Welcome to the Thesis and Dissertation
Seminar Series. There will be three parts
to this series: in part one, we will look
at the Graduate College requirements; in
part two, we will look at the submission
and review process; and in part three, we
will look at the writing support. In this
seminar, we will look at the submission
and review process. First, we will look at
the required and optional components.
Then, we will look at some common
problems, and lastly, we will look at the
final steps after your initial
submission to ProQuest. There are only
five required parts for your thesis or
dissertation. They are the title page, the
table of contents, the abstract, the body
of manuscript, and the references, works
cited, or bibliography. All other  parts
are optional, including the dedication,
list of figures, list of tables, list of
symbols or nomenclature, acknowledgments,
appendices, or acknowledgment if not in
the preliminary pages. Next, we will look
at some common problems. There are
generally two types of problems: the
formatting and the consistency. We will
cover some of the common formatting
mistakes in this video. For the title
page, be sure to replace all highlighted
items with your details. Do not change
anything else.
Also, there are two places, as highlighted
in the red boxes, to add your name: the
first is after the title, and the second
is in the copyright statement. Make sure
that these two names are identical, and
the name that you use on your thesis or
dissertation should match your name in
your AccessPlus. Note that your name
under the title should be a bold font;
however, your name in the copyright
statement should not be in the bold font.
Be sure to change the year in the title
page. The year should reflect the year
you graduate, not the year you started
writing your thesis or dissertation.
Now look at the Program of Study
Committee section. In cases where you
have co-majors, list them both as "Co-major Professor" instead of one as "Major
Professor" and the other as "Co-major
Professor." Line spacing is important for
the title page so that everyone's title
page looks consistent. The title page has
different line spacing for each section.
If you are not using the thesis or
dissertation template, be sure to match
the line spacing with the sample from
the template.
Note that some sections are single-
spaced, while others are double-spaced.
For the table of contents page, the
location of the references and
appendices will be different, depending
on whether you use the journal paper
template or the traditional template. The
references and appendices for the
journal paper template are at the end of
the respective chapters, while the
references and appendices in the
traditional template are placed after
the final chapter. Another important
formatting rule is the heading levels. Be
sure to use the correct heading levels.
Heading levels should differ in terms of
letter capitalization, alignment, and text
formatting, or bold font. Level 0 and Level
1 headings have required formatting. All
other level headings have recommended
formatting. Check to ensure that your
headings are consistent throughout your
thesis or dissertation. Use the
navigation pane to find inconsistencies
with your formatting for heading levels.
Pay attention also to the page number
alignment. For the LIST OF TABLES and the
LIST OF FIGURES, ensure that both the
word 'Page' and the page number column
are right-justified.
Also, avoid long captions in your list of
tables or list of figures. You only need
the first sentence, not the parts that
explain the components of the figures
and tables. If you have long captions,
truncate the captions in your body of
manuscript. There are instructions in
the thesis or dissertation templates. If
your truncated caption is still longer
than one line, the subsequent line or
lines should be indented. Pay attention
to the line spacing in your list of
tables and list of figures. Use double
space between captions but single space
within the caption. Also, do not use the
italic font on these pages. The paper
size should be letter, or 8.5 inches by
11 inches. Margins should be consistent
throughout your thesis or dissertation.
the minimum requirement is one inch on
all sides for unbound manuscripts. Next,
we will look at tables and figures. The
font size for table and figure captions
can be different from the text, but make
sure that they are consistent throughout
your thesis or dissertation. The location
of the captions are different. Figure
captions are at the bottom, while table
captions are on the top. The margins for
tables and figures are the same as
the text, and the landscape pages have
the page number in the same location as
other pages. Here is an example of how
the figure caption is different from the
main text because it is italicized. And
here, you can see that the figure
captions are below the visuals. On the
other hand, the table captions are
located at the top of the visuals. If a
table or figure needs to go on two pages
write the word 'Continued' in the table or
figure caption on the second page. The
figures and tables should have the same
margins as the text. If you have a
landscape page,
be sure to position your page number
correctly. You should position the
page number like other page numbers
in the portrait mode. Here's the portrait
view of a figure and the page number.
Whitespace is another important aspect
to check. There should be no blank pages.
Also, there should be no more than
quarter blank page except in these three
cases: the end of the chapter, a figure or a
table section at the end of the chapter,
or a figure or table on a landscape
page. Here are examples of acceptable and
not acceptable white spaces. There are
many formatting rules to monitor. To
avoid the common formatting mistakes, it
is recommended that you use the thesis
or dissertation templates. The templates
have included the presets for all
required formatting, so it will be easy
to make edits and avoid mistakes that
would result in a rejected submission. In
this section, we will look at the
different templates. There are three
types of templates: the first type is the
traditional template. No journal article
should be included if you use this
format. The second type is the journal
paper template. If you have at least one
published article or plan to submit manuscripts in the future, you can use this
template. The third type is the LaTeX
Overleaf templates. You can find these
templates for either the traditional or
journal paper format. The LaTeX Overleaf
templates are useful for technical and
scientific documents. The traditional
format is for a thesis or dissertation
that does not include any journal paper
format. The first chapter is CHAPTER 1.
INTRODUCTION, and the last chapter is
CHAPTER X. CONCLUSION. The number of
chapters in between the Introduction and
Conclusion is up to you and your POSC.
Also, the references and appendices are
included in this order at the end of the
thesis or dissertation.
The journal paper format is for a thesis
or dissertation that includes published
journal articles or chapters that may be
submitted for publication. Each journal
paper or manuscript becomes a chapter
that is complete with an abstract,
introduction, figures and/or tables,
references, and appendices. Note that
unlike the traditional format where the
references and appendices are placed
after the final chapter, the references
and appendices in the journal paper
format are included at the end of the
respective chapters. Here's an example of
a chapter that is based on the published
journal paper. For the journal paper
format, the first chapter is CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION, and the last
chapter is CHAPTER X. GENERAL CONCLUSION. These two are the required chapters. The
number of chapters in between the
General Introduction and the General
Conclusion is up to you and your POSC. If you have multiple authors, list all of
them and their affiliations. For each of
the journal chapters, it is also
necessary to include the publishing
status. You can include the statement,
"Modified from a manuscript to be
submitted to" or "under review" or
"published in" [journal name]. It is
necessary to indicate the publishing
status using the statement template,
"Modified from a manuscript to be
submitted to" or "under review" or
"published in" [journal name]. The reason you
need to include this publishing status
is because there are still certain
Graduate College required formatting you
need to follow.
So the chapter would be different from
the journal requirements. Here is an
example of a journal paper chapter that
includes all the authors' names and
affiliations, as seen in the red box, and
the publishing status is included below,
in the green box. Here you can see how a
journal paper chapter is listed in the
table of contents. Your headings may be
different from the headings in this
example; however, the chapter should end
with its own references and appendices.
If your thesis or dissertation involves
human participants, you will need to get
an IRB. Include your IRB approval
letter as an appendix. If you work with
animal research or research involving
bio hazards or radioactive materials
you must also check with the Office of
Responsible Research.
