Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines

General Instructions

Filing of Theses and Dissertations with the Graduate School

Approval Forms

The Graduate School must have an original Approval form and Oral Defense form signed by the student's committee and the school director or academic dean. Note: Approval forms must be submitted by program staff, faculty, or administrator on behalf of the student. Approval forms submitted by students will not be accepted.

Research Involving Human Subjects

Students who used human subjects in their thesis or dissertation research must submit a copy of their Human Subjects Committee approval form to the Graduate School prior to the final ETD submission deadline. SIU has a policy governing all faculty, staff, and student research which involves human subjects. A human subject is defined as any individual whom a researcher contacts in person, by mail, or by phone, and requests information. Contact the SIU Institutional Review Board regarding any research involving human subjects. Visit the Office of Research Compliance (ORC) or 618-453-4530.

Copyright

It is the student's responsibility to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material, such as including a table, inventory, or figure from a copyrighted source, in their thesis or dissertation. When permission is granted, the reproduced content must be noted with the original author and copyright holder, and the permission letter/email must be included in the appendices. When permission is not granted, the student should seek guidance on how an excerpt of the content can be included to avoid copyright infringement.

ETD Submission Fee

The fee for submission of an electronic thesis or dissertation is $30.00 (Library copy). If the thesis/dissertation is to be copyrighted (optional), an additional fee of $75.00 is due.

Survey of Earned Doctorates

All graduating Ph.D. students are required to complete an online survey. Survey must be submitted online prior to the final ETD submission deadline.

Maps

Oversize maps may be included as a supplemental file.

Appendices

List of terms, definitions, questionnaires, and other supplemental information which is useful, but not essential, to the body of the thesis or dissertation may be included in an appendix. Page numbers must continue within the appendix with the same font and placement as in the body of the text.

Color

Color is permitted.

Multimedia

Audio and video may be included to enhance presentation.

Formatting Guidelines

DO NOT USE COPIES OF THESES AND DISSERTATIONS IN THE LIBRARY FOR FORMATTING GUIDELINES SINCE POLICIES CHANGE.

Fonts

• The pdf file should be readable. The type face should be letter quality. Font style should be standard and not an unusual style such as Cursive, Script, or Italic. Some standard fonts are listed below:
  • Ariel, Bookman, Courier, Times New Roman
• The body of the document should use a 10 or 12 point font. Headings and subheadings may go up one size and up to 14 point but must be of the same font style as the body of the text.
• Bold format may be used only as specified by the style manual chosen.
• Italics may be used only as specified by the style manual chosen. In general, it may be used for Genera, species, letters, words or phrases cited as a linguistic example, and foreign words.

Spacing

• The body of the document must be double-spaced.
• Extended direct quotations should be presented consistently with the style manual selected.
• Chapters should be left justified.

Margins and Indentation

• Margins are one inch all around. Charts, tables, and figures may have greater margins than listed but may not go into the required margins.
• Paragraph indentations should be uniform five spaces. There should be no extra spacing between paragraphs.
• Chapters should be left justified.

Pagination

• The Title page, Copyright page (optional), and Approval page must have no page numbers.
• The Abstract page will be the first page with a page number, and it must be a lower-case Roman numeral centered between the left and right margins and one-half inch up from the bottom of the page. Roman numeral pagination continues until the first page of chapter 1.
• The first page of chapter 1 will have the Arabic numeral 1 for a page number. Arabic numerals continue for the remainder of the paper and may be positioned in the upper right corner or the bottom center location, depending upon the graduate program’s style manual. Page numbers must consist of numerals only, without punctuation or embellishment.

This recent guideline revision supersedes all previous editions. Take this into consideration as you review previous SIU theses / dissertations.

Roles and Responsibilities

The Graduate Student's Responsibility

• Subject matter and content
• Organization and format
• Editorial, linguistic and bibliographic quality
• Quality of text, tables, and figures
• Quality of data, evidence, and logical reasoning presented
• Presentation of the manuscript based on the current style manual of the field and Graduate School Guidelines

The Advisory Committee's Responsibility

• Approval of the subject matter and methodology of the research
• Approval of the organization and content of the paper
• Review of the quality of data and evidence, logical reasoning, and the editorial, linguistic, and bibliographic quality
• Evaluation of the thesis or dissertation as a basis for certification that the student has fulfilled the requirements of the degree for which the student is a candidate

The Thesis Editor's Responsibility

• Providing counsel and advice upon request by students and members of the student's committee about the format aspects of theses and dissertation preparation
• Checking the final draft of each thesis or dissertation to insure that it has been prepared in conformity with the requirements of this Guide

Graduate Program Style Manual

Students must follow the style manual or scholarly journal guidelines designated by their graduate program to present the body of their thesis or dissertation. Graduate School guidelines must be followed for the pages prior to page 1 and for the Vita page.

*APA: American Psychological Association Publication Manual

*MLA: Modern Language Association Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

Submit theses and dissertations to the Graduate School via the ProQuest submission site.

ProQuest

ALL REVISIONS ARE DUE BY THE DEADLINE DATE! NO EXCEPTIONS!

For Questions / Concerns, please contact: