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Dissertation Guidelines

Doctoral dissertations must be approved for content and format within the doctoral programs before submission to the Office of Graduate Studies. Although the acceptance requirements have been determined in accordance with Library needs as well as other considerations, the approval page does not contain a Library signature. These requirements allow flexibility to individual programs but maintain certain university requirements for all dissertations submitted.

Requirements

  • Three copies of the dissertation, three approval pages with all original signatures, and four copies of the abstract must be submitted, all on white, acid-free paper with a cotton content of 25% or higher. Two dissertations, with approval pages and abstracts, will be sent to the PSU Library; the third will be sent to the student's department. The fourth abstract will remain in your permanent file in the Office of Graduate Studies. (Three programs, Ph.D. Urban Studies, Ph.D. PAP, and Ph.D. ESR, require an additional copy of the dissertation, the approval page, and the abstract, also on archive-quality paper.)
  • On every page, minimum clear margins are required; see the note about page numbers below: 1 inch right, top, and bottom margins and 1.5 inch left margin. These are minimum margins; margins may be larger but not smaller than these measurements on the finished documents as submitted. We suggest setting margins larger than what is required (1.1 inches for the right, top, and bottom margins, and 1.6 inches for the left margin, for instance) to account for page shifting and print expansion during photocopying. Page numbers may appear above or below the text, but they must be printed so that the margins remain clear on every page. Printing must be on only one side of the page.
  • Type for all text in the dissertation body must be 12-point professional quality font. Because all dissertations are microfilmed, 12-point font averaging 10 characters per inch is preferred. All text in the dissertation body must be double spaced. Footnotes, figures, and tables may be 10-point font and/or single-spaced. Long quotations included with the body of the text must be 12-point font but may be single-spaced, if the student's committee and program find that acceptable; the same is true for the reference list. The appendices do not have a font size or spacing requirement. Every page submitted, however, must meet the margin requirements.
  • The page order of the dissertation and several sample pages are available on-line.
  • Figures and tables which are discussed in the dissertation may appear within the text page, on a separate page following the beginning or ending of the discussion, or as a group at the end of each chapter or at the end of the text, before the terminal reference list. Because these are bindery-ready copies and will not be typeset before cataloging by the Library, the APA method of designating "insert Figure [or Table] X here" is not acceptable.
  • Students are strongly encouraged to bring a copy of their entire dissertation to the Graduate Studies office for review before the final copies are made. We will audit the document and can identify errors which may reduce the need for revisions. Do not use another student's dissertation as a model; formatting requirements have changed over time and special arrangements could have been made that would not apply in all cases.
  • Print must be properly fused onto the archive-quality paper by original laser printing or high-heat copying by a commercial machine. Each document will be subjected to a scratch test before approval. Clean Copy at SW Broadway and Mill and Kinko's at SW Clay and 5th have the correct paper and guarantee fusion.
  • The student's name and the correct degree must exactly agree on the title page, the abstract, and the approval page. No initials may be used in the student's name. The title must exactly agree on the title page and the first page of the abstract, including punctuation, except that the title on the title page will be printed in all upper-case while the title on the first page of the abstract will be printed in upper and lower-case.
  • Submit the dissertation in four new manila envelopes. Three of them will each contain one copy of the full dissertation, from the title page through the end of the dissertation; these envelopes must be large enough to hold the dissertation without damage to the pages. On the front of each of these envelopes, tape a photocopy of the title page. The fourth envelope should measure 9 x 12 inches and will contain the four abstracts and the three approval pages, plus microfilming materials and the Survey of Earned Doctorates. Tape the Thesis/Dissertation Submission Sheet on the front of the fourth envelope. Students who are required to submit a fourth dissertation will submit five envelopes, similarly prepared.

These University requirements supersede the guidelines of any other style manuals which may be used by individual departments or doctoral programs. Any additional format restrictions will be imposed by and enforced through the program. The program is responsible for establishing acceptable format(s) and for communicating these standards to the student. Questions about procedure may be directed to the Office of Graduate Studies (725-8410).

Order of the Dissertation

  1. Approval page (not numbered)
  2. Abstract (not a part of the dissertation; its pages do not impact the pagination of the dissertation)
  3. Title page

    4. The following are numbered with lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.); although every page is counted, the page numbers in this section do not have to appear on the pages themselves:

  4. Dedication (optional; if included, should not be listed in the Table of Contents)
  5. Acknowledgments (optional; if included, must be listed in the Table of Contents)
  6. Table of Contents (required)
  7. List of Tables (required if the dissertation contains any tables; must be listed in the Table of Contents)
  8. List of Figures (required if the dissertation contains any figures; must be listed in the Table of Contents)
  9. Glossary or List of Abbreviations/Symbols, etc. (optional; if included, must be listed in the Table of Contents)
  10. Preface (optional; if included, must be listed in the Table of Contents)

    11. Beginning with the first page of the text, all pages that follow are numbered consecutively in Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.); although every page is counted, the page numbers do not have to appear on the first page of each chapter, on the first page of the reference list, or on the first page of each appendix.

  11. Text of dissertation, divided into chapters or major sections. Each chapter or major section must begin on a new page, and the chapter titles in the text and in the Table of Contents must match.
  12. Terminal reference list (required)
  13. Appendices (optional). Must be divided into sections A, B, C, etc., if necessary for clarity. Each Appendix must begin on a new page, and the Appendix titles in the text and in the Table of Contents must match.

Sample Pages

Sample Dissertation Approval Page

Sample Dissertation Abstract Page

Sample Dissertation Title Page