Forms and Petitions

Guide to Filing Theses and Dissertations

Academic Senate Policy and Student Responsibility for Dissertations and Theses

Doctoral dissertations and master's theses submitted to UCSB must meet the requirements set by Graduate Council for the degree candidate to be eligible for a graduate degree¹. A doctoral dissertation must be the result of original research conducted in the candidate's specialization and must be approved in its entirety by the student's doctoral committee. A master's thesis must be a significant research work that must be approved in its entirety by the master's committee.

Students and their committee members are responsible for everything contained in the manuscript. The complete master's thesis or doctoral dissertation must be submitted to the members of the student's supervising committee for their review and final approval. This includes all preliminary pages or front matter (e.g., the preface, dedication, acknowledgements), the main body of text (including any charts or other inserted matter), and the back matter (e.g., the notes and bibliography, any appendices). It is the responsibility of all committee members to read the entire content of the manuscript before approving. Nothing can be added once the committee has given final approval as indicated by their signatures on the approval page. Only after the committee members have reviewed and approved the final copy of the thesis or dissertation in its entirety may it be submitted.

Once the document is filed, it is final and cannot be changed. Students and committee members are responsible for ensuring that all standards of publication (including fair use², copyrighting, patents, and publication rights) and all standards of research are met, including, where appropriate, approval of the Human Subjects Committee (contact the Office of Research at 893-3807) or approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee [IACUC] and the Campus Veterinarian (contact the Campus Veterinarian at 893-2333).

From time to time, disagreements about decisions, deadlines, policies, procedures, and issues of academic judgment may arise between a student and members of a thesis or dissertation committee. As in all such disputes, the parties involved should in the spirit of collegiality attempt to resolve these issues internally. To guide the process of academically related disputes, Graduate Council has established appeals procedures for graduate student disputes with graduate committees; for more information, please refer to the text in the Graduate Handbook.

Material that exceeds fair use requires permission of the copyright owner. Although a thesis or dissertation is primarily nonprofit and educational in purpose and character, there is generally no fair use if an entire previously copyrighted work (published or unpublished) is reproduced. A statement from the copyright owner giving the student permission to use the material must be submitted with the thesis or dissertation.³ Students should allow adequate time in order to secure all necessary permissions before they bring their manuscripts to Graduate Division for filing.

Permission letters for dissertations must state that the copyright owner is aware of the following:

1. The requested permission extends to any future revisions and editions of the dissertation, including non-exclusive world rights in all languages, and to the prospective publication of the dissertation by ProQuest⁴; and
2. Two copies of the dissertation will be placed in the UCSB Library. One of the copies will be available for general circulation and for interlibrary loan.

Permission letters for dissertations should be attached to the Dissertation Publishing Agreement form (the publishing agreement form is available from Graduate Division, 3117 Cheadle Hall). Once the dissertation reaches the ProQuest/UMI offices, staff members prepare it for publication and identify substantial uses of copyrighted materials that may need permission. Students may contact ProQuest to inquire about any aspect of the review and the possible need for copyright permissions at (800) 521-0600, ext. 7020.

For master's theses, the permission letter must state that the copyright owner is aware that two copies of the thesis will be placed in the UCSB Library. One of the copies will be available for general circulation and for interlibrary loan.

Sample permission letters for the reproduction of previously copyrighted material in a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation can be found in Appendix C of this guide.

Students should submit the thesis or dissertation only when it is completed and approved in its entirety by all their committee members. This means making the revisions requested by supervising faculty members prior to providing the faculty members with a revised, final copy of the manuscript for review. Once filed, no revisions are permitted.

Master's theses and doctoral dissertations are bound and kept in the Davidson Library for UC Library users. The shelving of the document in Davidson Library constitutes a form of publication. Dissertations are also published through ProQuest Information and Learning (see next paragraph). Copyright protection exists from the moment the manuscript is created. Degree candidates may wish to register the copyright of their thesis or dissertation with the Library of Congress. Refer to Chapter IX for additional detail.

Per Graduate Council policy, doctoral dissertations must be published through ProQuest Information and Learning (formerly known as Bell & Howell Information and Learning, University Microfilms International or UMI) using microfilm and electronic means. The doctorate may be awarded only to students who have signed the Dissertation Publishing Agreement Form granting ProQuest permission to publish the dissertation. As such, students grant ProQuest the non-exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their dissertations in and from microfilm and in and from an electronic format. Students also grant ProQuest the non-exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their abstracts in any format in whole or in part. Students may grant other publication rights as they wish in other forms - hard or soft cover, posters, screenplay, etc.

ProQuest keeps a master microfilm of each dissertation deposited with them, offers copies of the dissertation for sale, and publishes an abstract of the dissertation in Dissertation Abstracts International (available on the Internet). ProQuest pays a royalty of 10% on sales of copies of the dissertation for any calendar year when royalty payments exceed $10. ProQuest may use third party agencies to collect orders for dissertations, but ProQuest fills the orders. Dissertation authors retain all rights to their dissertations, and sales are tracked for royalty payments.

Students who have questions concerning any of the above should contact the Graduate Academic Services section of the Graduate Division by calling 893-2277 or coming to Cheadle Hall 3117 during normal business hours (9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00).

Footnotes

1. These include UCSB Academic Senate Regulations 350, 355, and 360 (Amended 7 Nov 96) covering the doctorate, and A.S. Regulations 300 and 350 A-B (Amended 7 Nov 96) covering the master's degree.
2. For an overview of copyright law and fair use as it applies to master's theses and doctoral dissertations, see the manual Copyright Law & Graduate Research: New Media, New Rights, and Your Dissertation by Kenneth D. Crews, and available from ProQuest. Crews cites four factors to evaluate and balance in determining whether there is fair use: (1) the purpose of the use, including a non-profit educational purpose; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount of the copying; and (4) the effect of the copying on the potential for, or value of, the original work. Crews' manual also includes a sample permission letter.
3. Ibid.
4. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company changed its name to ProQuest Information and Learning Company on June 6, 2001.