thesis dissertation manual

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Thesis-Dissertation Manual

The Thesis-Dissertation Manual, available as a PDF document, is intended to guide you through the process of completing your thesis/dissertation.

Click on the button above to download the Thesis-Dissertation manual. The latest version of the manual was published on September 29, 2022. Please discard all previous copies of the manual.

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• Thesis Manual

Thesis Manual & Submission Guide

The manual and submission guide are PDFs with hyperlinked table of contents.  Download the file to your desktop and open it from the new location.  Please do not print out the entire manual!   Instead, the file will open with a bookmarks panel on the left; use this feature to navigate to the section of interest and only print the pages you need. 

• Complete Manual (rev. Fall 2023)
• List of editors and typists
• Vireo Submission Guide (Summer 2024 release)
• Format Checklist  [PDF]
• Abbreviated list of mandatory formatting
• LaTex - Using a UNT email address only, please contact Jill Kleister for a copy of the style files. (rev. June 2022)

You are also encouraged to visit our Writing Resources , a one-stop-shop where you can find help with writing, copyright issues, plagiarism, style guides and much more!

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• Dissertation & Thesis Manual

Preparation and Submission Manual Overview

Doctoral dissertations and master’s theses.

Doctoral dissertations and master’s theses submitted to UC San Diego must meet the requirements set by the Graduate Council of the University of California San Diego for the degree candidate to be eligible for a graduate degree. A doctoral dissertation must be the result of original research conducted in the candidate’s specialization and must be approved in its entirety by the student’s doctoral committee. A master’s thesis must be a significant research work that must be approved in its entirety by the master’s committee.

The final version of the dissertation/thesis must conform to the details outlined in the " Preparation and Submission Manual for Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses. " For reference, we have provided some highlights below, but please refer to the full PDF Manual for complete instructions.

We have also made a template available as an inital resource to assist students with proper formatting.

Co-author permission letters are submitted electronically via the Kuali Permission Letter Submission Form .  (see section below, "Use of Published Material," for additional information) 

Specifications and Formatting

Minimum Margins

The margins of your thesis/dissertation should be from 1" on all sides. (Slightly larger margins are acceptable, but should be a minimum of 1 inch.)

Font and Font Sizes

A font size of at least 10 must be used for the text; students may choose one of the following font sizes: 10pt, 11pt or 12pt. Standard fonts are Arial, Century Gothic, Helvetica, or Times New Roman. A consistent font must be used throughout the entire dissertation or thesis.

Page Numbers

All page numbers are centered at the bottom of the page, 0.5” from the bottom edge.

Except where noted below, each page of the entire dissertation or thesis must be numbered consecutively; pages should be numbered according to the following standards:

• Neither the title page nor the blank or copyright page is to be numbered; however, the two pages are counted when numbering the preliminary pages that follow.
• The dissertation/thesis approval page is always numbered as page “iii”.
• The preliminary pages following the title and blank or copyright pages must be numbered consecutively beginning with lower case Roman numeral “iii” on the dissertation/thesis approval page. All preliminary pages are to be numbered using lower case Roman numerals (following the title and blank or copyright pages, begin with iii, iv, v, vi, etc.). This includes the dissertation/thesis approval page, dedication, epigraph, table of contents, list of abbreviations, list of symbols, list of illustrations, list of figures, list of schemes, list of tables, list of photographs, preface, acknowledgements, vita (required for doctoral dissertations), and the abstract. The page numbers must be placed at the bottom of the page and centered 0.5” from the bottom.
• The main body of the text and any back matter must be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals beginning with “1” (1, 2, 3, etc.), including text, illustrative materials, notes, appendices and bibliography. All pages are numbered at the bottom of the page and centered.

Correct pagination (no missing pages, blank pages, or duplicate numbers or pages) is required for the doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis to be acceptable.

Page Organization

Preliminary Pages

Except for the title page and blank or copyright page, all preliminary pages are numbered with lower case Roman numerals at the center bottom of the page. Pages are numbered in sequence, and page numbers are centered and placed 0.5” from the bottom of the page.

• The name of the conferring institution – UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO – appears in all capital letters at the top of the page.
• The title should be specific, unambiguous, and descriptive of the research, with easily identifiable key words that will ensure electronic retrieval.
• Scientific titles must use words, not symbols, formulas, superscripts or Greek letters.
• Doctoral students should refer to their document as a dissertation. Master’s students should refer to their document as a thesis.
• “in” should be all lowercase and on a line alone.
• The degree title listed should be the title that UC San Diego will actually confer; if unsure, contact your Graduate Coordinator.
• “by” should be all lowercase and on a line alone.
• Students may use either their legal or lived name as it is listed on the UC San Diego official record and remain consistent throughout the document
• All committee members must be listed, chair first, using the title Professor. If professor is not applicable to all committee members, list all names without any titles. Use double spacing between “Committee in Charge” and the chair’s name. Alphabetize all members after chair and single space all names. Indent all committee members 0.5” from “Committee in Charge”. (This section is the only section of the title page that is not centered.)
• Degree year: Students must use the year of the quarter of degree conferral.
• The title page is not numbered; it is counted as page “i” in the numbering of the preliminary pages. The title and blank or copyright pages are the only manuscript pages without page numbers.

Dissertation/Thesis Approval Page

This page is always numbered page iii. Page numbers from here forward in the preliminary pages of the document will vary for individual students, depending on which of the optional pages described below students choose to include. The numbers must be internally consistent for the document.

There is no header on the dissertation/thesis approval page. The text at the top of the page is either left justified or fully justified. The text at the bottom of the page is centered. All information should be centered on the page vertically.

Effective November 2020, faculty signatures are not collected on the dissertation/thesis approval page. Faculty committee member approval is captured on the combined Final Report Form (this form is initiated and managed by the department/program graduate coordinator). Students should check with their department/program graduate coordinator to verify that the combined form is being used. The formatted page iii must still be included in the dissertation/thesis and must follow the format described above.

All dissertations or theses are required to have a table of contents. List the page number that each section first appears on. Use proper capitalization and include header and sectional titles exactly as they appear within the dissertation or thesis (for example, if “Chapter” is used in the text headers, it must be used in the Table of Contents).  

If illustrations such as figures, tables, graphs, maps, diagrams, photos, etc., are scattered throughout, make a separate “List of Figures,” “List of Tables,” “List of Graphs,” etc. to follow the table of contents. 

Acknowledgements

The acknowledgements, along with any other preliminary sections or parts of the dissertation or thesis, must be reviewed and approved by the committee members.

See the section “Using Published Material” (in the full PDF manual, and in the excerpted section below) if any portion of the dissertation or thesis is co-authored, published, submitted for publication, or is being prepared for publication. A paragraph acknowledging all co-authors and publishers is required in the acknowledgements page and as the last paragraph of text at the end of each applicable chapter.

Permission letters from the committee chair and all co-authors must be submitted electronically via the Kuali permission letter submission form   prior to or the day of the student’s final document review . See the full manual for sample letters and additional information.  Click here for step by step instructions and an overview of the Kuali form.

An abstract should provide a clear impression of the content and major divisions of the dissertation or thesis. Abstracts of doctoral dissertations must not exceed 350 words; master’s theses abstracts must not exceed 250 words.

Figures and Tables

All figures and tables must be accompanied by a caption. Captions for figures go below the figure. Captions for tables go above the table.

All figures and tables must have their captions formatted the same, ie numbering, spacing, bold/italicized text, text alignment (left, centered, justified), font.

Figures/tables and their captions need to fit on one page and within the page margins. If they cannot fit on one page, then format the captions as a facing caption, where the caption goes on the page before the figure/table. For example, page 1 would be the figure caption (no other text), and page 2 would be the figure itself.

If figures/tables go on multiple pages, then the caption must be on each page that the figure/table appears. Table headers must also be on each page.

Appendices and References

• Appendices typically contain supporting material such as data sheets, questionnaire samples, illustrations, maps, charts, etc. Appendices may be single-spaced.

References/Biolography/Works Cited

• The format of the references and/or bibliography should follow that of the student’s discipline and should be consistent throughout the dissertation/thesis.
• All authors must be listed. Do not depersonalize non-primary authors by referring to them in the bibliography as et al.
• Bibliographies, references, and works cited are to be single-spaced with a double space between entries, and should be the last entry in each chapter or in the dissertation/thesis.

Use of Published Material and Co-Author Permissions

If students are using material which has been submitted for publication or has been published, students must read the full text that follows and see the manual for additional details. 

Students must obtain permission letters from all co-authors, including committee members and UCSD faculty. Students submit the co-author letters to GEPA electronically via the Kuali permission letter submission form  for any chapter or portion of a chapter in the dissertation or thesis to which one or more of the following applies:

• Students have co-authors (regardless of whether or not students are submitting it for publication);
• The chapter or portion thereof is being prepared for publication;
• The chapter or portion thereof has been submitted for publication;
• The chapter or portion thereof has been published.

If approved by the committee members, reports of research undertaken during graduate study at UC San Diego that have been published or submitted for publication in appropriate media may be accepted in their printed form in full or in part as the dissertation or thesis.  

If the material has co-authors other than the committee chair, the student must obtain permission letters from all co-authors giving their approval for the co-authored material to be used. This must be done even if copyright has been retained.  Students need to determine if the publisher’s permission is also required.  Students collect their signed co-author permission letters and cover letter from their committee chair and submit electronically via the Kuali permission letter submission form  prior to or the day of their final document review with GEPA.  

Click here for a sample/template of the cover letter from the committee chair and the permission letter(s) from co-author(s).

Click here for step by step instructions and an overview of the Kuali form.

Copyright and Publishing Options

• All students receive copyright when creating and publishing their dissertation/thesis.
• Proquest offers to file for additional copyright with the US Copyright Office for a fee. Students can file for additional copyright through Proquest or on their own through the US Copyright Office .

Publishing Options

• Your dissertation/thesis is published in two different libraries, Proquest and eScholarship.
• Traditional = your paper can only be accessed if someone has access to Proquest or pays to access your paper. The default option.
• Open access = your paper is available to anyone on the interent for free. You would have to pay a fee for this option.
• eScholarship is the University of California's digital library. All papers are open access in eScholarship.

Dissertation and Thesis Release Form (Embargo)

Students, with approval from their committee chair, may choose to immediately publish or put an embargo/delay on publishing their disserrtation/thesis. The default option is immediate publication.

• If an embargo is chosen, the options are for a 1 or 2 year delay. (Note: Students in the MFA in Writing program are required to have a 10 year embargo).
• If the embargo needs to be extended, a request from the committee chair must be submitted to the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs via email before the embargo expires . Dissertations/theses cannot be re-embargoed once the embargo expires.

Your embargo choice must match in Proquest and on the dissertation/thesis release form . The release form must be signed by the student and the committee chair and must be uploaded as part of the submission to ProQuest. 

Please note: If you delay the release of your work, access to the full text of your work will be delayed for the period that you specify. However, the citation and abstract of your work will be available through ProQuest and through the UC California Digital Library (eScholarship).

Dissertation and Thesis Release Form (Embargo Form)

Embargo options are for a 1 or 2 year delay. (Note: Students in the MFA in Writing program are required to have a 10 year embargo).

Embargo Extension: If the embargo needs to be extended beyond initial embargo period, a request from the committee chair (with endorsement from the department chair / program director) must be submitted to the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs via email before the embargo expires . The request must specify the reason for the additional time and how long the embargo should continue. Dissertations/theses cannot be re-embargoed once the embargo expires. Please see the Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/2000688/ .

For further questions about doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis formatting, students may contact the appropriate GEPA Academic Affairs Advisor . 

Master’s thesis formatting questions:

• Kelsey Darvin, [email protected] : Biological Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Structural Engineering, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
• Kim McCusker , [email protected]:  All Arts & Humanities, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences, Materials Science, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering 
• Karen Villavicencio , [email protected] : Bioengineering, Bioinformatics, Chemical Engineering, NanoEngineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Neurosciences  

 Doctor of Philosophy dissertation formatting questions:

• Kelsey Darvin , [email protected]:  Structural Engineering
• Eliese Maxwell , [email protected] : all other PhD programs (except those listed)
• Karen Villavicencio , [email protected]:  Chemical Engineering, NanoEngineering

Doctor of Musical Arts, Doctor of Education, all Rady programs, Biomedical Sciences, Biostatistics, and Neurosciences PhD, all joint PhD programs with SDSU, and Master of Public Health (MPH) formatting questions:

•   Sara Miceli , [email protected]

 After fully formatting your doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis you may schedule your appointments at: https://gradforms.ucsd.edu/calendar/ .

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Thesis / dissertation formatting manual (2024).

• Filing Fees and Student Status
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Introduction to the Manual

Congratulations! You are approaching the last step toward attaining your graduate degree. Your Master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation is the permanent scholarly statement of your research.

This manual describes the requirements for formatting your manuscript, as established by UCI’s Graduate Division, the Graduate Council of the Irvine Division of the Academic Senate, and the University Libraries. The formatting requirements are in place to ensure a uniform presentation of UCI theses and dissertations in Proquest and eScholarship. 

You are responsible for submitting a manuscript that complies with the formatting requirements of this manual, and is free of errors. You and your committee are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the scholarly content in your manuscript. 

Once your manuscript has been accepted by UCI Libraries, no changes to the text or substitutions of pages may be made.

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• Last Updated: Feb 20, 2024 2:09 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/gradmanual

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Thesis & Dissertation Manual

Program overview.

Writing a dissertation or thesis is a time-consuming but rewarding experience. To guide you through manuscript preparation and to help you create a uniform and visually clear document, the Office of Research & Graduate Studies has developed the Thesis & Dissertation Manual. It is a guide to Alfaisal University's specific style requirements, providing examples of what is required to receive approval from the Office of Research & Graduate Studies.

Do not wait to review the Thesis & Dissertation Manual until the semester you anticipate graduating or when you have already scheduled a defense date. Visit the Thesis & Dissertation Manual early and often during the writing process. It is highly recommended that you print a copy of the Thesis & Dissertation Manual.

If questions arise while you are working on your thesis or dissertation that are not answered in the Thesis & Dissertation Manual, please contact the Office of Research & Graduate Studies.

It sets forth definitions, policies, and procedures for approval, processing, budgeting, and accounting for research funded from internal and external sources as well as ethical practices.

Important Note

Alfaisal University requires that you make your research accessible to the academic community at large. This is effected by publishing your dissertation/thesis through ProQuest and making it available through both ProQuest and Alfaisal University Library. Further, your dissertation/thesis may be accessed via various internet search engines, such as Google.

Again, making your research accessible to the academic community at large is a condition of Alfaisal University's awarding research doctorates and master's degrees to those completing a degree that requires a dissertation/thesis as a culminating experience. Therefore, permanent and temporary embargoes and abstract-only publication are disallowed.

Style Manual

An essential reference tool when writing a dissertation or thesis is a department-approved professional style manual. You must consult a style manual recognized by a professional society in your field.

To determine which professional style manual is appropriate for your discipline, consult with your advisor. Common manuals include those published by the American Psychological Association (APA) , t he Modern Language Association (MLA) , and the University of Chicago Press .

To learn more visit the Thesis and Dissertation Office website

For more information or clarification please contact:, proquest student electronic submission process turorial video.