Steps for Completing Your Master’s Thesis Presented by The Office of Graduate Studies and Research Alena Filip Thesis and IRB Coordinator.
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Steps for Completing Your Master’s Thesis Presented by The Office of Graduate Studies and Research Alena Filip Thesis and IRB Coordinator Culminating Experience Plan A or Plan C Both plans require that students submit a manuscript following the SJSU Thesis Guidelines to GS&R for approval and publication. Outline of Presentation The life cycle of your thesis Submitting your thesis to GS&R Common errors Publication Where to get help The Life Cycle of Your Thesis Who is involved? You! Your department Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations (GAPE) Graduate Studies and Research (GS&R) The MLK / SJSU Library ProQuest / UMI The Life Cycle of Your Thesis Stage 1 – you’re thinking about doing a thesis Need to be a classified graduate student, advanced to candidacy, will apply for graduation the semester in which you submit your thesis to GS&R, and will enroll in the thesis 299 units (GAPE) Get approval for research that involves human subjects or animals before conducting your research and collecting any data… Research Involving Human Subjects or Animals SJSU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) SJSU Institutional Review Board (IRB) Any kind of research where data is sought from human participants. This may include surveys, interviews, evaluations, observations, or the analysis of private records. The Life Cycle of Your Thesis Stage 2 – selecting your thesis committee University policy: a minimum of three people, two of which must be faculty at SJSU. The thesis chair must be a tenured or tenure-track SJSU professor. Departments may have more stringent requirements. Determine the availability and level of commitment of each committee member and plan accordingly. The Life Cycle of Your Thesis Stage 3 – evaluation of your thesis Don’t forget to file the Application for Award of Master’s Degree (GAPE) and enroll in 299 units! Discipline specific requirements and quality of writing (thesis committee – department guidelines) Thesis defense /oral presentation University requirements and quality of writing (GS&R – most current SJSU thesis guidelines) The Life Cycle of Your Thesis Stage 4 – graduation Department assigns credit for 299 course and submits culminating experience memo to GAPE. You upload a digital version of your GS&R-approved thesis to the online ETD administrator GS&R notifies GAPE that the thesis process is complete GAPE checks that you have fulfilled all other graduation requirements You graduate! The Life Cycle of Your Thesis Stage 5 – publication GS&R sends approved theses in a batch to ProQuest ProQuest publishes your thesis following the publishing option you selected and fulfills any optional services that you ordered ProQuest sends your thesis to the MLK/SJSU library The MLK Library catalogs your thesis and makes it available following the licensing option you selected Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Thesis submission is by email only [email protected] READ THE INITIAL SUBMISSION CHECKLIST AND PROOFREAD YOUR THESIS!!! Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Technical requirements Thesis itself: One PDF document Embed fonts (saved as last name_first name_thesis.pdf) (for help see: http://www.etdadmin.com/cgi-bin/main/createpdf?siteId=150#pdf9) No password protection, and security settings allow for printing Review resulting PDF Other documents: Each should be in PDF; you may need to use a scanner Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Required documents 1. Thesis Information Packet: (scanned as one PDF saved as last name_first name_packet.pdf) 2. IRB or IACUC approval letter, if applicable (saved as last name_first name_irb or iacuc.pdf) 3. Link to your style manual, journal format, or department guidelines if you DID NOT use APA, MLA, Turabian, Chicago, IEEE Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Required documents: copyright permissions 4. Copyright permissions, if applicable (scanned into one PDF saved as last name_first name_permissions.pdf) – You must get permission to reproduce any copyrighted material (e.g., tables, figures, graphs, photographs, or extensive portions of someone else’s work) – Use our sample permission letter for use of copyrighted material Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Required documents: supplementary files Any additional supplementary files: multimedia files, audio or video recordings, oversized maps, etc. 5. (saved as last name_first name_supplementary) – Can be any file type, but keep in mind accessibility – Include a description in the body of your submission email Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Email rules [email protected] One email with all attachments No last minute edits Send questions to Alena Filip, not to the thesis submission email address GS&R is not an editing service. There will be no pre-official submission editing or review. Thesis coordinator will not preview your submission to make sure it is “ok” Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Deadlines Are posted on the GS&R website: - Submitting to GS&R for review - Submitting to ProQuest for publication Can submit up to one month in advance Must be received by 5pm of the deadline date Keep your automated confirmation email and allow at least a month for review Are final Submitting Your Thesis to GS&R Review outcome The thesis coordinator will email you about a month after the deadline regardless if you submitted early. Approved or approved with corrections: Upload to ETD administrator Not approved: reapply for graduation with GAPE, have your thesis committee review the thesis again, and re-submit the following semester with a new Thesis Information Packet Common Errors 1 – Writing errors Incorrect use of commas is a common error, however run-on sentences are the most common type of error, as this sentence demonstrates. Problems with subject-verb agreement Incorrect shifts in tense Incorrect use of punctuation Confusing sentence structure Confusion between i.e., e.g., and etc. Common Errors 2 – Inconsistencies with… Capitalization This Shows the Correct Use of Title Case. This shows the correct use of sentence case. Format of headings and subheadings A First Order Heading in APA A Second Order Heading in APA A third order heading in APA. Start text on same line. Blah, blah…end of paragraph. Another First Order Heading in APA Use of punctuation Format of reference section Common Errors 3 – Formatting errors Margins Left = 1.5”, Right = 1”, Top and Bottom = 1.25” Pagination Front material Extensive gaps - Do you see how right justification creates spaces between words and unnecessary hyphens? Common Errors 4 – Cluttered presentation Tables and figures containing data discussed in the thesis should appear within the thesis (not part of the appendix) and should be referenced prior to appearance. Blurry tables or figures; illegible text Inappropriate use of color Titles for tables appear above each table. Tiles for figures appear below each figure. Example of Text and Table Manual Page Display Format Understanding a manual page requires some “inside” information. If you know what to expect, and what order to expect it in, then finding that information becomes a palatable task. Otherwise, it will seem impossible. Every manual page adheres to a similar format, as shown below. Not every field will be found in every manual page, and not always in the same order. However, Table 3 shows the standard manual page headings and their contents. Table 3. Manual page entry heading (modified from Hodges, 1995). Example of Text and Figure (Computer Code) Each program we have presented has consisted of a function called main that called standard library functions to accomplish its tasks. Now consider how programmers write their own customized functions. Consider a program with a user-defined function square that calculates the square of the integers from I to 10 (Figure 3). Fig. 3.3: fig03 03.cgD 2 // Creating and using a programmer-defined function 3 #include <iostresm.h> 4 5 int square( int function prototype 6 7 int main() 8 { 9 for ( int x = 1; x <= 10; x++ ) 10 Gout < < square( x ) < < 11 12 cout << endl; 13 return 0; 14 } 15 16 // Function definition 17 int square( int y ) 18 { ; 19 return y * y; 20 } Figure 3. Creating and using a programmer- defined function (modified from Hodges, 1995). Example of Text and Figure (Graphic) Bivariate scatter plots are used for comparing the scatter or clustering of points given two dimensions. They can be used to develop regression lines or to incorporate three dimensions (Figure 10-5). Figure 10-5. Use of multidimensional scaling on benthic data to ascertain stream classification (reprinted with permission from Barbour et al., 1996). The first and second axes refer to the dimensions of combinations of data used to measure similarity. Common Errors 5 – Unclear organization Embedded journal articles: still need to provide an introduction to the thesis itself, outlining how the work is structured, and summarizing what is discussed in each article Each section of the thesis should be unique Thesis guidelines override any style specific formatting or instructions Submitting Your Thesis for Publication The Online SJSU ETD Administrator (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) http://www.etdadmin.com/sjsu (Once approved do not email your thesis back to GS&R) Follow Final Submission Checklist Technical requirements: Same as initial submission BUT use ETD PDF converter tool File size of PDF and any supplementary documents shouldn’t be greater than 100MB Submitting Your Thesis for Publication The Online SJSU ETD Administrator (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) Student process: Create an account Select a publishing option Upload PDF thesis Optional services (e.g., ordering personal copies, copyright registration) GS&R process: Check that corrections were made; request additional corrections Deliver PDF to ProQuest and to SJSU/MLK Library Submitting Your Thesis for Publication Publishing options ProQuest Publishing Agreement Embedded into ETD process Non-exclusive Traditional (commercial distribution) vs. open access Embargo options SJSU License Agreement Submitted with Thesis Information Packet Non-exclusive SJSU access only vs. open access One embargo option Distribution of GS&R Approved Thesis Via ETD MLK Library ProQuest/UMI Educational / Non-commercial Distribution SJSU License Agreement (non-exclusive) Possible Commercial Distribution Publishing Agreement (non-exclusive) Student selects between: Student selects between: Restricted Access (SJSU only; default) Free No bound copies Embargo option available Open Access (world wide web) Free No bound copies Embargo option available Traditional Publishing (commercial distribution) Free Optional services (personal copies) Embargo options available Open Access (free world wide access) $150 Optional services (personal copies) Embargo options available Where to Get Help Office of Graduate Studies and Research Web http://www.sjsu.edu/gradstudies/thesis/ Thesis Contact Alena Filip – Thesis and IRB Coordinator [email protected] (408) 924-2479 Thesis Submission Address [email protected] Location Administration Building (ADM) – Room 223 Mon-Fri 9-12 and 1:30-4 Where to Get Help Graduate Admissions and Program Evaluations University level program requirements Steps for completing your master’s degree Candidacy and graduation applications Web http://www.sjsu.edu/gape/index.htm Contact Find email address for evaluator assigned to your department online Location Student Services Center (SSC) Where to Get Help The SJSU Writing Center Individual tutoring sessions Workshops Documentation styles Web http://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/ Location Clark Hall – Room 126 Where to Get Help ProQuest Information and Learning / UMI and Copyright Information ProQuest Dissertations and Theses http://il.proquest.com/products_umi/dissertations/ 1-800-521-0600 ETD Administrator Resources and Guidelines (Managed by GS&R with support from ProQuest/UMI) http://www.etdadmin.com/cgi-bin/main/resources?siteId=150 Copyright Law and Graduate Research http://www.umi.com/products_umi/dissertations/ copyright/ US Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/