If you are submitting two journal formatted original research manuscripts as your dissertation, you will need to upload each manuscript separately.

The dissertation front matter should be in the following order. The front matter refers to the title page through the end of the table of contents/supplemental materials. Required sections are indicated in bold, while optional sections are italicized.

• Title Page (required)
• Acceptance Page (required)
• Copyright Page (optional)
• Dedication (optional)
• Acknowledgments (optional)
• Preface (optional)
• Abstract (required)
• Table of Contents (required for traditional dissertations; not required for two journal format)
• Supplemental Materials (lists of tables, figures, appendices, etc) (optional)
  

Sections of a doctoral dissertation

Below are the sections of a doctoral dissertation, with required or optional following the section titles.

Title Page - Required

The title page should be a separate page and no longer than one page. All content on this page should be centered horizontally and vertically. Keep in mind that the title must be able to fit on the spine of a bound manuscript (should you choose to purchase a bound copy from ProQuest).

See an example of the title page.

Acceptance Page - Required

This page confirms the committee’s approval and acceptance of your dissertation. The acceptance page should be a separate page and no longer than one page.

• The Acceptance statement should be centered at the top of the page: Accepted by the Faculty, University of Evansville, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Health Professions Education/Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology.
• The words “Doctoral Committee” immediately follow the Acceptance statement and are left-justified.
• Your Research Committee members’ names and signature lines follow and are fully right-justified. Behind each name, place the appropriate post-nominal initials for that individual (Ph.D., M.F.A., O.D., etc.)
• After the names, should be the date of your defense, left-justified.
• The page remains unsigned for inclusion in your dissertation.

See an example of the acceptance page.

Copyright Page - Optional

If you choose to copyright your dissertation, you should include a copyright page. The copyright page should be a separate page and no longer than one page. All content on this page should be centered horizontally and vertically.

Copyright © [year]

[Student’s Name]

See an example of the copyright page.

Dedication, Acknowledgments, or Preface - Optional

Depending on your personal inclination, you may wish to include a dedication, a set of acknowledgments, or a preface. The acknowledgements are designed to recognize people or agencies to whom you feel grateful for any academic, technical, financial, or personal aid in the preparation of your thesis. As a matter of courtesy, you would ordinarily mention the members of your committee here, as well as institutions that provided funding or anyone else who helped. For the dedication page, all content should be centered horizontally and vertically. Only the dedication itself should be on the dedication page; no page heading should appear. Acknowledgments and Preface pages should have a page heading.

Abstract - Required

As many people will learn about your work through your abstract published in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database, you should spend a good bit of effort in the composition of both the abstract and the title of your work. Try to convey the flavor of your work, not just the bare bones of your findings. You should also work to phrase your title so that it truly describes the contents and will be easily found in the index of the database. The index is based on keywords, so be as specific as you can be about your subject.

The abstract page should start with the student’s name, centered, followed on the second line by the title of the dissertation, centered and in either all capital letters or underlined. The content of the abstract itself should be double-spaced and there is no word limit. The paragraph(s), layout, indention, and line spacing should match the formatting of the rest of the dissertation.

See an example of the abstract page.

Table of Contents - Required

*** If you are submitting two journal formatted original research manuscripts as your dissertation, you do not need to include a table of contents. ***

Include a table of contents to guide the readership of your dissertation.

Add an entry/entries (as appropriate) for the reference/bibliography page/pages to the table of contents.

Supplemental Materials - Optional

Include lists of tables, figures, appendixes, abbreviations, or other supplemental materials, if appropriate.

Return to the Doctoral dissertation submission Guide