Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines

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Thesis/Dissertation Guidelines

The mission of the MTSU College of Graduate Studies is to enhance the scholarly experience of all graduate students and to help them achieve their academic goals, while maintaining academic standards. To this latter end, one of the roles of the College of Graduate Studies is to evaluate the scholarly content of theses and dissertations that are submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduate degrees awarded by MTSU. This is an important function of the Graduate College; thus, the dean of the College of Graduate Studies has final approval authority for each thesis and dissertation.

The dean may suggest some changes to enhance the overall academic quality of a thesis or dissertation. Normally, these suggestions are not mandatory (except for the correction of typographical, grammatical and other errors); the final decision is left to the student and major professor. In the event that a thesis or dissertation does not meet the academic standards expected of MTSU graduate students, the dean will notify the student and major professor so they may discuss the changes that are required.

Primary academic responsibility and authority rests with the faculty, particularly the major professor and any other reader. Moreover, the student and major professor should ensure format concordance with the academic discipline's style. Nonetheless, some uniformity for all theses and dissertations is expected. Please see the Thesis and Dissertation Manual for specific guidelines.

Defense of Dissertation

Upon submission of the completed dissertation, the doctoral candidate who has successfully completed all requirements for the degree will be scheduled by the chair of his/her dissertation committee, in consultation with the other committee members, to defend the dissertation. The College of Graduate Studies must be notified at least two weeks prior to the defense in order to announce the dissertation title, date, time, and location of the defense. The defense is open to all members of the University community who wish to attend. The dissertation defense is administered by the dissertation committee according to program guidelines. Successful defense of the dissertation must be attested to in writing by all members of the dissertation committee.

Thesis/Dissertation Checklist

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The appropriate form must be submitted with the defended copy of the thesis or dissertation. Both the student and the major professor should check all of the applicable items and sign at the bottom. Requirements set forth in this "Checklist" take precedence over requirements in the style manual or refereed journal you follow for preparing your thesis or dissertation.

Thesis/Dissertation Checklist

Deadlines

Theses and dissertations may be submitted anytime during the semester of graduation up to the deadline. Deadlines may be found for each semester at the Academic Calendar page of this site.

The dean may allow an extension when circumstances warrant. In these cases, as soon as a delay is expected, the major professor should petition the dean in writing or email.

Number of Copies

Submit ONE copy of the signed thesis/dissertation and ONE copy on CD or flash drive to the College of Graduate Studies for evaluation. This copy should be in a letter size envelope with name and email address on the front of the envelope. After evaluation by the Dean of Graduate Studies or delegate, you will be contacted to pick up your thesis/dissertation for corrections, if any. Then, four (4) copies of a thesis or five (5) copies of a dissertation are required to be returned for binding. Each copy should be placed in a separate envelope with the student's name and contact information (preferably an email address) on the outside and returned to the College of Graduate Studies one week prior to commencement. (Graduate Studies requires only one signed title/approval page, but departments may require additional originals.)

Thesis/Dissertation Binding Fees

Students submitting thesis/dissertations are required to pay a binding fee of $37 for thesis and $91 for dissertations at the time of submitting the notice of intent to graduate. (Payable in the MTSU Business Office, Cope Administration Building) Thesis fees cover the cost of binding for four copies of your thesis, one to you, one each to your department, thesis chair and the MTSU Library. Dissertation fees covers the cost of binding for five copies of your dissertation along with the publishing fee, one copy to you, one each to your department and dissertation chair and two to the MTSU Library.