D printing, makes it easy to fabricate objects of any kind with the sole help of a 3D printer and CAD files. This may prove attractive for consumers who may be willing to engage in the home-production of objects. At first glance, this may not seem problematic for trade mark law: in its innocuous version, 3D printing simply enables consumers to customise their goods and to escape the standardisation of products provoked by the current prevailing business model.

However, home-3D printing also has a dark side as it may enable consumers to easily replicate products incorporating trade marks. It is reasonable to assume that consumers will not engage only in the private use of 3D-printed objects. Admittedly, they are likely to display some of them in public. This implies that products bearing trade marks will start circulating directly outside the points of sale and this may induce consumers to mistakenly assume that goods, which in fact are 3D-printed, come from the trade mark proprietor. How trade mark law is going to deal with this phenomenon is far from clear.

To evaluate this, this study reviews the present notion of infringing use under UK and EU laws, taking into account case law and academic literature, with a view to assessing whether the concept of use can be stretched to cover home-3D printing. The approach to this research is disillusioned: if it is true that 3D printing should be welcome for its role in fostering consumer empowerment, it is crucial to remember that it may also deprive consumers of some of the advantages they derive from the trade mark system. This latter aspect is often overshadowed by the positive effects of 3D printing.

This study finds that infringement in relation to home-3D printed objects embedding trade marks can be found only in limited cases. By shifting attention to the digital environment, this study concludes that infringement is more likely to be found when private individuals engage in the sale or share of CAD files embedding trade marks. Furthermore, it argues that, under certain circumstances, online platforms displaying CAD files should be held liable for infringement.

Online Service Providers and blockchain: undermining copyright goals?

Tiarnan cahill.

This thesis will analyse whether online service providers critically undermine the functionality/goals of copyright, and to what extent blockchain technology can assist or entrench any arising issues. Analysis will begin with online service providers (OSPs) and provide a breakdown of how platforms interact with users, copyright, and the relationship between all three. Moving forward, analysis will continue by looking at the fundamental aspects of blockchain technology, and how these interact with OSPs in providing potential solutions or in fact posing more questions to copyright. Finally, this thesis will conclude that, through overriding desire for commercial control and growth, there are aspects of OSPs that do undermine copyright. Meanwhile, blockchain has the potential to alter the status quo, and galvanise copyright in favour of the innovator, re-calibrating the balance of power away from intermediaries. However, too much of the potential of blockchain is subject to theory or imperfect technological advancements, which ultimately means that blockchain currently cannot substantially reinforce or assist copyright in relation to problems posed by OSPs. With that being said, whilst OSPs present several significant problems to the functionality/goals of copyright, overall, such platforms do not critically undermine copyright. OSPs have encouraged unparalleled content creation and secured substantial revenue opportunities for innovators by nurturing primary and secondary markets.

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LAW54660: Dissertation I

It is possible that changes to modules or programmes might need to be made during the academic year, in response to the impact of Covid-19 and/or any further changes in public health advice.

Prerequisites

Corequisites, excluded combinations of modules.

• The opportunity to write a dissertation is designed to bring a greater element of research into the LLM by allowing students the opportunity to pursue in-depth any areas which are of particular interest to them, under the supervision of a member of staff with appropriate specialist expertise. The LLM dissertation may be up to 10,000 words (equivalent to 60 UCU). Students presenting a dissertation are required to submit it by 15 September of the year following entry.
• No syllabus as such is appropriate for this module. [See Appendix A - Extract from the current LLM Handbook. A full revised version will be produced before the introduction of the new LLM Programmes (October 2003), taking account of the current assessment policy in the University's Core Instructions to Examiners for Masters programmes, and the Teaching and Learning Handbook].
• Dissertations may be presented on a topic chosen by the candidate provided that:
• (a) the topic chosen falls generally within the streams offered by the LLM Programme;
• (b) it is approved by the Chair of the Board of Studies.
• The candidate shall make every effort to identify a topic for dissertation as soon as possible, but certainly before the end of the Michaelmas Term. For general guidance on the matter, the candidate may consult any member of staff responsible for LLM teaching.
• A definite topic for a dissertation and provisional title indicating the precise subject matter and scope thereof, shall be submitted by the end of Michaelmas Term.
• The Chair of the Board of Studies shall formally approve the topic of dissertation and appoint a supervisor.
• Subsequent changes in the topic may be approved by the Chair of the Board of Studies if the candidate so requests, reasonable grounds being shown.

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• a detailed knowledge of a specified field of law chosen by the student and approved by the Board of Studies;
• to evaluate critically and work from those materials to arrive at a clear and defensible opinion on the issues;
• to offer a personal and justifiable opinion on the effectiveness of specific laws relating to the dissertation topic and the desirability for their reform,
• to recognize and understand competing arguments on reform;

Subject-specific Skills:

• the ability to identify accurately legal material relevant to those issues selected (whether print-based or electronic),
• Plan and investigate a theory or argument in the context of a particular area of law.
• Critically analyse and evaluate an aspect of current law in the light, where this is appropriate, of internal considerations (such as inherent inconsistencies) and external considerations (social, political, moral and commercial pressures).

Key Skills:

• the ability to exercise the above skills independently (with some supervision) on a substantial project requiring work over the academic year.
• to communicate their knowledge and argument in writing with clarity and confidence in a substantial dissertation;

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Every supervisor shall meet with their supervisee to agree the structure of the dissertation and to approve the bibliography.
• The candidate may meet the supervisor from time to time at the discretion of the latter.
• The purpose of the meetings shall be one or more of the following:
• (i) to review and discuss the synopsis;
• (ii) to give general guidance as regards the subject matter, scope and content of the proposed dissertation.
• (iii) to propose variations, amendments and necessary changes to the topic outlined;
• (iv) to indicate appropriate legal sources and materials;
• (v) to resolve particular difficulties encountered by the candidate;
• (vi) to offer editorial comments on the dissertation.
• The candidate shall assume full responsibility for the progress and completion of the dissertation within the stipulated time limit set by the Department, namely 15 September in the year following admission to the course.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative assessment, formative assessment, more information.

If you have a question about Durham's modular degree programmes, please visit our Help page. If you have a question about modular programmes that is not covered by the Help page, or a query about the on-line Postgraduate Module Handbook, please contact us.

Prospective Students: If you have a query about a specific module or degree programme, please Ask Us .

Current Students: Please contact your department .

• Schools & departments

From Masters dissertation to publication

In this post, Grace Lewis, an Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research PhD student at the University of Leeds, shares her experience of writing a journal article from her MPH dissertation completed with the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh.

Having completed the MPH online programme in 2019, I was invited to write a blog post about the experience of writing a journal article from my masters dissertation. I hope to share a few tips based on my learning from this experience. My background is as an Orthoptist in the NHS (many people look puzzled at the Orthoptist title - you can find out more here ).

I had been fortunate early in my career to be seconded as a research assistant working on a crosssectional study and so I had some experience as a co-author in amongst a list of much more experienced authors. In this blog, I’ll tell you a little about my experience of a first author role. 

I had been keen to take the dissertation route right from the start of the MPH to help with my goal of returning to research. Whilst studying MPH modules I developed an interest in tobacco-related health research. Like many ‘topics’ in public health, tobacco can be linked to numerous diseases and poses continuing challenges globally. With multiple complex factors involved in tobacco control, such as the publics’ choices and the psychology around smoking, the addiction factor, the policies for smoking reduction and legislation, and politico-legal will (only to name a few!) - this mix fascinated me and made me reflect on my childhood, pre-indoor non-smoking legislation, when public smoking was common-place indoors.

I had a challenging time with choosing a dissertation or study type. I was living overseas with limited local language skills and no real local network to develop a primary study from scratch. I had decided a systematic review or policy brief were not my first choices. On discussion with the dissertation leader and my eventual supervisor our interests in tobacco research and smoke free home promotion were aligned. I was invited to analyse newly emerging qualitative data from a smoke-free home study in Edinburgh and take my analysis in whichever direction I saw fit (with discussion), based upon the data. I was nervous to embark on this remotely whilst also being new to qualitative research. However, the connection to a live smoke-free home promotion project seemed like the perfect fit for me. In short, the dissertation explored parents’ experiences of stigma when using nicotine replacement therapy during a feasibility study to enable smoke-free homes for their families.

The journey to publication

With my dissertation almost done and dusted, Neneh asked if I might consider writing for publication. This was a little scary, as I’ve always struggled with writing concisely- how was I going to get all of the important points across from my dissertation, in a shortened version and still have it to a standard acceptable to reviewers and editors? Of course, the answer was lots of drafts and editing.

So, what was my writing process?/how did I get started?

I decided I should write a first draft in a generic journal-like format and see how it turned out. I knew it would be too long to begin with, but it gave me a starting point and stopped me from procrastinating! It is worth having an abstract that you and your co-authors are really happy with early on, in case you are asked for this prior to a full draft.

I had fortunately hoarded my dissertation notes, such as reflective diaries and memos, which helped me to remember my train of thought from months earlier.

Write a draft or choose a journal first?

It could be argued best to decide on the journal you’d like to submit to first. You’ll probably have an idea of some journals that might be a good fit, based on your MPH reading. Your supervisor will be able to suggest some and may have experience of the process involved for each journal, their likely turn-around time and such.

I did not want to rush my choice of journal to submit to first, as choosing what might turn out to be a bad fit would likely mean having to re-draft for submission to another journal. This meant I had a draft written before choosing a journal. There isn’t a right or wrong way (as far as I know, but I’m still learning), just things to consider.

Some points to think about

Impact factors

Having been out on a career break before starting the MPH, I was not too familiar with journal impact factors, and whilst not all journals publish an impact factor, some authors consider these important and you may wish to look at this when choosing a journal to submit to.

Most open access journals will add a publication fee known as an article processing charge (APC). For students especially, these are not cheap. If you had funding for your masters, there may be some funds available to you for an APC. It was suggested to me to write to the editors and ask if they might waive the APC as I was still a student and had moved onto a different university. This is where having your abstract ready will be useful.

Instructions for manuscripts

Most journals have instructions available online. It’s worth prereading these to be sure you are happy to write in their prescribed way, as some are more prescriptive than others.

Project managing

You will become a mini project manager as first author. You will write the first draft and ask for co-author comments and edits, arrange meetings, if needed, to discuss drafts and write re-drafts until you are all agreed on a final pre-submission draft. You will be dealing with all admin associated with your submission process and liaising with your co-authors, sometimes under journal timelines. This will include things like writing cover letters to editors, writing responses to reviewers and re-drafting, if needed, for re-review. Followed by re-drafting again for other journals should you need to move on from your first choice, if the article is not accepted.

Time management is something you may be thinking about if considering writing for publication (I certainly had questions about this a year or so ago)- So, how long does the whole process take? Each writing experience will be different, but I fitted mine in around a full-time job followed by a fulltime PhD, by writing mostly on Saturday mornings whilst my kids were at sports clubs. The article was published about one year after I had submitted my dissertation.

The right-journal-fit for your article should make life easier

I really agonised over which journal to submit to first. In searching and re-searching I found a special issue calling for papers that fitted my dissertation project perfectly and I was very glad that I had not rushed into submitting it elsewhere  prior to that (another point worth remembering is that many journals will not accept a manuscript that is under consideration elsewhere).

Remember your co-authors will likely have been through the writing and submission process many times as first and co-authors. Ask the questions that seem “silly” to put your mind at ease and allow you to focus rather than spend time unduly worrying about any doubts you may have. Co-author comments, feedback, and discussions with you about the article will be vital and will help build your confidence for the final submission.

Is it worth it?

You will need to invest time and potentially money if you cannot secure funds for the APC. As MPH students or graduates you will know that research waste is, well, potentially wasteful on many levels  and that there is an ever-increasing focus on sharing findings (and data, where appropriate) to maximise impact. Being a first author and/or co-author is great for your CV and applications- one of my PhD interview questions was along the lines of “are you planning to publish anything from your masters dissertation?” If you plan to stay in research or start a career in research it is a great starting point. Even if you aren’t staying in research, having a publication shows dedication and commitment to seeing a project through to another level and it can give a great sense of achievement.

Every experience is different, so it is worth speaking to contacts and colleagues for advice too, at least to be aware of potential pitfalls. My experience was positive and although it is easy to get swayed by hearing others’ negative experiences with journal reviews and rejections, there are positive stories out there too and a lot to be learned during the process.

If you decide this is for you, try to stay positive, and be willing to learn as you go. Good luck!

About Grace Lewis

"I am the current Student Representative on the Advocacy Committee at the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research. I graduated from the University of Sheffield with a BMedSci (Hons) in Orthoptics and have seven years’ experience as a clinical Orthoptist in the NHS. I have some experience in quantitative and qualitative research methodology, and an interest in improving health-related quality of life. I completed a Master’s in Public Health (distinction) at the University of Edinburgh. During my master’s dissertation I developed an interest in novel familial interventions to improve child and family health, particularly respiratory health." 

Library Services

Here we explain how to access copies of research theses that UCL Library Services holds. There is also an increasing number of open access thesis repositories available online.

Theses held in UCL Library

Open access repositories containing the full text of selected research theses.

• Indexes of completed theses

Obtaining copies of research theses

• Open Access for Thesis: how to deposit

University of London theses

The Library holds a copy of most research degree theses completed by students registered at UCL and awarded by the UoL, including many from students at Schools and Institutes prior to merger with UCL. Theses are listed by author on the Library catalogue, Explore : they are shelved in our off-campus Store and may be retrieved for consultation (24-hour notice required) by completing the store request form or via the request link on Explore. Theses are not available for loan, either to individuals or via interlibrary loan.

Some UoL research degree theses submitted by UCL students in the areas of classical, Germanic, Latin American studies; history and law are not held: check the UoL School of Advanced Study catalogue for availability.

UCL started to award its own degrees to students registering from 2007/2008. Print copies of research theses are catalogued by author in Explore and shelved in Store; electronic versions are in many cases available on open access in UCL Discovery .

If you wish to access a thesis recorded in UCL Discovery for which the full text is subject to an access restriction or not present, it is best to contact the author directly to request a copy privately.  If this is not possible, please contact the UCL Open Access Team .

If a thesis is not available via UCL Discovery or EThOS (see below) then it might be possible to obtain a copy from our interlibrary loan service via your home university interlibrary loan department. Please contact your university library and ask them to enquire about this service with UCL's Interlibrary Loan service; e-mail [email protected] for more information.

The Library does not normally hold print copies of any theses in the following categories:

• MA, MSc, MRes, LLM theses.
• Diploma theses.
• Undergraduate dissertations.
• Theses submitted at other universities or colleges.

Further information is available in the Support for dissertations and research projects LibGuide .

A growing number of open access thesis repositories is becoming available including:

• ProQuest , holds many full text theses. You can search for dissertations and theses there.
• UCL Discovery , UCL's open access research repository, includes theses alongside other UCL publications. You can search for theses, or browse a list.
• EThOS , a database run by the British Library that aims to record all UK doctoral theses, with links to access an electronic version of the full text where available. The digitisation of theses that only exist in print form can often be requested, depending on the awarding institution and for a fee: UCL supports this process for UCL-held theses.
• The DART-Europe E-theses Portal , holds details of open access electronic theses stored in repositories across Europe.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations , includes links to a number of international search tools and portals.

Video - Using PhD theses in research: EThOS 

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Indexes of completed theses (access available to members of UCL only)

Proquest dissertations & theses global (pqdt global).

PQDT Global contains over a million full-text dissertations and theses from 1861 onwards that are available for download in PDF format. The collection includes PQDT UK and Ireland content.

Many UK universities now decline to lend research theses. You may visit the awarding university or, increasingly, obtain an electronic version either from the university itself or from EThOS (see above).

Theses awarded by universities worldwide may be requested via UCL Library Services Interlending and Document Supply service . The normal charge for this service applies. Please note that theses are never available for loan: they must be consulted on Library premises only.

Open access for theses: how to deposit

Candidates for UCL research degrees are required to deposit an electronic copy of their final thesis in UCL's Research Publications Service (RPS), to be made open access in UCL's institutional repository, UCL Discovery . Theses are amongst the most highly-downloaded items in UCL Discovery . Making your thesis open access will mean that it is accessible worldwide, to anyone who wants to read it.

It is also possible, but not mandatory, to submit a print copy of your thesis to the Library for storage and preservation if you wish. We recommend submitting the print copy in cases where the electronic copy cannot be made openly available online in UCL Discovery, but you wish the print copy to be accessible to members of the Library.

Please refer to our guidance on how to deposit  for further information on the submission procedures.

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Coursework & Dissertation

In addition to the research-only LLM, MPhil and PhD options, students can consider a coursework-based LLM with a mini-dissertation. This is referred to as a Coursework & Dissertation masters (or C&D). Information is provided at the menu links about rules, regulations and guidelines for mini-dissertations.

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How to use this guide 

• This is a general guide prepared by the Information Skills Librarians, Digital Skills Trainer and Academic Skills Trainer teams to help Level 6 and 7 students with the basics of organising , researching and writing a dissertation or research-based final project.  
• It is designed to bring advice, tips, resources and signposts to additional resources and support from other teams in the university into a single, easy-to-navigate place .  
• Use the menu on the left hand side to move through the content.

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Read through this guide and our online help pages, including other how-to guides and your subject guide , then use our other support mechanisms as necessary below.

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(E.g. getting access to an article, referencing a source, using a certain function in Microsoft Office) Email us at [email protected] or [email protected]

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Join one of our open online workshops covering topics such as using LSBU Discovery, building a search strategy and referencing - they run during the day and in the evening!

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Drop in to a face-to-face assignment surgery or our online Librarian Q&A sessions - they run during the day and in the evening and no prior booking is required. Find details on our workshop calendar. Keep an eye out for Dissertation Surgery events that are specific to your academic School, too.

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Dissertation Topics in Law for LLM Students

• Updated on  
• May 9, 2023

The last academic challenge before the completion of your postgraduate degree is a dissertation or thesis. Many students pursuing LLM are often confused while deciding the correct topic for the dissertation as it requires a lot of research. To help you with the dissertation this blog contains ideal law dissertation topics for LLM in India. Keep reading to know more!

This Blog Includes:

How to choose the best dissertation topic, advantages of choosing a good dissertation topic, criminal law dissertation topics, international law dissertation topics, family law dissertation topics, employment law dissertation topics, international commercial law dissertation topics, law dissertation topics india, intellectual property law topics in dissertation, constitutional law topics in dissertation, sports law topics in dissertation, medical law topics in dissertation, commercial law dissertation topics, company law dissertation topics, tort law dissertation topics, eu law dissertation topics, the english legal system and constitutional and administrative law dissertation topics.

A lot of research and hard work is required to decide what is a correct and valuable topic for the dissertation or thesis. It is seen in various students that before graduation the dissertation is the last hurdle in the way. It is advised to pursue a topic after valuable research and most importantly that goes with the student’s interests.

Also Read: Dissertation Topics

There are an array of benefits when you choose a good and valuable dissertation topic. These advantages include:

• This helps you in the analysis of the topic and deep research.
• Present you with a program to enhance your investigative skills.
• In explaining your subject option, you should be prepared to show how your previous research experiences ended up with great knowledge. 
• You can find a degree of education useful for postgraduate research.

Also Read: Law Entrance Exams: India & Abroad

Criminal law is the body of law regulating crime and criminal activities in India. This proves to be an important topic and is interesting as well. Some of the criminal law dissertation topics are:

• A Significant Study of Struggle against Girls in India
• Case Debate on business trial in India
• An Analysis on Terrorism and Lawlessness Against Infants in India
• A survey on Legislation against private terrorism in India
• Significant Evaluation Of Death Cost In India
• An Analysis of Juvenile Justice System and Order in India
• The appearance of the group is in the criminal law process
• The Root Elements of the Infant Mergers
• White-Collar Crime Law in India
• Criminology and Criminal Justice

Also Read: How to Write a Dissertation?

International law dissertation is another amazing topic where you can add your relevant thoughts. Some of the unique international law dissertation topics are:

• What are the significant aspects of collective civil obligations in now’s global order?
• What are the causes that cause application of foreign order at the state standard also complex?
• Figure out the very important issues encountered by establishing universal rules.
• What are the effects of accelerated market restraints on people? Can such a thing be explained?
• What are global challenges encountered by international businessmen, when installing service projects in third group societies?
• What are the effects of letting offenders continue to their native land for action?
• How seeing abuse as a foreign war case will change the position of African people?
• What are the important challenges encountered by companies that are coming in the global travel industry from the ocean.
• What universal rules regulate copy? How should this case be corrected?
• Which governmental law of the UK is sufficiently sufficient to be carried out universally?

Also Read: What is a Dissertation? Meaning, Projects, Report Work

Some of the most important and unique family law dissertation topics are:

• Separation case for father and female representatives of the group, makes it favour any particular gender or is it merely a sense
• Matrimonial Act and how it affects women who join without their permission. What is the attitude of decisions about made mergers and how can one explain it in the court of decision
• Residential part by stepmothers and offspring, how goes on the case provide everybody has their got right and place
• Youth insurance problems in the unified kingdom, which of the state shows to have very trouble with such arguments and why is it so
• Adolescent abuse-is it important to discipline your children and youths? What is the perimeter between youth abuse and correcting your children for setting their limits
• Internal disorder and its effect on the boy and female representatives personally, which of them picks up a greater claim in the mind of order and how can we get rid of that biasness
• Protection problems for separated mothers, how goes on it go and what goes on the statute have to do about the protection of the child for each mother
• How looks at the proper form thing if a man is incapable to provide and provide his house owing to lack or scarcity of means
• Long-distance communications and their fair significance cut off from the spiritual and artistic attitudes
• Minor job- what are we looking at to abolish it and how goes on our constitutional process set limits and provide that they are found

Employment law dissertation enables you to craft perfect research on your thesis or dissertation. Some of the employment law dissertation topics are:

• The link between trade and morality in the UK. An academic context.
• A study of the relationship between sports departments and their service contracts.
• The effect of variation in the business decisions of the UK after starting the EU.
• The task of infant employment regulations in the UK. How does the judiciary remain fighting developing youth employment?
• The influence of civil responsibility service in UK regulations.
• A study of the market association in the UK study of the business requirements and principles.
• A provisional review of business decisions in the station waggon part of the UK and EU. Who gets the first job benefit and rights insurance systems?
• An in-depth study of justice fees in the validities of UK legislation.

Some of the international commercial law dissertations you can choose from are:

• An assessment of the enemy-pollution bill in the UK. Its origins and effects on the state leaders.
• A strategic study of the joint cloak and how the decision can pass through it.
• The performance of UK legislation in affecting joint difficulties while preserving major human rights.
• A symposium on the differences enveloping the purview of field 33 groups do 2006 in the UK
• The effects of setting reasonable requirements for the principal’s needs. How does the organisation do well under this?
• An in-depth assessment of economic regulation programs at attending institutions in the UK.
• The effect of UNCITRAL’s performance on the unification of universal economic legislation in the UK.

Also Read: How to Write Acknowledgement for Dissertation?

Some of the Indian legal topics you can choose for your dissertation are:

• Handgun Case in India: Provision of a Different Structure
•  Animal investigation: Order in India
• Wire advertising and constitutional structure
•  Joint Civil Power and change
• Moral Orders and Cases in producing societies
• Men Investigations and Indian constitutional practice
•  Improvement of infants and proper conflict

Some of the catchy and interesting dissertation topics that you can choose as a dissertation topic for law assignment:

• Scientific advances and present IP rule in India
• IP rules and the safety of/on Internet
•  New patent statutes and digitalisation

Also Read: University of Law: Eligibility, Application, Courses & More

Here are some of the finest dissertation or thesis topics for constitutional law dissertation topics are:

• Accident plans in India: A study
• Legal exploitation and its interest: An assessment
• Application of International Cases in Indian Legal Structure
• Able expression in virtual life and Indian Custom

Also Read: Dissertation vs Thesis

A constantly fascinating subject, sports provides a large range of fields and issues to judge from to create your analysis report. It can deal with universal order, national order, carrying out parties, power, and often better.

Here are some of the finest dissertation (thesis)points on Sports law:

• Doping and Sports: National and International fair innuendo
• Legalisation of speculating in India: Law and Cons
• Handling sports organisations and their constitutional ramifications
• Transgender animals and Indian Custom

Medical law dissertation is another great topic you can choose from, some of the medical law dissertation topics are:

• Member retention: Fair experts and cons
• Miscarriage in India: A global review
• Made fertilisation: Provision of primary training to find out these matters
• Supported suicide: Fair, honest and therapeutic ethics
• Animal torture: A fair claim research

Also Read: Law Courses

Commercial Law is one such topic where a wide area of study is to be covered because it cannot be described within a single legal jurisdiction. A commercial law dissertation often involves comparisons with other countries. Listed below are some topics for Commercial Law Dissertation:

• A critical assessment of the international commercial arbitration system as a cost-effective and efficient means to administer justice in commercial disputes
• An assessment of security over personal property when it comes to the matter of possessory and non-possessory forms of security and other legal devices
• An investigation of the emergence of new manifestations of international commercial law
• A critical assessment of the passing of risk in the commercial law in England and Wales
• A critical assessment of the Future of consumer protection in England and Wales in the post-Brexit era

There is a great scope of producing an effective Company Law Dissertation as it provides you with potential sources. From the Companies Act 2006 to corporate governance, you have a lot of options to choose from. Listed below are some great Company Law Dissertation Topics:

• A critical analysis of the shareholder versus stakeholder basis of corporate governance
• Arguments for and against ‘stakeholder theory’ and to what extent are they still valid?
• Should the OECD’s Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital 2010 be ratified into UK Law?
• To what extent has Environmental Law merged together Vicarious and Corporate Liability
• Is the English maintenance of the “internal management” model failing to bring company law in the 21st Century?

The word Tort comes from the Latin term torture which means “Wrong”. In simple terms, Tort Law is supposed to address the civil wrongs done to a person, accidentally or incidentally. The victim/injured/aggrieved party is provided with compensation for the damages.

This area of law is one of the most important aspects of law study as it demonstrates the circumstances through which an individual is held accountable for another party’s injury either done intentionally or omissions or even by accident. Listed below are some topics for a Tort Law Dissertation to make it easier for you to draft an effective dissertation:

• Importance of foreseeability and policy in establishing a duty of care
• Analysis of the rules regarding the recovery of economic losses in tortious actions
• When it comes to matters of occupiers’ liability under the Occupiers Liability Acts of 1957 and 1984 respectively, when is a trespasser, not a trespasser?
• Wrongful Restraint of a man’s Liberty: Meaning, Defense and Remedy
• Why might the duty of care afforded to children be considered to be a step too far regarding the recognition of tortious liability?

Also Read: All About PhD Thesis

EU Law is considered as an expandable area of academic interest, particularly due to the UK’s recent Brexit from the Union. There is a wide range of dissertation topics you can consider for an EU Law Dissertation, from UK’s Brexit to the superiority of EU Law. Listed below are some great dissertation topics to start with your EU Law Dissertation:

• Critical Analysis of the UK’s Separation from the EU.
• Brexit and EU economy: How the UK’s decision has affected EU trade.
• An argument: Is EU Law actually superior?
• Importance of the enforcement actions against EU Member States as part of the European law-making process.
• How has the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950 contributed to the recognition of human rights internationally?

The English Legal System and Constitutional and Administrative Law may be classified into 3 key areas-

• The nature of the Constitution may be considered in areas including, but not limited to, the recognition and application of conventions and the rule of law. 
• Evaluation of the roles of the legislature, executive and parliament in the context of the recognition of the separation of powers, which could include legislation’s passage through Parliament, the delegation of legislation, the relationship between Parliament, the crown and the Royal Prerogative, and the executive, legislative and judiciary’s relationship.
• Judicial Review includes the basis for intervention, such as ultra vires and illegality, procedural irregularity, irrationality, proportionality, and the nemo judex rule.

A number of areas can be covered in this dissertation as the English Legal System and Constitutional and Administrative Law is quite different from other legal systems as the role of the judge differs in an adversarial system. The major difference is in how a trial is pursued. Some topics for an English Legal System and Constitutional and Administrative Law Dissertation are as mentioned below:

• The Role of natural justice  in the UK Constitution
• Are conventions still a valid part of the UK Constitution?
• Is the Royal Prerogative an essential part of the British Constitution?
• Are the current models of statutory interpretation fit for purpose, especially as the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) infer a more active approach for judges?
• In what ways will the relationship between constitutional and administrative law in England and Wales be affected by Brexit?

The following are the popular law universities in the world: Harvard University Columbia University Stanford University

Here are some of the finest dissertation or thesis topics for constitutional law dissertation topics are: Accident plans in India: A study Legal exploitation and its interest: An assessment Application of International Cases in the Indian Legal Structure Able expression in virtual life and Indian Custom

The average salary of a lawyer in India is 3.5 Lakh per year.

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LLM-based Tool for FAIR Data Assessment

FAIR data is one of the most important pillars of research data management. It refers to data or a dataset that is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The fundamental challenge for researchers is to assess the FAIRness of their research data using various platforms or tools. Most of these tools are implemented based on established assessment frameworks such as the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Indicators , which is then implemented either as a guideline /or as a manual checklist of a question-answer system that the data owner fills in, or as an automatic assessment approach such as that provided by the F-UJI Automated FAIR Data Assessment Tool .

However, FAIR data assessment is undergoing a transformative paradigm shift with the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs). Leveraging advanced natural language processing capabilities, LLMs have the potential to enhance information retrieval, knowledge synthesis, and hypothesis generation.

The goal of the thesis, as depicted in the figure below, is to leverage the benefits inherent in LLMs to develop a tool for FAIR data assessment.

The dataset for training the LLM will be selected from a data portal such as Kaggle Data Science ( https://www.kaggle.com/datasets ) or HuggingFace ( https://huggingface.co/datasets ) or FAIRsharing.org ( https://fairsharing.org/FAIRsharing.cc3QN9 )

• Review existing literature on FAIR data assessment tools and LLMs
• Find relevant datasets to compare classical FAIR data Assessment methods with LLM-based methods
• Implement an LLM-based FAIR data assessment tool
• Conduct evaluation between “classical” FAIR data Assessment methods vs LLM-based (performance and usability of the LLM FAIR data assessment tool)
• Utilize the LLM to generate recommendations to improve the FAIRness of particular datasets

Related project

NFDI4DS: https://www.nfdi4datascience.de/

• Raza, Shaina et al. “FAIR Enough: How Can We Develop and Assess a FAIR-Compliant Dataset for Large Language Models’ Training?” (2024). https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:267069102
• Wilkinson, M., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, I. et al. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Sci Data 3 , 160018 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18
• FAIRification Process: https://www.go-fair.org/fair-principles/fairification-process/
• Ahmad, Raia Abu et al. (2024). Toward FAIR Semantic Publishing of Research Dataset Metadata in the Open Research Knowledge Graph. https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:269137144
• FAIR for AI: An Interdisciplinary and International Community Building Perspective – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-023-02298-6
• FAIR AI models in high energy physics – https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2632-2153/ad12e3/meta
• Soiland-Reyes, S., Sefton, P., Leo, S., Castro, L. J., Weiland, C., & Van De Sompel, H. (2024). Practical webby FDOs with RO-Crate and FAIR Signposting: Experiences and lessons learned. International FAIR Digital Objects Implementation Summit 2024 . https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/300255290/TIB_FDO2024_signposting_ro_crate-11.pdf

Example of existing FIAR data assessment tools:

• F-UJI, EOSC FAIR EVA: https://fair.csic.es/en
• AutoFAIR; FAIR Shake: https://fairshake.cloud/
• FAIR-Checker: https://fair-checker.france-bioinformatique.fr/
• The Evaluator: https://fairsharing.github.io/FAIR-Evaluator-FrontEnd/
• DANS Self-Assessment Tool: https://satifyd.dans.knaw.nl/
• EUDAT Fair Data Checklist: https://zenodo.org/records/1065991
• https://github.com/FAIRMetrics/Metrics
• Natural language Processing (NLP)
• Interest in working with Large Language Models
• Some Knowledge about various LLMs (pre-)training, Tokenization, and fine-tuning techniques

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