Required Sections, Guidelines, and Suggestions

Beyond those noted on the Formatting Requirements page, the Graduate School has no additional formatting requirements. The following suggestions are based on best practices and historic requirements for dissertations and theses but are not requirements for submission of the thesis or dissertation. The Graduate School recommends that each dissertation or thesis conform to the standards of leading academic journals in your field.

For both master’s and doctoral students, the same basic rules apply; however, differences exist in some limited areas, particularly in producing the abstract and filing the dissertation or thesis.

  • Information in this guide that pertains specifically to doctoral candidates and dissertations is clearly marked with the term “dissertation” or “doctoral candidates.”
  • Information pertaining specifically to master’s candidates and theses is clearly marked with the term “thesis” or “master’s candidates.”
  • All other information pertains to both.

Examples of formatting suggestions for both the dissertation and thesis are available as downloadable templates.