is a dissertation considered published

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The Difference Between a Published & Unpublished Dissertation

How to Locate PhD Dissertations

A dissertation is the main element in completion of a Ph.D. The central element of a doctoral dissertation, and the quality that differentiates it from a master's thesis or an undergraduate thesis, is that it must make an original contribution to its field, usually using primary research. The structure and content of a completed doctoral dissertation is often very different from the structure required for articles or books that are based on it.

Unpublished Dissertations

When a Ph.D. candidate completes her dissertation, this usually results in three or four copies: one each for the candidate, the dissertation supervisor, the university library and sometimes an archive. Unless a dissertation is subsequently published, these are the only copies that are ever created. What this means in practical terms is that unpublished dissertations are almost never widely read. The vast majority of dissertations serve their purpose of gaining a Ph.D. for their author and then fade into obscurity. If you write a dissertation that you want to have an impact, you will need to revise it and publish it in some form.

One of the easiest options for getting your research into published form is to revise a single chapter into an article for a peer-reviewed journal in your field. The difference between this article and an unpublished dissertation is clear: The article is present in a journal that is printed in thousands of copies and distributed to influential academics around the world. In most cases, the editors of the journal will want the form of the dissertation chapter reworked to some extent to make it more accessible to readers who are probably not experts in that particular subject matter.

Motivated dissertation authors often seek to have their dissertations published in book form. As with journal articles, books that are based on dissertations need to be reworked. This usually takes the form of downplaying the methodology and literature-review sections, cutting down on the density of footnotes and references and generally making the text more readable to non-specialists. A published book can get your name out in your academic field and to the world in general. Having a book and some published articles in your field will be helpful to you in advancing your academic career. Within academia, an unpublished dissertation is really nothing more than a prerequisite.

Online Publishing

The Internet has opened up tremendous new opportunities for academic publishing. While having your work accessible online doesn't carry the same weight with hiring committees as an article in a peer-reviewed journal, or better yet a book, it is an effective way to make yourself and your work known, as long as you get it published in the right places. Making contacts through online publishing can be an effective stepping stone toward breaking into journals and book publishing. It's also a useful way to get feedback from other academics about your work.

Referencing Your Own Knowledge in APA Format

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University of California Berkeley/Graduate Division: Publishing Your Dissertation

Jagg Xaxx has been writing since 1983. His primary areas of writing include surrealism, Buddhist iconography and environmental issues. Xaxx worked as a cabinetmaker for 12 years, as well as building and renovating several houses. Xaxx holds a Doctor of Philosophy in art history from the University of Manchester in the U.K.

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Reference Page Examples - Dissertations or Theses

Published Dissertation or Thesis
Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis

A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

If the database or archive requires users to log in before they can view the dissertation or thesis, meaning the url will not work for readers, end the reference with the database name., author, a. a. (year). title of dissertation (publication no. xxxxxxxxx). [doctoral dissertation or masters thesis, name of, institution that awarded the degree]. name of source i.e. proquest dissertations and theses global. url for, the dissertation or thesis., d'arcangelis, g. s. (2009). the bio scare: anthrax, smallpox, sars, flu and post-9/11 u.s. empire (order no., 3388146). [doctoral dissertation, university of california los angeles]. proquest dissertations and theses, global. , * ** remember: each source listed on the reference page must correspond to at least one in-text citation in the body of the paper; each in-text citation must correspond to a source listed on the reference page., when a dissertation or thesis is unpublished, include the description “[unpublished doctoral dissertation]” or “[unpublished master’s thesis]” in square brackets after the dissertation or thesis title., in the source element of the reference, provide the name of the institution that awarded the degree., author, a. a. (year). title of dissertation [unpublished doctoral dissertation or unpublished, masters thesis], name of institution that awarded the degree. , johnson, b. (2005). balanced scorecard applications [unpublished master's thesis]. worthington university..

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Reusing Your Published Work
Your Copyright
Publishing Your Thesis or Dissertation
Frequently Asked Questions and Resources

Preparing for Publication

Norms around publishing thesis or dissertation material vary from one field to another. For instance, in some science and engineering fields, it is common to publish individual chapters from the thesis or dissertation before it is submitted. In the humanities, it is common to develop a monograph from the dissertation after completing a doctoral degree.

Whether you publish before or after submitting your thesis or dissertation, it is important to plan ahead when signing publishing contracts or submitting your dissertation. Will the publishing contract you sign allow you to use the article in your thesis or dissertation later? How does depositing in the ETD repository impact this? Can you use material that you've coauthored in your dissertation or thesis? For questions about the norms in your field, talk with your advisors. With Graduate School policy questions, consult the Graduate School's Thesis and Dissertation Guide . With copyright questions, contact the Office of Scholarly Communications and Copyright .

From Dissertation to Book

Thinking about transforming your dissertation into your first book? Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee.

Here are a few resources to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph:

Dear First-Time Author: How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book, by Theresa MacPhail MacPhail shares advice from writing her own first book as well as advice from editors at university presses.

In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in Penn State's ETD repository ) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations:

Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers, by Ramirez, et al.

Attribution

This guide is based in part on Copyright for Dissertations , a guide from the University of Michigan Library Copyright Office, which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license .

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A thesis is generally considered “published” when it has been cataloged and shelved in a publicly accessible library, but other factors could impact the publication date for patent purposes. For example, a thesis submitted electronically might be considered published on the date the electronic version is first made available to the public online, if this occurred prior to the thesis being cataloged. It might also be considered “published” if the student posted a copy on a personal website before submitting the thesis. For further questions, contact the Office of the General Counsel.

As of the 2022-2023 academic year, theses will not be available prior to being published by the MIT Libraries. Previously, a thesis could be made available upon request as soon it was received by the Libraries.

The catalog dates can be found in the MIT Libraries catalog record. Use "Search our collections" to find the record in the Libraries catalog, and click “View record metadata - MARC format.”

In the MARC record, the field 008 will contain the publication date. The field looks like this:

The first two digits 06 = year (2006), the next two digits 03=month (March), and the last two digits 09= day (9th). The publication date for the above record is March 9, 2006.

Note that the stamped date on the title page is not the thesis publication date. It is the date the thesis was received by the MIT Libraries. A thesis may or may not be available between receipt by the Libraries and the cataloging date, but generally is available to the public after cataloging.

As of the 2022-2023 academic year (February 2023 degree date), the Libraries may be begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT one month and one week from the last day of classes for that degree term, in accordance with the Specifications for Thesis Preparation. Theses placed on hold are not cataloged and published until the hold has been released.

Please see the MIT Libraries Permissions Policy.

Users interested in a thesis not yet cataloged by the MIT Libraries may contact the Distinctive Collections staff to determine whether the thesis has been deposited in the archives. If it has been deposited, and if it is not on hold, the user may view the thesis in the Distinctive Collections reading room.

MIT theses that have been scanned and deposited into DSpace@MIT are openly accessible to anyone. Each thesis record in DSpace@MIT has a ‘Full printable version’ PDF that can be read, downloaded, or printed from any computer.

MIT theses that have been scanned and deposited into DSpace@MIT are openly accessible to anyone. You can print a copy for yourself.

If your thesis isn't in DSpace@MIT, please contact us at Distinctive Collections prior to submitting your request.

Scanned theses in DSpace@MIT

All theses for advanced degrees are collected by the libraries, as well as selected bachelor’s theses. To see the thesis holdings, visit Search Our Collections , the MIT Libraries catalog.

In 2020, digital theses became required, and as such, theses submitted for degree periods after 2020 are all made available on DSpace in their original digital formats. Hardcopy theses from the 2004 academic year through 2020 were automatically scanned and added to DSpace. Theses completed prior to 2004 are scanned on demand, and are only scanned if an individual or an institution has requested an electronic copy of a particular thesis. Paper copies of theses are preserved by Distinctive Collections and will continue to be the official MIT copies of record.

DSpace@MIT does not contain all MIT theses, only a selected group. All digital theses since the 2020 academic year are made available on DSpace after processing. Hardcopy theses from the 2004 academic year through the 2020 academic year were automatically scanned and added to DSpace@MIT. Theses completed prior to 2004 are scanned on demand, and are only scanned if an individual or an institution has requested a copy of a particular thesis. All of the scanning of paper theses is done on a cost recovery basis, and the first person/institution to request a particular thesis is the one who pays the scanning cost.

It is our goal to scan all of the theses completed at MIT for DSpace@MIT; however, more than 125,000 theses have been completed at MIT. The 53,000 theses in DSpace@MIT only represent a fraction of MIT's print thesis holdings. Anyone interested in accessing a printable PDF file of a thesis not already in DSpace@MIT should make a request through the Distinctive Collections Request System , or contact Ask Distinctive Collections at Ask Distinctive Collections .

Thesis authors receive discounted MIT-only pricing when requesting that their own thesis be scanned. More info is available on the Imaging Services page .

MIT remains committed to making theses publically available to the world. Regardless of whether copyright is held by the student or the Institute, the MIT Libraries publish theses electronically, allowing open access viewing. While there are fees charged for scanning, these fees are used to scan more theses and make them available for open viewing. Without these fees, only a very small subset of theses (those submitted electronically) would be available online.

All theses scanned since 2008 retain any color or grayscale content. Theses scanned prior to 2008 may be in black & white even though there was color content in the original. At the time they were digitized, color scanning was not economically feasible.

Original paper versions of MIT theses are available for viewing in person in the Distinctive Collections Reading Room, with 24-48 hours advance notice.

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APA 7th edition - Citations: Theses & Dissertations

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Published vs. unpublished

Citations for dissertations and theses reorganize elements depending on whether they are published or unpublished.

A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available through a database, institutional repository, or archive
e.g. [Master's thesis, University of British Columbia] or [Doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University]
Include the URL if the URL will work for readers, or else end the citation with the name of the database, repository, or archive

General format - published

Reference List

AuthorLastName, A. A. (Date). Title of dissertation or thesis (Publication No. ## - if available) [Document type, institution name]. Publisher. http://www.website.com/webpage

(AuthorLastName, Year)

Unpublished
An unpublished dissertation or thesis includes the name of the university as the source.
A URL is generally not included as an unpublished document is assumed to be in print or a digital document unavailable publicly.
If available in a database or repository/archive, treat as published.

General format - unpublished

AuthorLastName, A. A. (Date). Title of dissertation or thesis (Publication No. ## - if available) [Unpublished document type]. Institution Name. http://www.website.com/webpage

1. Published

Hossain, M. A. (2018). What do police recruits identify as strategies to deal with their triggers/biases to deliver fair and impartial policing? [Capstone Project, Justice Institute of British Columbia]. The Vault. https://jibc.arcabc.ca/islandora/object/jibc%3A2380?solr_nav%5Bid%5D=16b067104b80bcb271bb&solr_nav%5Bpage%5D=0&solr_nav%5Boffset%5D=0

(Hossain, 2018)

Ferguson, J. (2010). Queer Japanese cinema: A rich and diverse cultural history's challenge to hegemonic ideologies of gender and sexuality (Publication No. MR82331) [Master's thesis, University of British Columbia]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

(Ferguson, 2010)

2. Unpublished

Smith, I. (2020). Effects of library instruction on college students' citation practices [Unpublished undergraduate thesis]. Okanagan College.

(Smith, 2020)

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Evaluating Resources: Dissertations

Introduction.

Dissertations, doctoral studies, project studies, capstones, and theses are all student-produced works that present and discuss an individual's research.

Note: While dissertations are definitely scholarly and are reviewed and edited before publication, they do not go through a peer-review process, and thus, aren't considered peer-reviewed sources.

Identify dissertations

A distinguishing characteristic of dissertations is that they generally start with a cover page.

Dissertation reference citations are perhaps the easiest citations to recognize; they include the words doctoral dissertation right in the citation! They also contain:

Database name: For dissertations that are downloaded from a database, the database name is included. This is generally the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database.
Publication number : In ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database, this is the Dissertation/Thesis Number.

In APA 7th, dissertations retrieved from the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database generally follow this format:

Author. (Year). Title of dissertation (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation, University]. Database Name.

Here is an example:

Burley, M. A. (2009). Working for social change: Using student-centered instructional designs to improve achievement. (Publication No. 3379796) [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Note: Not all dissertation reference citations will follow this format exactly. If you have questions about citing a capstone using APA style, please contact the Writing Center .

The first page of a dissertation or doctoral study may contain:

university name - for example, Walden University
college name - for example, College of Nursing
type of degree - dissertation or doctoral study
committee member names
year completed

More information

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Dissertation

What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started

Published on 26 March 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 5 May 2022.

A dissertation is a large research project undertaken at the end of a degree. It involves in-depth consideration of a problem or question chosen by the student. It is usually the largest (and final) piece of written work produced during a degree.

The length and structure of a dissertation vary widely depending on the level and field of study. However, there are some key questions that can help you understand the requirements and get started on your dissertation project.

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When and why do you have to write a dissertation, who will supervise your dissertation, what type of research will you do, how should your dissertation be structured, what formatting and referencing rules do you have to follow, frequently asked questions about dissertations.

A dissertation, sometimes called a thesis, comes at the end of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree. It is a larger project than the other essays you’ve written, requiring a higher word count and a greater depth of research.

You’ll generally work on your dissertation during the final year of your degree, over a longer period than you would take for a standard essay . For example, the dissertation might be your main focus for the last six months of your degree.

Why is the dissertation important?

The dissertation is a test of your capacity for independent research. You are given a lot of autonomy in writing your dissertation: you come up with your own ideas, conduct your own research, and write and structure the text by yourself.

This means that it is an important preparation for your future, whether you continue in academia or not: it teaches you to manage your own time, generate original ideas, and work independently.

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During the planning and writing of your dissertation, you’ll work with a supervisor from your department. The supervisor’s job is to give you feedback and advice throughout the process.

The dissertation supervisor is often assigned by the department, but you might be allowed to indicate preferences or approach potential supervisors. If so, try to pick someone who is familiar with your chosen topic, whom you get along with on a personal level, and whose feedback you’ve found useful in the past.

How will your supervisor help you?

Your supervisor is there to guide you through the dissertation project, but you’re still working independently. They can give feedback on your ideas, but not come up with ideas for you.

You may need to take the initiative to request an initial meeting with your supervisor. Then you can plan out your future meetings and set reasonable deadlines for things like completion of data collection, a structure outline, a first chapter, a first draft, and so on.

Make sure to prepare in advance for your meetings. Formulate your ideas as fully as you can, and determine where exactly you’re having difficulties so you can ask your supervisor for specific advice.

Your approach to your dissertation will vary depending on your field of study. The first thing to consider is whether you will do empirical research , which involves collecting original data, or non-empirical research , which involves analysing sources.

Empirical dissertations (sciences)

An empirical dissertation focuses on collecting and analysing original data. You’ll usually write this type of dissertation if you are studying a subject in the sciences or social sciences.

What are airline workers’ attitudes towards the challenges posed for their industry by climate change?
How effective is cognitive behavioural therapy in treating depression in young adults?
What are the short-term health effects of switching from smoking cigarettes to e-cigarettes?

There are many different empirical research methods you can use to answer these questions – for example, experiments , observations, surveys , and interviews.

When doing empirical research, you need to consider things like the variables you will investigate, the reliability and validity of your measurements, and your sampling method . The aim is to produce robust, reproducible scientific knowledge.

Non-empirical dissertations (arts and humanities)

A non-empirical dissertation works with existing research or other texts, presenting original analysis, critique and argumentation, but no original data. This approach is typical of arts and humanities subjects.

What attitudes did commentators in the British press take towards the French Revolution in 1789–1792?
How do the themes of gender and inheritance intersect in Shakespeare’s Macbeth ?
How did Plato’s Republic and Thomas More’s Utopia influence nineteenth century utopian socialist thought?

The first steps in this type of dissertation are to decide on your topic and begin collecting your primary and secondary sources .

Primary sources are the direct objects of your research. They give you first-hand evidence about your subject. Examples of primary sources include novels, artworks and historical documents.

Secondary sources provide information that informs your analysis. They describe, interpret, or evaluate information from primary sources. For example, you might consider previous analyses of the novel or author you are working on, or theoretical texts that you plan to apply to your primary sources.

Dissertations are divided into chapters and sections. Empirical dissertations usually follow a standard structure, while non-empirical dissertations are more flexible.

Structure of an empirical dissertation

Empirical dissertations generally include these chapters:

Introduction : An explanation of your topic and the research question(s) you want to answer.
Literature review : A survey and evaluation of previous research on your topic.
Methodology : An explanation of how you collected and analysed your data.
Results : A brief description of what you found.
Discussion : Interpretation of what these results reveal.
Conclusion : Answers to your research question(s) and summary of what your findings contribute to knowledge in your field.

Sometimes the order or naming of chapters might be slightly different, but all of the above information must be included in order to produce thorough, valid scientific research.

Other dissertation structures

If your dissertation doesn’t involve data collection, your structure is more flexible. You can think of it like an extended essay – the text should be logically organised in a way that serves your argument:

Introduction: An explanation of your topic and the question(s) you want to answer.
Main body: The development of your analysis, usually divided into 2–4 chapters.
Conclusion: Answers to your research question(s) and summary of what your analysis contributes to knowledge in your field.

The chapters of the main body can be organised around different themes, time periods, or texts. Below you can see some example structures for dissertations in different subjects.

Political philosophy

This example, on the topic of the British press’s coverage of the French Revolution, shows how you might structure each chapter around a specific theme.

Example of a dissertation structure in history

This example, on the topic of Plato’s and More’s influences on utopian socialist thought, shows a different approach to dividing the chapters by theme.

Example of a dissertation structure in political philosophy

This example, a master’s dissertation on the topic of how writers respond to persecution, shows how you can also use section headings within each chapter. Each of the three chapters deals with a specific text, while the sections are organised thematically.

Example of a dissertation structure in literature

Like other academic texts, it’s important that your dissertation follows the formatting guidelines set out by your university. You can lose marks unnecessarily over mistakes, so it’s worth taking the time to get all these elements right.

Formatting guidelines concern things like:

line spacing
page numbers
punctuation
title pages
presentation of tables and figures

If you’re unsure about the formatting requirements, check with your supervisor or department. You can lose marks unnecessarily over mistakes, so it’s worth taking the time to get all these elements right.

How will you reference your sources?

Referencing means properly listing the sources you cite and refer to in your dissertation, so that the reader can find them. This avoids plagiarism by acknowledging where you’ve used the work of others.

Keep track of everything you read as you prepare your dissertation. The key information to note down for a reference is:

The publication date
Page numbers for the parts you refer to (especially when using direct quotes)

Different referencing styles each have their own specific rules for how to reference. The most commonly used styles in UK universities are listed below.

You can use the free APA Reference Generator to automatically create and store your references.

APA Reference Generator

The words ‘ dissertation ’ and ‘thesis’ both refer to a large written research project undertaken to complete a degree, but they are used differently depending on the country:

In the UK, you write a dissertation at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a thesis to complete a PhD.
In the US, it’s the other way around: you may write a thesis at the end of a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and you write a dissertation to complete a PhD.

The main difference is in terms of scale – a dissertation is usually much longer than the other essays you complete during your degree.

Another key difference is that you are given much more independence when working on a dissertation. You choose your own dissertation topic , and you have to conduct the research and write the dissertation yourself (with some assistance from your supervisor).

Dissertation word counts vary widely across different fields, institutions, and levels of education:

An undergraduate dissertation is typically 8,000–15,000 words
A master’s dissertation is typically 12,000–50,000 words
A PhD thesis is typically book-length: 70,000–100,000 words

However, none of these are strict guidelines – your word count may be lower or higher than the numbers stated here. Always check the guidelines provided by your university to determine how long your own dissertation should be.

At the bachelor’s and master’s levels, the dissertation is usually the main focus of your final year. You might work on it (alongside other classes) for the entirety of the final year, or for the last six months. This includes formulating an idea, doing the research, and writing up.

A PhD thesis takes a longer time, as the thesis is the main focus of the degree. A PhD thesis might be being formulated and worked on for the whole four years of the degree program. The writing process alone can take around 18 months.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, May 05). What Is a Dissertation? | 5 Essential Questions to Get Started. Scribbr. Retrieved 18 March 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/thesis-dissertation/what-is-a-dissertation/

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Dissertation

What Is a Dissertation? | Guide, Examples, & Template

A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program.

Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you’ve ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating to know where to begin.

Your department likely has guidelines related to how your dissertation should be structured. When in doubt, consult with your supervisor.

You can also download our full dissertation template in the format of your choice below. The template includes a ready-made table of contents with notes on what to include in each chapter, easily adaptable to your department’s requirements.

Download Word template Download Google Docs template

In the US, a dissertation generally refers to the collection of research you conducted to obtain a PhD.
In other countries (such as the UK), a dissertation often refers to the research you conduct to obtain your bachelor’s or master’s degree.

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Dissertation committee and prospectus process, how to write and structure a dissertation, acknowledgements or preface, list of figures and tables, list of abbreviations, introduction, literature review, methodology, reference list, proofreading and editing, defending your dissertation, free checklist and lecture slides.

When you’ve finished your coursework, as well as any comprehensive exams or other requirements, you advance to “ABD” (All But Dissertation) status. This means you’ve completed everything except your dissertation.

Prior to starting to write, you must form your committee and write your prospectus or proposal . Your committee comprises your adviser and a few other faculty members. They can be from your own department, or, if your work is more interdisciplinary, from other departments. Your committee will guide you through the dissertation process, and ultimately decide whether you pass your dissertation defense and receive your PhD.

Your prospectus is a formal document presented to your committee, usually orally in a defense, outlining your research aims and objectives and showing why your topic is relevant . After passing your prospectus defense, you’re ready to start your research and writing.

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The structure of your dissertation depends on a variety of factors, such as your discipline, topic, and approach. Dissertations in the humanities are often structured more like a long essay , building an overall argument to support a central thesis , with chapters organized around different themes or case studies.

However, hard science and social science dissertations typically include a review of existing works, a methodology section, an analysis of your original research, and a presentation of your results , presented in different chapters.

Dissertation examples

We’ve compiled a list of dissertation examples to help you get started.

Example dissertation #1: Heat, Wildfire and Energy Demand: An Examination of Residential Buildings and Community Equity (a dissertation by C. A. Antonopoulos about the impact of extreme heat and wildfire on residential buildings and occupant exposure risks).
Example dissertation #2: Exploring Income Volatility and Financial Health Among Middle-Income Households (a dissertation by M. Addo about income volatility and declining economic security among middle-income households).
Example dissertation #3: The Use of Mindfulness Meditation to Increase the Efficacy of Mirror Visual Feedback for Reducing Phantom Limb Pain in Amputees (a dissertation by N. S. Mills about the effect of mindfulness-based interventions on the relationship between mirror visual feedback and the pain level in amputees with phantom limb pain).

The very first page of your document contains your dissertation title, your name, department, institution, degree program, and submission date. Sometimes it also includes your student number, your supervisor’s name, and the university’s logo.

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The abstract is a short summary of your dissertation, usually about 150 to 300 words long. Though this may seem very short, it’s one of the most important parts of your dissertation, because it introduces your work to your audience.

Your abstract should:

State your main topic and the aims of your research
Describe your methods
Summarize your main results
State your conclusions

Theoretical framework

Your literature review can often form the basis for your theoretical framework. Here, you define and analyze the key theories, concepts, and models that frame your research.

Checklist: Dissertation

My title page includes all information required by my university.

I have included acknowledgements thanking those who helped me.

My abstract provides a concise summary of the dissertation, giving the reader a clear idea of my key results or arguments.

I have created a table of contents to help the reader navigate my dissertation. It includes all chapter titles, but excludes the title page, acknowledgements, and abstract.

My introduction leads into my topic in an engaging way and shows the relevance of my research.

My introduction clearly defines the focus of my research, stating my research questions and research objectives .

My introduction includes an overview of the dissertation’s structure (reading guide).

I have conducted a literature review in which I (1) critically engage with sources, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of existing research, (2) discuss patterns, themes, and debates in the literature, and (3) address a gap or show how my research contributes to existing research.

I have clearly outlined the theoretical framework of my research, explaining the theories and models that support my approach.

I have thoroughly described my methodology , explaining how I collected data and analyzed data.

I have concisely and objectively reported all relevant results .

I have (1) evaluated and interpreted the meaning of the results and (2) acknowledged any important limitations of the results in my discussion .

I have clearly stated the answer to my main research question in the conclusion .

I have clearly explained the implications of my conclusion, emphasizing what new insight my research has contributed.

I have provided relevant recommendations for further research or practice.

If relevant, I have included appendices with supplemental information.

I have included an in-text citation every time I use words, ideas, or information from a source.

I have listed every source in a reference list at the end of my dissertation.

I have consistently followed the rules of my chosen citation style .

I have followed all formatting guidelines provided by my university.

Congratulations!

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Dissertations and Theses

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Dissertation Research Librarian

The library's format requirements are designed to work with a variety of scholarly conventions and citation styles across the disciplines. Check with your degree program, advisor, or dissertation committee to find out if a particular citation style is required for theses or dissertations.

AAA Style Guide As of September 2015, the American Anthropological Association now adheres to the Chicago Style (Author-Date).
American Chemical Society (ACS) Style Quick Guide "The ACS Style Guide is the definitive source for all information needed to write, review, submit, and edit scholarly and scientific manuscripts."
American Institute of Physics (AIP) Publishing Manuscript preparation guidelines for authors, including information on equations, notations, and references.
American Mathematical Society (AMS) Author Handbook "The Author Handbook contains guidelines for preparing AMS-LaTeX files for submission to the AMS for publication."
American Political Science Association (APSA) Style Manual Latest edition is rev. 2006, currently under revision as of 2017. Includes grammar, usage, citation style for submiting to APSA journals.
APA Style Online The full APA style guide is available in print and ebook formats. This supplementary site from APA includes quick reference materials and updates.
ASA Guide Online From Purdue's online writing lab, an outline of style guide basics from the American Sociological Association. The full ASA style guide is available in print book format only.

CMOS Shop Talk Blog "With these pages and posts, the editors and staff of the Manual hope to bring clarity, education, and amusement to anyone who works with words."
Harvard Referencing (Cite Them Right) There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style, and this guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version.
Modern Language Association (MLA) Style Center The full MLA Style manual is not available online, but this is a useful distillation of the most common concerns.
Turabian Quick Guide

Citation Managers

Citation managers allow you to save and organize references and citations you gather during research. You can import citations from databases such as JSTOR, Humanities Full-Text, or Academic Search Premier or manually enter citations. You can attach pdfs and images to the citations as well. They also generate bibliographies and footnotes. The Graduate Center supports Zotero and Refworks. Links and descriptions are below. If you want to have an introduction to any or all of the citation managers make an appointment here .

Zotero Help Short video tutorials and a userguide

How to Cite a Dissertation or Thesis

Apa (7th ed).

A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or PDQT Open, an institutional repository, or an archive. Include a publication number after the title, if available. Use bracketed text with "Doctoral dissertation" or "Master's Thesis" (without quotes) and degree-granting institution, separated with a comma. Include the database or repository name. Only include a URL if no login is required. Read more on APA Style Online .

Doctoral dissertation with ProQuest publication number:

Kabir, J. M. (2016). Factors influencing customer satisfaction at a fast food hamburger chain: The relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (Publication No. 10169573) [Doctoral dissertation, Wilmington University]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Doctoral dissertation in an institutional repository:

Zambrano-Vazquez, L. (2016). The interaction of state and trait worry on response monitoring in those with worry and obsessive-compulsive symptoms [Doctoral dissertation, University of Arizona]. UA Campus Repository. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/620615

Chicago (17th Ed. Notes & Bibliography)

Titles of theses and dissertations appear in quotation marks—not in italics; otherwise, they are cited like books. The kind of thesis, the academic institution, and the date follow the title. Like the publication data of a book, these are enclosed in parentheses in a note but not in a bibliography. Only include a URL if there is no login required. If retrieved from a database, include the database title and publication number, if available. Read more at CMOS 17 Online, 14.215: Theses and Dissertations .

Shortened note:

Bibliography entry:

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University of Michigan Library
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Publishing Your Dissertation
Using Others' Content
Copyright in Your Dissertation

Copyright Questions?

The University of Michigan Library Copyright Office provides help with copyright questions for University of Michigan faculty, staff and students. Please email us with questions or visit our website for more information.

Legal Advice

The information presented here is intended for informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice. If you have specific legal questions pertaining to the University of Michigan, please contact the Office of the General Counsel .

If you require legal advice in your personal capacity, the lawyer referral services operated by the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan may be helpful to you.

Preparing for Publication

Norms around publishing dissertation material vary from one field to another. For instance, in some scientific fields, it is common to publish individual chapters from the dissertation before it is submitted. In the humanities, it is common to develop a monograph from the dissertation after completing the graduate degree.

Whether you publish before or after submitting your dissertation, it is important to plan ahead when signing publishing contracts or submitting your dissertation. Will the publishing contract you sign allow you to use the article in your dissertation later? How does depositing your dissertation in Deep Blue impact this? Can you use material that you've coauthored in your dissertation or thesis? For questions about the norms in your field, talk with your advisors. With copyright questions, contact the library copyright office.

If you are about to sign a publishing agreement, consider using the U-M Author's Addenda , which may help you negotiate and keep the rights you need in your work.

From Dissertation to Book

Here are a few resources to help you understand the process of reworking a dissertation for publication as a monograph:

Dear First-Time Author: How to Turn Your Dissertation Into a Book, by Theresa MacPhail MacPhail shares advice from writing her own first book as well as advice from editors at university presses.

In reading some of the resources listed above, you might encounter discussions of how having your dissertation available online (for example, in Deep Blue ) could negatively impact a publisher's willingness to look at your manuscript. Some authors assert that you should not put your dissertation online if you hope to sign a publishing contract. However, please note there is very little evidence to support this view. In fact, research has shown that publishers will indeed consider manuscripts that are revised versions of openly-accessible dissertations.

Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers, by Ramirez, et al.

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Cataloging Theses and Dissertations: Best Practices

Created by Thomas Ma , last modified by Anne Adams on Aug 22, 2022

scope : A "best practice" guide for use by technical services staff who create or edit records pertaining to theses and dissertations.

submitted by: Kate Bowers ( [email protected] ), Beth Iseminger ( [email protected] ), Karen Nipps, June Rutkowski ( [email protected] ) , Summer Unsinn ( [email protected] ) , Karen Young ( [email protected] ) , Isabel Quintana, co-chair ( [email protected] ) , Thomas Ma, co-chair ( [email protected] ) .

maintained by: Metadata Standards Working Group

This document covers both published and unpublished theses. It does not cover revisions, adaptations, or theses that are published commercially after they are submitted. Please note that DASH is not considered a publisher. Therefore, theses deposited in DASH are considered unpublished.

LDR/06 : Select appropriate code, or use another code as needed for other formats.

a = non-manuscript language material (for published theses)

d = manuscript notated music

f = manuscript cartographic material

t = manuscript language material, including typescripts and print-outs (for unpublished theses, except for special collections/archival repositories)

008/06 type of date =”s” (if only year given in 264)

008/06 type of date =”e” (if applicable, i.e. month or month and day included in 264);

008/07-10 date 1 = year

008/11-14 date2 = mmdd (if applicable, i.e. month month and day included in 264; use blanks for day if only month given);

008/24 content= “m” (theses) (if code is available, depending on format)

Example: 008 080829e201303^^xx^m^^^^^bm^^^000^0^eng^d

This example is for a thesis dated March 2013.

Thesis author

100 1_ |a Name, |e relationship designator.

Example: 100 1_ |a Gallogly-Swan, Katie Louise, |e author.

If the ORCID for the thesis author is known, the link should be placed in subfield 1 of the 100 field, with an added 500 note.

100 1_ $a Burkhauser, Mary. $1 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9142-7269

500 __ $a Author's ORCID: 0000-0001-9142-7269.

The cataloger may optionally include ORCIDs for committee members in MARC 700 fields. 500 notes are not necessary for this use.

Example: 700 1_ $a Oja, Carol, $d 1953- $e degree supervisor. $1 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5802-0587

Publication information (for published theses)

264 _1 |a Place of publication : |b Publisher, |c Date of publication.

Example: 264 _1 |a Stockholm : |b Stockholm University, |c 2014.

Date of production (for unpublished theses)

264 _0 |c date of production.

Transcribe from title page as it appears on the piece

Example: 264 _0 |c 2014.

264 _0 |c March 2014.

Degree Granted Date (optional)

500 |a Degree granted Month Year. (if this information is available)

Example: 500 __ |a Degree granted May 2014.

Thesis Note

formatted.

502 |b Degree |c Institution |d date

Example: 502 __ |b Ph. D. |c Harvard University |d 2014.

Unformatted

Optionally add a 2nd unformatted 502 if you want to add a term, or further information about the degree or the institution.

Example: 502 __ |a Thesis (Masters of Architecture in Urban Design)--Harvard Graduate School of Design, 2014.

Genre Heading

Prefer LCGFT terms:

655 7 |a Academic theses. |2 lcgft

655 _7 |a Theses. |2 aat

These terms are available from the AAT: Theses, Doctoral dissertations, Masters theses.

Advisors, Committee Members (repeatable)

700 1 |a Name, |e relationship designator.

Example: 700 1_ |a Smith, John, |e degree supervisor.

700 1_ |a Smith, John, |e degree committee member.

Please see note under ORCID.

degree committee member : A person serving on a committee that supervises a student's thesis or dissertation.

degree supervisor: A person, such as an advisor or supervisor of thesis or dissertation research, overseeing either an academic degree or thesis.

(An alternative practice is used for electronically submitted theses at Harvard. The names will be entered as 720s since no effort is made to enter them using any cataloging criteria.)

Degree Granting Institution/Department (repeatable)

710 2 |a Institution, |e degree granting institution.

710 2 |a Institution. |b Subordinate body (if available) |t term defined by the community. [Thesis, Third Year Paper, etc.]

Example: 710 2_ |a Harvard University, |e degree granting institution.

710 2_ |a Harvard University. |b Department of Anthropology. |t Senior honors theses.

For Harvard Theses and Dissertations: use of access points for particular local programs or schools varies; please follow local practice.

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Best Practice for E-Theses and Dissertations
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Revising Your Dissertation for Publication

While a dissertation’s in-depth research and analysis can provide a strong foundation for a book, the dissertation itself is not a book and will not be published by an academic press without substantial revisions. Some acquisitions editors are interested first books, especially if they bring new perspectives and fresh ideas to a field, while others do not often publish first books. If you are considering submitting your dissertation for publication, we recommend that you contact editors at university presses that publish in your subject area for guidance on revising your work. Many editors prefer to be involved in the early stages of this process so they can advise you on how to structure the book and your arguments to create a publishable book. Editors generally require changes in the length, content, tone, and style of a dissertation in order to produce a book that will appeal to buyers in the academic market. Read more about submitting a proposal in our Scholarly Publishing Guide .

Below are selected resources to help you revise your dissertation for publication as a book or journal article(s).

Advice from publishers

Harvard University Press
Palgrave Macmillan
Rowman & Littlefield
Taylor & Francis
University of North Carolina Press
Yale University Press
Publisher Policies on using content in both a thesis or dissertation and an article (from MIT Libraries)
From Dissertation to Book by William Germano (Lauinger Library, 4th Floor, PN162 .G37 2013)
Revising Your Dissertation, Updated Edition : Advice from Leading Editors (updated edition, 2008) edited by Beth Luey (online; GU NetID and password required)
From Dissertation to Book , Duke University (February 27, 2018)
From Dissertation to Book ( full transcript ), Harvard University (December 17, 2010)
How To Turn Your Dissertation into a Book , Yale University (April 6, 2016)
From Dissertation to Book by Leonard Cassuto (Chronicle of Higher Education, May 30, 2011)
From Dissertation to Published Book (lanugageandphilosophy.com report on an American Comparative Literature Association workshop)
Give It a Rest by Laura Portwood-Stacer (Inside Higher Ed, August 6, 2019)
The Stages of Revising a Dissertation into a Book by Amy Benson Brown (Journal of Scholarly Publishing, vol. 52 no. 2, 2021, p. 127-140) (GU NetID and password required)
Turning Your Dissertation into a Book (University of Washington)
Publishing your Dissertation (American Psychological Association)

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FAQ: Can I use a dissertation as a scholarly source for my research?

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Last Updated: Oct 16, 2023 Views: 15272

When you use the Multi-Search, you may see dissertations and theses in your search results, even when you apply the “Peer Reviewed (Scholarly)” limiter to your search. This is because even though dissertations are not peer-reviewed (published in peer-reviewed journals), they are often considered scholarly because they were written for an academic audience. For more information on the difference between scholarly and peer-reviewed sources, see the FAQ: What’s the difference between a scholarly and peer reviewed journal?

Dissertations and theses have value as research material, and they are an important form of scholarly communication. Here are a few reasons why:

They may reveal emerging trends and voices in a field of study.
Because of their length, they frequently offer more substantial coverage of a topic than a traditional journal article can.
They might be the only research or literature on an uncommon or niche topic.
They often have up-to-date and thorough literature reviews.
They almost always have extensive bibliographies of important sources in the field of study.
In the sciences, they may have additional datasets, graphs, and field data that is sometimes excluded from future article publications by the author.

If your assignment requires you to use articles from peer-reviewed journals, then a dissertation is not a good fit as one of your sources. However, you can certainly comb through the References or Bibliography at the end of the dissertation to see if any of the sources they used might qualify for your research. You can then use the instructions in this FAQ to see if we have the full text for those articles in our library: How do I find a specific article in the library?

If your assignment calls for scholarly sources, a dissertation may be a great contribution to your resources. Remember that all sources should be evaluated to determine not just if they are scholarly, but whether they are relevant and current enough to be used in your research. You should check with your professor if you have any questions or concerns about your ability to use dissertations as sources for your research assignment.

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"Are you gonna publish that?" Peer-reviewed publication outcomes of doctoral dissertations in psychology

Spencer c. evans.

1 Clinical Child Psychology Program, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, United States of America

2 Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Christina M. Amaro

Robyn herbert.

3 Department of Psychology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, United States of America

Jennifer B. Blossom

4 Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, United States of America

Michael C. Roberts

Associated data.

Data are publicly available from a variety of third party sources. A complete list of data sources has been included as a Supporting Information file, ' S1 File '.

If a doctoral dissertation represents an original investigation that makes a contribution to one’s field, then dissertation research could, and arguably should, be disseminated into the scientific literature. However, the extent and nature of dissertation publication remains largely unknown within psychology. The present study investigated the peer-reviewed publication outcomes of psychology dissertation research in the United States. Additionally, we examined publication lag, scientific impact, and variations across subfields. To investigate these questions, we first drew a stratified random cohort sample of 910 psychology Ph.D. dissertations from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. Next, we conducted comprehensive literature searches for peer-reviewed journal articles derived from these dissertations published 0–7 years thereafter. Published dissertation articles were coded for their bibliographic details, citation rates, and journal impact metrics. Results showed that only one-quarter (25.6% [95% CI: 23.0, 28.4]) of dissertations were ultimately published in peer-reviewed journals, with significant variations across subfields (range: 10.1 to 59.4%). Rates of dissertation publication were lower in professional/applied subfields (e.g., clinical, counseling) compared to research/academic subfields (e.g., experimental, cognitive). When dissertations were published, however, they often appeared in influential journals (e.g., Thomson Reuters Impact Factor M = 2.84 [2.45, 3.23], 5-year Impact Factor M = 3.49 [3.07, 3.90]) and were cited numerous times (Web of Science citations per year M = 3.65 [2.88, 4.42]). Publication typically occurred within 2–3 years after the dissertation year. Overall, these results indicate that the large majority of Ph.D. dissertation research in psychology does not get disseminated into the peer-reviewed literature. The non-publication of dissertation research appears to be a systemic problem affecting both research and training in psychology. Efforts to improve the quality and “publishability” of doctoral dissertation research could benefit psychological science on multiple fronts.

Introduction

The doctoral dissertation—a defining component of the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree—is an original research study that meets the scientific, professional, and ethical standards of its discipline and advances a body of knowledge [ 1 ]. From this definition it follows that most dissertations could, and arguably should, be published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature [ 1 – 2 ]. For example, research participants typically volunteer their time and effort for the purposes of generating new knowledge of potential benefit; therefore, to breach this contract by not attempting to disseminate one’s findings is to violate the ethical standards of psychology [ 3 ] and human subjects research [ 2 , 4 ]. The nonpublication of dissertation research can also be detrimental to the advancement of scientific knowledge in other ways. Researchers may unwittingly and unnecessarily duplicate efforts from doctoral research when conducting empirical studies, or draw biased conclusions in meta-analytic and systematic reviews that often deliberately exclude dissertations. Many dissertations go unpublished due to nonsignificant and complicated results, exacerbating the “file drawer” problem [ 5 – 6 ]. Indeed, unpublished dissertations are rarely if ever cited [ 7 – 8 ].

The problem of dissertation non-publication is of critical importance in psychology. Some evidence [ 9 ] suggests that unpublished dissertations can play a key role in alleviating file drawer bias and reproducibility concerns in psychological science [ 10 ]. More broadly, the field of psychology—given its unique strengths, breadth, and diversity—poses a useful case study for examining dissertation nonpublication in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. Like other scientific disciplines, many Ph.D. graduates in psychology may be motivated to revise and submit their dissertations for publication for the usual reasons offered by academic and research careers. However, other new psychologists might not pursue this goal for a variety of reasons. Those in professional and applied subfields may commit most or all of their working time to non-research activities (e.g., professional practice, clinical training) and have little incentive to seek publication. Even those in more research-oriented subfields increasingly take non-research positions (e.g., industry, consultation, teaching, policy work) or other career paths which do not incentivize publications. Negative graduate school experiences, alternative career pursuits, and personal or family matters can all be additional factors that may decrease the likelihood of publication. Moreover, it is typically a challenging and time-consuming task to revise a lengthy document for submission as one or more journal articles. Still, all individuals holding a Ph.D. in psychology have (in theory) produced an original research study of scientific value, which should (again, in theory) be shared with the scientific community. Thus, for scientific, ethical, and training reasons, it is important to understand the frequency and quality of dissertation publication in psychology.

There is an abundance of literature relevant to this topic, including student or faculty perspectives (e.g., [ 11 – 13 ]) and studies of general research productivity during doctoral training and early career periods (e.g., [ 14 – 19 ]). However, evidence specifically regarding dissertation publication is remarkably sparse and inconsistent [ 8 , 20 – 24 ]. This literature is limited by non-representative samples, biased response patterns, and disciplinary scopes that are either too narrow or too broad to offer insights that are useful and generalizable for psychological science. For example, in the only psychology-specific study to our knowledge, Porter and Wolfle [ 23 ] mailed surveys to a random sample of individuals who earned their psychology doctorates. Of 128 respondents, 59% reported that their dissertation research had led to at least one published article. Unfortunately, this study [ 23 ] and others (e.g., [ 8 ]) are now over 40 years old, offering little relevance to the present state of training and research in psychology. A much more recent and rigorous example comes from the field of social work. Using a literature searching methodology and a random sample of 593 doctoral dissertations in social work, Maynard et al [ 22 ] found that 28.8% had led to peer-reviewed publications. However, this estimate likely does not generalize to psychology and its myriad subfields. Thus, there is a need for more comprehensive, rigorous, and recent data to better understand dissertation publication in psychology.

Accordingly, the present study investigated the extent and nature of dissertation publication in psychology, specifically examining the following questions: (a) How many dissertations in psychology are eventually published in peer-reviewed journals? (b) How long does it take from dissertation approval to article publication? (c) What is the scientific impact of published dissertations (PDs)? and (d) Are there differences across subfields of psychology? Based on the literature and our own observations, we hypothesized that (a) a majority of dissertations in psychology would go unpublished; (b) dissertation publication would occur primarily during the first few years after Ph.D. approval, diminishing thereafter; (c) PDs would show evidence of at least moderate scientific influence via citation rates and journal metrics; and (d) professional/applied subfields (clinical, counseling, school/educational, industrial-organizational, behavioral) would yield fewer PDs than research-oriented subfields (social/personality, experimental, cognitive, neuroscience, developmental, quantitative).

Materials and methods

The dataset of psychology dissertations was obtained directly from ProQuest UMI’s Dissertations and Theses Database (PQDT), which is characterized as “the world’s most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. . . [including] full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997. . . . More than 70,000 new full text dissertations and theses are added to the database each year through dissertations publishing partnerships with 700 leading academic institutions worldwide” [ 25 ]. While international coverage varies across countries, PQDT’s repository is estimated to include approximately 97% of all U.S. doctoral dissertations [ 26 ], across all disciplines, institutions, and training models.

Upon request, PQDT provided a database of all dissertations indexed with the term “psychology” in the subject field during the year 2007. This resulted in a total population of 6,580 dissertations, which were then screened and sampled according to pre-defined criteria. The number of dissertations included at each stage in the sampling process is summarized in a PRISMA-style [ 27 ] flow diagram for the overall sample in Fig 1 , and broken down by subfield in Table 1 . Dissertations were excluded if written in a language other than English, for any degree other than Ph.D. (e.g., Psy.D., Ed.D.), or in any country other than U.S. The remaining dissertations were recoded for subfields based on the subject term classification in PQDT, with a few modifications (e.g., combining “neuroscience” and “biological psychology”). This left a remaining sample of 3,866 relevant dissertations, representing our population. This figure is approximately in line with the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates [ 28 ] estimate that 3,276 research doctorates in psychology were granted during the year 2007, suggesting that PQDT could be slightly broader or more comprehensive in scope.

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Object name is pone.0192219.g001.jpg

Note. PQDT = ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. a Categories of excluded dissertations are mutually exclusive, summing to 100%. b PQDT exclusion criteria were applied sequentially in the order presented; thus, the number associated with each exclusion criterion reflects how many were excluded from the sample that remained after the previous criterion was applied. Adapted from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram [ 27 ].

Note. “Relevant dissertations” refers to all PQDT dissertations that satisfied screening criteria for inclusion. Dissertations were excluded in the eligibility stage based on the date of approval in the full text (see Fig 1 ). Rates of exclusion were not significantly different across subfields. Sampling weights for each subfield were calculated as the proportion in the population (relevant dissertations) divided by proportion in the full sample, after adjusting for the proportions within each subfield that were from excluded for ineligibility.

From this relevant population of 3,866, we drew a stratified random sample of 1,000 dissertations. This number was selected because it represented over 25% of the population and offered sufficient power to obtain 95% CIs less than ±3% for the overall proportion estimates (i.e., the primary research question). As shown in Table 1 , the sampling procedure was stratified by subfield using a formula that sought to balance (a) power for between-group comparisons, aiming to include ≥50 dissertations from each subfield; and (b) representativeness to the population, aiming to include ≥10% of the dissertations from each subfield. This resulted in subfield sample sizes ranging from 59 for general/miscellaneous (75.6% of relevant subfield population) to 179 for clinical (12.5% of relevant subfield population). Ninety (9.0%) dissertations were later found to be ineligible during the full-text review because the approval date was before or after the year 2007. This incongruence was partly explained by copyright or graduation dates differing from the dissertation year, and was not significantly different across subfields. The resulting final sample consisted of 910 dissertations, with subfield samples ranging from 52 (general/miscellaneous) to 159 (clinical). Because this study did not meet the definition of human subjects research, institutional review board approval was not required.

Search timeframe

We aimed to conduct prospective follow-up searches for PDs within a timeframe that was both (a) long enough to capture nearly 100% of PDs and (b) short enough for results to retain their relevancy to the current state of psychological science. Because the literature does not offer dissertation-publication “lag time” statistics for reference, we used the “half-life” of knowledge—i.e., the average time it takes for half of a body of knowledge to become disproven or obsolete [ 29 – 30 ]. Across methodologies, the half-life of knowledge in psychology has been estimated at 7–9 years [ 31 – 33 ]. Accordingly, we selected a prospective search window allowing 0–7 years for dissertations to be published. Because the doctoral dissertations were sampled from the year 2007, follow-up searches were restricted to articles published between 2007 and 2014. We elected to exclude candidate publications from years prior to 2007 for several reasons. First, most U.S. psychology Ph.D. programs follow a more traditional dissertation model (and this would have been even more ubiquitous in 2007), where the dissertation would have to be completed before it could be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Second, even for the minority of programs that might follow less conventional models such as dissertation-by-publication [ 34 ], the lag-time to publication would likely still result in at least one PD appearing in print concurrently with or after the dissertation, and would therefore be captured by our search strategy. Finally, any potential benefits of searching retrospectively were outweighed by the potential risks of introducing unreliability into the data, such as identifying false positives from student publications, master’s theses, pilot studies, or other analyses from the same sample. On the other end of our search window, candidate publications that appeared in print during or after 2015 were also not considered. Post hoc analyses (see Results ) suggested that this 0–7 year timeframe was adequate.

Publication search and coding procedures

Searches for PDs were conducted in two rounds, utilizing scholarly databases in a manner consistent with the evidence regarding their specificity, sensitivity, and quality. Specifically, searches were conducted first in PsycINFO, which has high specificity for psychological, social, and health sciences [ 35 – 36 ]; and second, in Google Scholar, casting a much broader net but still searching for peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles [ 35 , 37 – 40 ]. The objective of these searches was to locate the PDs or to determine that the dissertation had not been published in the indexed peer-reviewed journals. Although it is never possible to definitively ascertain a thing’s non-existence, we added additional steps and redundancies to ensure that our searches were as exhaustive as possible. First, when no PD was found in either scholarly databases, as a final step we conducted Google searches for the dissertation author and title, then reviewed the search results (e.g., CVs posted online, faculty web pages) for possible PDs. Second, all searching/coding procedures were performed at least twice by trained research assistants. If two coders disagreed on whether a PD was found, which article it was, or if either coder was uncertain, these dissertations were then coded by consensus among three or more members of the research team, including master’s-level researchers (SCE and CMA).

In all literature searches, the following queries were entered for each dissertation: (a) title of dissertation, without punctuation or logical operand terms; (b) author/ student’s name; and (c) chair/ advisor’s name. Search results were assessed for characteristics of authorship (student and chair names), content (title, abstract, acknowledgments, methods), and publication type (specifically targeting peer-reviewed journal articles) by which a PD could be positively identified. Determination of PD status was made and later validated based on global judgments of these criteria. Identified PDs were then coded for their bibliographic characteristics. Results were excluded if published in a non-English journal, outside of the 0–7 year (2007–2014) window, or in a non-refereed or non-journal outlet (e.g., book chapters). Because dissertations can contain multiple studies and be published as multiple articles, searches aimed to identify a single article that was most representative of the dissertation, based on the criteria outlined above and by consensus agreement among coders. All searches were conducted and coding was completed between January 2015 and May 2017.

Dissertation, publication, and year

Although the structure and content of doctoral dissertations varies across institutions, countries, and disciplines, the common unifying factor is that the dissertation represents an original research document produced by the student, approved by faculty, and for which a degree is conferred. Accordingly, in using PQDT as our population of U.S. Ph.D. psychology dissertations, we adhere to this broad but essential definition of a dissertation. This definition includes all different models of dissertations (e.g., ranging from traditional monographs to more recent models, such as briefer publication-ready dissertations and dissertation by publication [ 34 ]), but does not differentiate among them.

In this paper and in common scientific usage, “publication” refers to the dissemination of a written work to a broad audience, typically through a journal article. Accordingly, we do not consider indexing in digital databases for theses and dissertations as a publication such as in PQDT, even though it may be called “publishing” by the company. Rather, we define “dissertation publication” as the dissemination of at least part of one’s Ph.D. dissertation research in the form of an article published in a peer-reviewed journal. The peer-reviewed status of the journal was included among the variables that were coded twice with discrepancies resolved by consensus. Lastly, year of publication (2007, 2008, 2009 … 2014) and years since approval (0, 1, 2 … 7) were coded from when the print/final version of the article appeared, given that advance online access varies and is not available in all journals.

The PQDT subject terms were used as a proxy indicator of the subfield of psychology from which the dissertation was generated. As described above, twelve categories were derived ( Table 1 ). We considered five categories as professional/ applied subfields (clinical, counseling, educational/school, industrial-organizational, and behavioral), given that graduates in these fields are trained for careers that often include professional licensure or applied activities (e.g., consultation, program evaluation). In contrast, seven categories were considered research/ academic subfields (cognitive, developmental, experimental, neuroscience, quantitative, and social/personality), given that these subfields train primarily in a substantive or methodological research area. Note that Ph.D. programs in all of these subfields train their students to conduct research; when professional/ applied training components are present, they are there in addition to, not instead of, research training.

Article citations

The influence of PDs was estimated using article- and journal-level variables. At the article level, we used Web of Science to code the number of citations to the PD occurring each year since publication, tracking from 2007 up through year 2016. Importantly, Web of Science has been found to exhibit the lowest citation counts, but the citations which are included are drawn from a more rigorously controlled and higher quality collection of scholarly publications compared to others like Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus [ 35 , 37 – 38 , 40 – 41 ]. Citations were coded and analyzed primarily as the mean number of citations per year in order to account for time since publication. Total citations and citations each year were also calculated.

Journal-level metrics

The following journal impact metrics were recorded for the year in which the PD was published: (a) Impact Factor (IF) and (b) 5-Year IF [ 42 ]; (c) Article Influence Score (AIS) [ 43 ]; (d) Source Normalized Impact (SNIP) [ 44 ]; and (e) SCImago Journal Rank indicator (SJR) [ 45 ]. Each of these indices shares different similarities and distinctions from the others and provides different information about how researchers cite articles in a given journal. While each has its limitations, these five indicators together offer a broad overall characterization of a journal’s influence, without over-relying on any single metric. As a frame of reference, the population-level descriptive statistics for each of these journal metrics (2007–2014) are as follows: IF ( M = 1.8, SD = 2.9), 5-year IF ( M = 2.2, SD = 3.0), SNIP ( M = 0.9, SD = 1.0), SJR ( M = 0.6, SD = 1.1), and AIS ( M = 0.8, SD = 1.4).

As described above, all of the dissertation, literature searching, and outcome data used in the present study were obtained from a variety of online sources available freely or by institutional subscription. Links to these sources can be found in the supplementary materials ( S1 File ).

Analytic plan

Overall descriptive analyses were conducted to examine the univariate and bivariate characteristics of the data, including the frequency and temporal distribution of PDs in psychology. Similar descriptive statistics were provided to characterize the nature of and scholarly influence of the PD via article citations and journal impact metrics. Group-based analyses were conducted using chi-square and ANOVAs to assess whether dissertation publication rates and scientific influence differed across subfields of psychology. The 95% CIs surrounding the total weighted estimate were used as an index of whether subfield estimates were significantly above or below average.

Time-to-publication analyses were conducted in three different ways. First, we used weighted Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses to model dissertation publication as a time-to-event outcome, both for the overall sample and separately by subfields. Second, because the large majority of dissertations “survived” the publication outcome past our observation window (i.e., most cases were right-censored), we also conducted between-group comparisons regarding subfield publication times for only those whose dissertations were published. Finally, in order to ensure the adequacy of our 0–7 year search window, we fit a distribution to our observed data and projected this trend several years into the future.

Full-sample analyses were conducted using the complex samples option in SPSS Version 24, which yields weighted estimates that are less biased by sample proportions and more generalizable to the population. Distribution model-fitting and projections were estimated in R. For analyses related to dissertation publication outcomes, there were no missing data because all values could be coded based on obtained dissertations. Data availability for journal- and article-level variables are reported in those results tables.

Frequency of and time to publication

The overall weighted estimate showed that 25.6% (95% CI: 23.0, 28.4) of psychology dissertations were published in peer-reviewed journals within the period of 0–7 years following their completion. The unweighted estimate was similar (27.5% [24.6, 30.4]), but reflected sampling bias due to differences between subfields. Thus, weighted estimates are used in all subsequent results. Significant variations were found across subfields (Rao-Scott adjusted χ 2 ( df = 9.65) = 65.28, F (9.65, 8869.62) = 8.28, p < .001). As shown in Table 2 , greater proportions of PDs were found in neuroscience (59.4% [47.8, 70.1]), experimental (50.0% [37.7, 62.3]), and cognitive (41.0% [31.1, 51.8]), whereas much lower rates were found for industrial-organizational (10.1% [5.0, 19.5]) and general/miscellaneous (13.5% [6.5, 25.7]). All other subfields fell between 19.0 and 29.0%. Quantitative and social/personality fell within the 95% CIs for the weighted total, suggesting no difference; however, most other subfields fell above or below this average. Of note, three core professional subfields (clinical, counseling, and school/educational) were all between 19.0 and 20.8%—below average and not different from one another.

a Greater than weighted total

b Less than weighted total.

The overall time-to-publication results are presented in Table 3 and the left panel of Fig 2 . As shown, over half (56.0% of those ultimately published; 14.3% of the total sample) of PDs appeared in print within 2 years following the year of completion, with the large majority (89.7% of ultimately published; 23.0% of total) being published within 5 years. Among those dissertations that were ultimately published, the time to publication averaged about 2–3 years ( M = 2.58 [2.34, 2.83]), with a median of 2 years and a mode of 1 year. Omnibus comparisons from the Kaplan-Meier survival model revealed significant variations across subfields, χ 2 ( df = 1) = 4.24, p = .039), as plotted in the right panel of Fig 2 . These results generally mirrored the same pattern found for overall binary publication outcomes across subfields. Among only those dissertations that were published, the subfield differences in time-to-publication were marginal overall, F (11, 238) = 5.99, p = .064, but still shed some additional light beyond the binary publication outcomes. Specifically, neuroscience ( M = 1.61, [1.09, 2.13]), counseling ( M = 1.92, [1.04, 2.79]), and experimental ( M = 1.93 [1.45, 2.41]) averaged less than two years to publication, shorter than the weighted average. In contrast, clinical ( M = 2.88, [2.20, 3.56]), social/personality ( M = 2.90, [1.92, 3.89]), school/educational ( M = 2.94, [1.78, 4.1]), industrial-organizational ( M = 3.00, [0.73, 5.27]), and quantitative ( M = 3.06, [2.35, 3.78]) all took longer, approximately three years.

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Overall estimates and 95% confidence intervals (left panel) are derived from the weighted Cox regression model (see Table 3 ). Subfield estimates (right panel) are derived from the unweighted Kaplan-Meier regression model. In both plots, cumulative publication estimate = one minus survival function.

Note. Cumulative estimates and 95% confidence intervals are derived from the weighted Cox regression model, where cumulative publication estimate = one minus survival function. All estimates based on the full sample (denominator n = 910 for all percentages). See Fig 2 , left panel, for a visual presentation of these results.

Lastly, as a methodological check, we modeled our time-to-publication data and projected this trend into the future to estimate what percentage of PDs we might have missed by stopping after 7 years. More specifically, these models used the weighted estimates of how many dissertations were published each year as the outcome and time (years 0 to 7) as the predictor. A Poisson model containing quadratic and linear effects for time fit the data best. When projected into the future, this model estimated that an additional 7 dissertations would be published at 8–10 years post-dissertation (4, 2, and 1 PDs, respectively). From 11 years onward, estimates asymptotically approached and rounded down to zero, even cumulatively. Thus, our sampling frame appears to have captured virtually all (97.3%) of the dissertations that ultimately would be published. In other words, had the study been implemented for as long as necessary to capture all PDs, the data suggest that our primary result, the estimated percentage of dissertations published, would increase only modestly from 25.6% to 26.4%.

Scientific impact

As shown in Table 4 , PDs were cited an average of 3.65 times per year since publication, totaling 15.95 citations on average during the years captured by the study. There were significant variations by subfield in terms of both total and per-year citations. Specifically, PDs in cognitive ( M = 5.08 [1.33, 8.83]) and industrial-organizational ( M = 5.18 [0.80, 9.56]) were more highly cited, with over 5 citations/year. On the other end, fields that exhibited relatively lower (but still nontrivial) rates of citations/year included quantitative ( M = 1.42, [0.87, 1.97]), general/miscellaneous ( M = 1.46 [0.15, 2.78]), counseling ( M = 1.64 [0.63, 2.64]), developmental ( M = 2.82 [1.31, 4.32]), and social/personality ( M = 2.86 [2.05, 3.67]).

Note. Estimates are calculated from available years from the publication year (inclusive) through 2016. This sampling range naturally truncates the number of follow-up years available for dissertations published in later years (e.g., 7-year outcomes are available only for dissertations published in 2007 to 2009, n = 126).

The 250 PDs in our sample appeared in 186 different peer-reviewed outlets, including top-tier journals in general (e.g., Nature , Science ) and psychological (e.g., Psychological Science , Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology ) science. Notably, several PDs appeared in journals predominately representing professions or disciplines outside psychology (e.g., Public Health Nursing , Endocrinology ). The most common journal titles were all in relatively specialized areas of psychology (e.g., Applied Psychological Measurement , Brain Research ), tending to draw from experimental, social/personality, neuroscience, behavioral, and cognitive. Overall, however, dissertations were disseminated broadly, with no single journal “catching” more than five (2.0%) dissertations from our overall sample, and most journals publishing only one (0.4%).

As shown in Table 5 , PDs appeared in journals of moderate-to-high influence according to all five metrics used. Subfield differences were found for the IF, SNIP, and SJR ( p s < .01, but not in the 5-year IF or the AIS ( p s > .09). Specifically, neuroscience and cognitive PDs appeared in higher-IF journals ( M s = 4.47 [3.17, 5.78] and 3.86 [1.87, 5.86], respectively), while most others fell in the below-average IF, including those still within the 2+ range (clinical, social/personality, general/miscellaneous, developmental, and behavioral; M s = 2.14 to 2.45) and those in the 1–2 range (quantitative, school/educational, counseling, and industrial-organizational; M s = 1.27 to 1.71). Similarly, neuroscience ( M = 2.17 [1.68, 2.66]), cognitive ( M = 1.97 [1.22, 2.72]), and social/personality ( M = 1.65 [1.09, 2.21]) PDs appeared in higher-SJR journals, whereas behavioral, clinical, general/miscellaneous, quantitative, school/educational, industrial-organizational, and counseling PDs had lower SJRs ( M s = 0.51–1.21). Lastly, cognitive ( M = 1.61 [1.17, 2.05]) and social/personality ( M = 1.55 [1.18, 1.92]) were published in higher-SNIP journals, while clinical ( M = 1.28 [1.08, 1.47]), general/miscellaneous ( M = 1.19 [0.23, 2.15]), and counseling ( M = 0.57 [0.26, 0.89]) PDs appeared in journals with lower SNIPs.

The primary finding of this study was that only about one in four psychology Ph.D. dissertations in the U.S. was published in a peer-reviewed journal. Typically this occurred within 2–3 years after completing the dissertation. Despite variations across subfields, dissertation publication appears to be the exception not the rule. When dissertations were published, however, they were often highly cited and appeared in influential journals. The relatively high impact of published dissertations may reflect a gatekeeping effect, whereby only the highest quality or most significant contributions get published; or a refining effect, whereby the dissertation development and committee review process helps strengthen the contribution [ 1 , 46 ], increasing the likelihood and impact of publication. In other words, the dissertation process may add some value to doctoral research, and some doctoral research appears to add value to psychological science. A larger and more important question is why the vast majority of psychology dissertation research does not contribute to the peer-reviewed literature.

Our estimated rate of dissertation publication in psychology (25.6%) is similar to or slightly below a corresponding estimate for social work (28.8%) [ 22 ], the only field in which a similarly rigorous and comparable design had been used. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to offer a reliable estimate of publication rates specific to the dissertation and specific to psychology. Further, the present study advances the literature by demonstrating the impact that these published dissertations have on the scientific literature. Although it was only minority of cases, published dissertations in psychology were disseminated in moderate- to high-impact journals across a wide spectrum of disciplines and specialty interests. Whereas published dissertation articles were cited several times per year, anecdotally we saw very few citations to the actual dissertation documents in PQDT. These observations are consistent with evidence showing that the impact of dissertations themselves has declined markedly [ 7 – 8 ] in recent decades. In contrast, peer-reviewed journal articles are much more likely to be read, cited, and included in systematic and meta-analytic reviews.

Subfield differences were broadly consistent with hypotheses. Dissertations from professional/applied fields were less often published, whereas the more research/academic-oriented subfields published at rates much higher than average. These findings likely reflect differences in the nature of training and motivation in professional and scientific subfields, and also align with evidence about student research productivity in professional/applied subfields. For example, annual results from the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers applicant survey indicate that only about 50% of advanced doctoral students in professional psychology have authored or co-authored any peer-reviewed publications, while only 10% have published 5 or more [ 18 ]. Given this relatively low baseline rate of productivity during graduate school for this population, the average likelihood of post-graduation publication seems low. On the other hand, individuals in more research-oriented subfields are often training specifically for an academic position which incentivizes publication. Further, lab-based dissertations often include multiple experiments, which may create more publishable units (this also may explain the relatively higher rate of publication in behavioral psychology). The low publication of dissertations in industrial-organizational (10%) is also interesting, and may reflect an applied focus, organizational propriety of data, greater non-academic incentives (e.g., higher salaries in industry), or limited generalizability as market or consultative research. When these and other types of applied/professional dissertations were published, however, they were often cited several times per year.

The time from dissertation completion to publication appears to be a critical consideration. From our main results and longitudinal projections, we can generalize that by two calendar-years post-dissertation, over 50% of ultimately-published dissertations will appear in print. After five years, this number increases to nearly 90% (10% probability of publication). After 7–10 years, the dissertation findings are likely to become outdated, irrelevant, or overturned [ 30 – 32 ], and the probability of publication approaches 0%. Thus, if students wish to publish their dissertation, it is recommended that they proactively develop a plan for adapting the full document into a manuscript (or multiple manuscripts) for publication [ 1 ]. As one example of this, we are aware of some universities that have begun requiring that approved dissertations be accompanied by a form that outlines an agreed-upon plan for publication and authorship.

The present findings raise questions about the reasons for nonpublication. Possible explanations include the burden of revising and submitting a lengthy document, or limited career incentives for pursuing publications in non-academic careers. Alternatively, unpublished dissertations may lack methodological rigor, including “fatal flaws,” or fail to make a novel and substantive contribution. Thus, unpublished dissertations might not pass the bar of peer review. The present results only illustrate how many dissertations were actually published, and cannot speak to how many students attempted to publish their dissertations, or how many dissertations might have been publishable quality. Similarly, these results do not provide direct evidence of the mechanisms underlying publication vs. nonpublication, but the apparently high quality of the published dissertation articles is consistent with the file drawer hypothesis. Interestingly, one recent study in management research found that in the path from dissertation to publication, studies appear to get “beautified,” for example, such that the ratio of supported to unsupported hypotheses more than doubles in at least one discipline [ 47 ]. Such questionable research practices may provide one explanation for how dissertations selectively get published, but this is clearly not an appropriate solution. Whatever the underlying explanations may be, the widespread non-publication of dissertation research is a problem in psychology. To the extent that this non-publication continues, it exacerbates the file drawer problem [ 5 – 6 , 9 ], biases systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and contributes to the replication problem in psychology [ 10 ]. It also amounts to inefficient use of time and resources, raising ethical questions about violating agreements with participants and funding agencies, and about the consequences of not disseminating research findings [ 2 , 4 ].

The present study was designed so that results could be generalized to the population of dissertations produced in U.S. psychology Ph.D. programs. However, some limitations should be noted. First, our stratified random sample was drawn from an archival data source (PQDT), which is an approximation of the population of dissertations in psychology (although a very comprehensive one) and a proxy of the boundaries delineating subfields in psychology. Our outcome variables were likewise drawn from various databases (e.g., PsycINFO, Google Scholar, Web of Science, Thomson Reuters) which are necessarily restricted in different ways. As noted in the Methods section, these databases were selected as the most comprehensive and appropriate sources available for the purposes for which they were used, and their strengths and weaknesses were considered in developing the study protocol.

A second constraint lies in the selection of a single cohort year (2007) and 7-year follow-up period, raising the possibilities of missed cases and of cohort/historical effects. The changing landscape of doctoral training in psychology (e.g., more competitive admissions, increasing emphasis on research productivity, nontraditional dissertation requirements) may limit generalizability to past and future populations. Of note, these results may not generalize broadly to other countries (e.g., Northern/Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand) and fields (e.g., biomedical, natural, and physical sciences) that are increasingly using a dissertation-by-publication model [ 34 ]. From our read of the literature and our assessment of the present sample, this model has not been widely adopted in U.S. psychology, where more traditional dissertation documents are still the norm. Accordingly, our sampling and search strategies were designed to work reasonably well for all U.S. psychology dissertations, including a suspected minority of nontraditional models; however, we could not differentiate types of dissertations. For all of these reasons, periodic replication of these results would be useful. Nonetheless, the large sample size, stratified sampling method, comprehensive dataset, and thorough multi-stage search protocol help mitigate bias. Narrow 95% confidence intervals support the precision of the overall estimate, and post hoc analyses suggested that the results are unlikely to change substantially given a longer sampling frame.

Finally, we note that this study should not be interpreted as any sort of evaluation of students, advisors, or programs for dissertations that were or were not published. Nor are we advocating that all dissertations be published, regardless of quality. Rather, these findings shed light on what appears to be a systemic problem affecting research and training in all areas of psychology. Efforts aimed at increasing the quality and “publishability” of doctoral dissertation research may have broad benefits for both training and research in psychology. On the training side, these efforts may benefit students and graduates in terms of providing a higher standard of scientific training, more research/publishing experience, and greater early-career productivity. On the research side, such efforts can help promote a higher level of rigor in doctoral research and increase the likelihood that the findings will be shared with the scientific community.

Supporting information

Acknowledgments.

A portion of this research was presented at the 28th Annual Convention of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, IL, May 2016, where it received the APS Student Research Award. We thank Austin McLean and the staff of ProQuest Dissertations and Theses for providing the population dataset of dissertations, Patrick Edmonds for offering statistical consultation, Oliver Blossom for reviewing the manuscript, and the following members of our research team for their extensive coding efforts: Maggie Biberstein, Jamie Eschrich, Andrea Garcia, Mackenzie Klaver, Alexa Mallow, Alexandra Monzon, and Emma Rogers.

Funding Statement

The journal's publication fees were covered by an award from the One University Open Access Fund at the University of Kansas. The authors received no other specific funding for this work.

Data Availability

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="is a dissertation considered published"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Filter by category, are all dissertations published automatically with or without embargo.

Date: August 2017

Dear Deans,

Within the coming months, I hope to submit my dissertation to the Graduate School. On the Graduate School website, we are instructed to submit our work through the ProQuest system and (if I’m understanding correctly) also told that our work will be put in the online Cornell Library Repository, eCommons. Does this mean all Cornell dissertations are automatically published electronically, with or without embargo? If so, do we have the option to opt-out of online publishing?

Hoping to Submit Soon Graduate Student

Dear Hoping to Submit,

Congratulations on nearing the completion of your dissertation! This milestone represents the culmination of years of research and, no doubt, includes insight and knowledge that builds off other scholars in your field. Putting your original work into the public realm where it will both inspire future researchers and be subject to challenge is an integral part of graduate study at Cornell. All doctoral students are required to submit their dissertation to the national dissertation repository hosted by Proquest, as well as submit copies for both print and online circulation through Cornell’s library system, so that the works will be publicly available. The Code of Legislation of the Graduate Faculty includes this language on page 35:

Access, Distribution, and Publication

To ensure broad public access to doctoral dissertations, each doctoral candidate must sign a contract with ProQuest/University Microfilms, Inc. (U.M.I.), and pay the required fee. This fee covers filming the dissertation and publishing the abstract, as well as the cost of mailing and binding library copies.

No thesis or dissertation may be classified or otherwise restricted in circulation except in time of national emergency on specific authorization of the General Committee.

There may be times when the content of a thesis or dissertation will be fully or partially published elsewhere, or includes patentable technology. In these cases, it’s possible to embargo the thesis/dissertation for a set period of time (one or two years, with possible extensions) while the patents or publications are finalized. When an embargo is requested only the abstract is made publicly available. It’s worth noting that authors retain the copyright to their works. You’ll also have options to make your dissertation available for sale, allow it to be included in Google Scholar, or order bound paper copies for your own use.

If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact me or send a message to [email protected] .

Jason Kahabka Associate Dean for Administration

Dissertation vs Thesis vs Capstone Project What’s the difference?

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewed By: Dr. Eunice Rautenbach | October 2020

At Grad Coach, we receive questions about dissertation and thesis writing on a daily basis – everything from how to find a good research topic to which research methods to use and how to analyse the data.

One of the most common questions we receive is “what’s the difference between a dissertation and thesis?” . If you look around online, you’ll find a lot of confusing and often contrasting answers. In this post we’ll clear it up, once and for all…

Need a helping hand?

Dissertation vs Thesis: Showdown Time

Before comparing dissertations to theses, it’s useful to first understand what both of these are and what they have in common .

Dissertations and theses are both formal academic research projects . In other words, they’re academic projects that involve you undertaking research in a structured, systematic way. The research process typically involves the following steps :

Asking a well-articulated and meaningful research question (or questions).
Assessing what other researchers have said in relation to that question (this is usually called a literature review – you can learn more about that up here).
Undertaking your own research using a clearly justified methodology – this often involves some sort of fieldwork such as interviews or surveys – and lastly,
Deriving an answer to your research question based on your analysis.

In other words, theses and dissertations are both formal, structured research projects that involve using a clearly articulated methodology to draw out insights and answers to your research questions . So, in this respect, they are, for the most part, the same thing.

But, how are they different then?

Well, the key difference between a dissertation and a thesis is, for the most part, the level of study – in other words, undergrad, master or PhD. By extension, this also means that the complexity and rigorousness of the research differs between dissertations and theses.

Dissertations and theses are both academic research projects that involve undertaking research in a structured, systematic way.

So, which is which?

This is where it gets a bit confusing. The meaning of dissertation or thesis varies depending on the country or region of study. For example, in the UK, a dissertation is generally a research project that’s completed at the end of a Masters-level degree, whereas a thesis is completed for a Doctoral-level degree.

Conversely, the terminology is flipped around in the US (and some other countries). In other words, a thesis is completed for a Masters-level degree, while a dissertation is completed for PhD (or any other doctoral-level degree).

Simply put, a dissertation and a thesis are essentially the same thing, but at different levels of study . The exact terminology varies from country to country, and sometimes it even varies between universities in the same country. Some universities will also refer to this type of project as a capstone project . In addition, some universities will also require an oral exam or viva voce , especially for doctoral-level projects.

Given that there are more than 25,000 universities scattered across the globe, all of this terminological complexity can cause some confusion. To be safe, make sure that you thoroughly read the brief provided by your university for your dissertation or thesis, and if possible, visit the university library to have a look at past students’ projects . This will help you get a feel for your institution’s norms and spot any nuances in terms of their specific requirements so that you can give them exactly what they want.

The key difference between a dissertation and a thesis is, for the most part, simply the level of study - i.e. undergrad vs postgrad.

Let’s recap

Dissertations and theses are both formal academic research projects . The main difference is the level of study – undergrad, Masters or PhD. Terminology tends to vary from country to country, and even within countries.

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MM1: Everything we know about Apple's AI model coming to iOS 18

A head of the announcement of iOS 18 , which is expected to be packed with AI features, Apple researchers published a paper highlighting how they're training a new large language model (LLMs).

Called MM1 , this LLM can integrate text and visual information as one. The paper was submitted last week and offers an interesting look at the importance of various architectural components and data choices. The researchers say they were able to "demonstrate that for large-scale multimodal pre-training using a careful mix of image-caption, interleaved image-text, and text-only data is crucial for achieving state-of-the-art (SOTA) few-shot results across multiple benchmarks, compared to other published pre-training results."

In addition, they showed that "the image encoder together with image resolution and the image token count has a substantial impact, while the vision-language connector design is of comparatively negligible importance."

Apple's MM1 AI model uses a family of multimodal models with up to 30B parameters, consisting of both dense models and mixture-of-experts (MoE) variants, that are SOTA in pre-training metrics and achieve competitive performance after supervised fine-tuning on a range of established multimodal benchmarks.

Apple's AI features could include Google's or OpenAI's functions

Apple has teased its AI applications for almost a year now. In the past two earning calls , the company's CEO has said they have many features to announce. More interestingly, while Apple has been publishing papers and teasing upcoming AI features, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman shared that Apple is also in talks to use Google Gemini with iOS 18 .

Apple is apparently in talks with Google to license Gemini after having previously considered OpenAI's ChatGPT.

While there's no telling if Apple will partner with Google, the move isn't necessarily surprising. Gemini already powers generative AI features on the Pixel 8 and the Galaxy S24. The latter certainly made an impression earlier this year. One of the Galaxy S24's highlights comes from Google .

That said, there's a lot to expect from Apple. BGR will make sure to let you know about all the company's upcoming AI features.

The post MM1: Everything we know about Apple's AI model coming to iOS 18 appeared first on BGR .

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COMMENTS

The Difference Between a Published & Unpublished Dissertation
The difference between this article and an unpublished dissertation is clear: The article is present in a journal that is printed in thousands of copies and distributed to influential academics around the world. In most cases, the editors of the journal will want the form of the dissertation chapter reworked to some extent to make it more ...
Is a thesis a publication?
16. In order, yes, and no. A thesis is a public document and thus helps establish "prior art" in terms of research. Of course sometimes researchers come up with the same ideas simultaneously, or certain work is just not known as widely as it should be, so sometimes work gets innocently repeated (as compared to plagiarised, which can also happen ...
Published Dissertation or Thesis References
A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or PDQT Open, an institutional repository, or an archive. If the database assigns publication numbers to dissertations and theses, include the publication number in parentheses after the title of the ...
Adapting a Dissertation or Thesis Into a Journal Article
Length: Brevity is an important consideration for a manuscript to be considered for journal publication, particularly in the introduction and Discussion sections. Making a dissertation or thesis publication-ready often involves reducing a document of over 100 pages to one third of its original length.
Dissertations or Theses
A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. ... When a dissertation or thesis is unpublished, include the description "[Unpublished doctoral dissertation]" or "[Unpublished master's thesis]" in square brackets after the dissertation or thesis ...
Publishing Your Thesis or Dissertation
Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee. ... Germano's 'From Dissertation to Book' is considered the authoritative guide to revising a dissertation for publication. Getting It Published by William Germano. ISBN ...
LibGuides: MIT Thesis FAQ: Access and Availability Questions
A thesis is generally considered "published" when it has been cataloged and shelved in a publicly accessible library, but other factors could impact the publication date for patent purposes. For example, a thesis submitted electronically might be considered published on the date the electronic version is first made available to the public ...
Theses & Dissertations
Published. A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available through a database, institutional repository, or archive; Label the type of document and institution name in square brackets after the title e.g. [Master's thesis, University of British Columbia] or [Doctoral dissertation, Simon Fraser University] ...
Academic Guides: Evaluating Resources: Dissertations
Dissertations, doctoral studies, project studies, capstones, and theses are all student-produced works that present and discuss an individual's research. Note: While dissertations are definitely scholarly and are reviewed and edited before publication, they do not go through a peer-review process, and thus, aren't considered peer-reviewed sources.
What Determines If Your Dissertation Gets Published?
When PhD dissertations are considered 'published'? Important to note that a PhD dissertation is not the same as a Master's thesis. PhD work requires original research and makes a unique contribution to the field. Dissertations become "published" in a 3 ways:
What Is a Dissertation?
Revised on 5 May 2022. A dissertation is a large research project undertaken at the end of a degree. It involves in-depth consideration of a problem or question chosen by the student. It is usually the largest (and final) piece of written work produced during a degree. The length and structure of a dissertation vary widely depending on the ...
What Is a Dissertation?
A dissertation is a long-form piece of academic writing based on original research conducted by you. It is usually submitted as the final step in order to finish a PhD program. Your dissertation is probably the longest piece of writing you've ever completed. It requires solid research, writing, and analysis skills, and it can be intimidating ...
What (Exactly) Is A Dissertation Or Thesis?
A dissertation (or thesis) is a process. Okay, so now that you understand that a dissertation is a research project (which is testing your ability to undertake quality research), let's go a little deeper into what that means in practical terms. The best way to understand a dissertation is to view it as a process - more specifically a ...
Research Guides: Dissertations and Theses: Citation Styles
A dissertation or thesis is considered published when it is available from a database such as ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or PDQT Open, an institutional repository, or an archive. Include a publication number after the title, if available. Use bracketed text with "Doctoral dissertation" or "Master's Thesis" (without quotes) and ...
Publishing Your Dissertation
Hardly any dissertations are published as books without significant work on the author's part to refocus the manuscript for an audience beyond the dissertation committee. ... Germano's 'From Dissertation to Book' is considered the authoritative guide to revising a dissertation for publication. Getting It Published by William Germano. ISBN ...
Cataloging Theses and Dissertations: Best Practices
Please note that DASH is not considered a publisher. Therefore, theses deposited in DASH are considered unpublished. Leader. LDR/06: Select appropriate code, or use another code as needed for other formats. a = non-manuscript language material (for published theses) d = manuscript notated music. f = manuscript cartographic material
Revising Your Dissertation for Publication
Turning Your Dissertation into a Book (University of Washington) Publishing your Dissertation (American Psychological Association) While a dissertation's in-depth research and analysis can provide a strong foundation for a book, the dissertation itself is not a book and will not be published by an academic press without substantial revisions.
Can I use a dissertation as a scholarly source for my research?
When you use the Multi-Search, you may see dissertations and theses in your search results, even when you apply the "Peer Reviewed (Scholarly)" limiter to your search. This is because even though dissertations are not peer-reviewed (published in peer-reviewed journals), they are often considered scholarly because they were written for an academic audience.
"Are you gonna publish that?" Peer-reviewed publication outcomes of
Introduction. The doctoral dissertation—a defining component of the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree—is an original research study that meets the scientific, professional, and ethical standards of its discipline and advances a body of knowledge [].From this definition it follows that most dissertations could, and arguably should, be published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature ...
Fair Use, Copyright, Patent, and Publishing Options
ProQuest's ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database indexes almost all dissertations published in the U.S. and provides subscription access online to the full text of more recent dissertations. ProQuest also sells print copies of dissertations, paying royalties to authors, when they exceed a minimum threshold.
Are all dissertations published automatically with or without embargo
No thesis or dissertation may be classified or otherwise restricted in circulation except in time of national emergency on specific authorization of the General Committee. There may be times when the content of a thesis or dissertation will be fully or partially published elsewhere, or includes patentable technology.
Guidelines on Using Previously Published Work in Theses and Dissertations
use it in the thesis or dissertation if the work was published and the copyright was transferred to a publisher or other entity. Although it is commonly understood that copyright in a thesis or dissertation is held by the student as author, this notion is based on the traditional understanding that content in a thesis or dissertation is newly ...
Dissertation vs Thesis vs Capstone Project
In other words, a thesis is completed for a Masters-level degree, while a dissertation is completed for PhD (or any other doctoral-level degree). Simply put, a dissertation and a thesis are essentially the same thing, but at different levels of study. The exact terminology varies from country to country, and sometimes it even varies between ...
MM1: Everything we know about Apple's AI model coming to iOS 18
A head of the announcement of iOS 18, which is expected to be packed with AI features, Apple researchers published a paper highlighting how they're training a new large language model (LLMs ...

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