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Senior Thesis Formatting Guidelines

Contents and form.

Length : The required length is between 10,000 and 20,000 words, not counting notes, bibliography, and appendices. The precise length of the main body text must be indicated on the word count page  immediately following the title page . If a student expects the thesis to exceed 20,000 words, the student’s tutor should consult the Director of Studies. Please note that students’ requests to exceed 20,000 words must go through their tutors and that these requests must be made in early February. Any extension of the thesis beyond the maximum must be justified by the nature of the topic, or sustained excellence in the treatment of the subject, or both. Theses that receive permission to exceed 20,000 words can still be penalized if readers do not think that the excess length is warranted.

Acknowledgments : Please do not include acknowledgments in your final copy of the thesis. If you wish, you can add acknowledgments after your thesis has been read. Readers prefer not to know who directed your thesis, lest they be somehow swayed by that knowledge.

Illustrations : Illustrations, also called figures, might include anything from a photograph to a printed advertisement to a map to a chart. Illustrations may be inserted in the body of your thesis or included in an appendix at the end. Writers often choose to reference an illustration in the body of text, signaling to readers to refer to a particular figure that’s being discussed by turning to a nearby page or to an appendix (e.g., “See Figure 1.”) The inclusion of illustrations in a senior thesis, which has a fairly circumscribed audience, falls under fair use, so you do not need permissions to reproduce illustrations in your thesis. However, all images should be accompanied by a caption that identifies the image and may include brief explanatory text. You may also use the caption to attribute the source where you found the illustration (e.g., a url or the name of the archive where you photographed the item), or you can cite the illustration in a footnote or endnote. You do not need to cite your images in your bibliography. For more detailed guidelines on including illustrations in your thesis, see The Chicago Manual of Style or the MLA Style Manual .

Format : Pages should be 8 1/2" x 11". Margins should be 1 inch, and pages should be numbered. Do not right-justify. The lines of type must be double-spaced, except for quotations of five lines or more, which should be indented and single-spaced.

Style : If you have questions beyond those covered on this page, consult the University of Chicago's A Manual of Style or the Modern Language Association's Style Manual . Kate L. Turabian's A Manual for Writers is a good, inexpensive, brief guide to Chicago style. The Expository Writing Program guide, Writing with Sources , is very useful.

Table of Contents : Every thesis requires a Table of Contents to guide the reader.

Quotations : Quotations of four lines or fewer, surrounded by quotation marks, may be incorporated into the body of the text. Longer extracts should be indented and single-spaced; they should not be included in quotation marks. Each full quotation should be accompanied by a reference. Follow the general practice in the best periodicals in your field, and be consistent. Foreign words that are not quotations should be underlined or italicized.

Appendices : An appendix provides additional material that helps support your argument and is too lengthy to be included as a footnote or endnote. Appendices might include images, passages from primary texts in a non-English language or in your translation, or archival material that is difficult to access. It is rare but perfectly acceptable for theses to include appendices, so make sure to discuss with your tutor whether an appendix makes sense for your project.

Notes : You may use either footnotes (at bottom of page), endnotes (at end of the thesis) or MLA style parenthetical notes. However, for a History & Literature thesis, Chicago style is generally better. Footnote or endnotes are properly used:

• To state precisely the source or other authority for a statement in the text, or to acknowledge indebtedness for insights or arguments taken from other writers. Quotations should be given when necessary.
• To make minor qualifications, to prevent misunderstanding, or otherwise to clarify the text when such statements, if put in the text, would interrupt the flow.
• To carry further some topic discussed in the text, when such discussion is needed but does not fit into the text.

Bibliography : You must append a list of works cited to your thesis. It's a good idea to compile your bibliography as you write, rather than try to put it together all at once at the end (there are very powerful bibliography programs available, such as Zotero and Endnote, that generate bibliographies automatically). The purpose of the bibliography is to be a convenience to your reader. In the works cited list, primary and secondary sources should be listed under separate headings.

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Sample Title Page

Sample Word Count Page

Thesis Format Template

Doctoral Thesis Guidelines

Introduction

Preparing to Submit the Thesis

Application for the Degree Oral Final Examination – Signature Page

Online Submission of the Thesis

ETDs @ ProQuest ORCID Harvard Author Agreement Redaction Embargoes Surveys

Distribution of the Thesis

Open Access After Submission Bound Thesis Fee Additional Bound Copies

Copyright and Publishing Considerations

Understanding Your Copyright and Fair Use Copyright Registration Acknowledging the Work of Others Use of Copyrighted Material Steps for Using Published and To-Be Published Work

Formatting Guidelines

Text Margins Pagination Title Title Page Abstract Body of Thesis Figures and Tables Footnotes Bibliography Supplemental Material  

Citation & Style Guides

Thesis Submission Checklist

INTRODUCTION All DrPH degree candidates at the Harvard Chan School are required to successfully complete and submit a thesis to qualify for degree conferral. This website provides information on the requirements for how to format your thesis, how to submit your thesis, and how your thesis will be distributed.  Please follow the submission and formatting guidelines provided here. Back to top

PREPARING TO SUBMIT THE THESIS The electronic submission of your thesis and the original Signature Page are due on the dates specified on the Harvard Chan School’s Academic Calendar Summary for each degree awarding period (November, March, and May). These items must be submitted using the ETDs @ ProQuest tool in order for the degree to be voted. No exceptions will be made to this rule. Back to top

Application for the Degree There are three degree granting periods: November, March, and May. To apply for graduation, students must complete the Application for Degree on the my.Harvard portal by the deadline posted on the Harvard Chan School’s Academic Calendar .

Deadline extensions are not possible. Students who miss the deadline must apply for the subsequent degree conferral date (November, March, or May). The student is responsible for meeting submission deadlines. Back to top

Oral Final Examination — Signature Page All Doctoral Committee members are required to sign the Signature Page at the time of the Doctoral Final Oral Examination indicating their final approval of the thesis.

A scanned copy of the Signature Page should appear before the title page of the PDF online submission of the thesis; no page number should be assigned to the Signature Page. The title on the Signature Page must read exactly as it does on the title page of the thesis. The Signature Page will be included in all copies of the thesis.

Click here for instructions on how to merge the Signature Page into the thesis PDF.

The Signature Page for DrPH students must be formatted as follows:

This Doctoral Thesis, [ Title of Doctoral Project ], presented by [ Student’s Name ], and Submitted to the Faculty of The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Public Health , has been read and approved by:

______________________________________ (typed name below line – signature above)

________________________________________ (typed name below the line – signature above)

Date : [ Doctoral Project Official Approval Date (month day, year) ]

Back to top

ONLINE SUBMISSION OF THE THESIS  

ETDs @ ProQuest All DrPH candidates are required to submit a digital copy of the thesis to the Registrar’s Office as a PDF file via ETDs @ ProQuest by the deadline established for each degree conferral date. Theses must be submitted in their final format, as described in the section Formatting Guidelines . Students must check their formatting carefully before submitting. Formatting errors will prevent the students’ theses from being accepted and approved.

The online-submission tool can be found at:  http://www.etdadmin.com/hsph.harvard

A how-to video for submitting a thesis via ETDs is available on the Countway Library website .

ORCID ETDs @ ProQuest supports ORCIDs.  ORCIDs are persistent digital identifiers that link you to your professional activity.  You may register for an ORCID either before or during submission if you do not yet have one.  To do so, you may go here .

The Harvard Library ORCID page provides information about the value of having an ORCID iD and how Harvard plans to use ORCID data. Additionally, please visit the Harvard ORCID Connect site to connect your existing ORCID iD to Harvard University.

Harvard Author Agreement When submitting work through ETDs @ ProQuest, you will be consenting to the Harvard Author Agreement , which grants the University a non-exclusive license to preserve, reproduce, and display the work. This license, which is the same the Harvard Chan School faculty use under the School’s Open Access Policy, does not constrain your rights to publish your work subsequently. Back to top

Redaction Very few theses require redaction, which is the process of obscuring or removing sensitive information for distribution. ETDs @ ProQuest does support redacted versioning for these very rare cases where there is sensitive or potentially harmful material in the thesis (e.g., commercially sensitive information, sensitive personal data, risk of harmful retribution, etc.).

If your work is one such rare instance, then you may select the “I think I need to submit a redacted version of my thesis” on the file upload screen. You will then be prompted to contact the Office for Scholarly Communication, which will help you with your request. Back to top

Embargoes To forestall any potential challenges that a student may face in the publication process (e.g., if the candidate has a publication pending with a publisher or has previously published some of the content in the thesis and there is a publisher’s embargo that must be honored), the Harvard Chan School has instituted a default one-year embargo for submissions through ETDs @ ProQuest.   The embargo starts on the date of the thesis submission deadline. With an embargo, the full text of the thesis will be unavailable for view or download for a limited period of time.  The citation and abstract for the work, however, will be publicly available.

If a student would like to make her/his work available immediately by opting out of the embargo process, she/he may do so by selecting the No Embargo option during the submission process.

If, due to extenuating circumstances, a student is required to embargo part or all of their work beyond one year, she/he must request an extension during the submission process. An extension can be requested for up to two years. This request is subject to the approval of the student’s department chair(s) and the University Librarian.

Any embargo applied to the DASH version of the thesis will be applied to the Countway Library and Harvard Chan School department versions of the work.

Students do not need to take any action to remove an embargo.  The embargo will automatically be lifted in DASH at the end of the selected and approved period.  If a student would like to change the duration of his/her embargo request, then please contact the Registrar’s Office at [email protected] or 617-432-1032. Back to top

Surveys The School of Public Health is asked to participate in the Survey of Earned Doctorates. This is an annual census of research doctorate recipients in the United States.  Data collected from these surveys are used to make federal policy decisions regarding graduate education.

Students are required to complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates upon submission of their thesis. A Certificate of Completion will be sent to you, as well as to the Registrar’s Office.

Please click here to complete your survey.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE THESIS

Open Access For information on open access, we recommend the Office of Scholarly Communication’s (OSC) Director Peter Suber’s brief introduction . He has also written about providing open access to theses . The OSC has produced several videos of Harvard faculty and students discussing open access. Two may be of particular interest: the first features Professors Gary King and Stuart Shieber , and the second features a recent Harvard graduate, Ben Finio . Back to top

After Submission Once you have applied for your degree and submitted your thesis online, it is checked for compliance by the Registrar’s Office and, if accepted, is piped to the following downstream systems:

• DASH : Your work will be sent to DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard), Harvard’s open access repository. Search engines index DASH, which means your work will be more discoverable and more frequently cited. You will be making DASH access decisions for your work at the point of submission. This will be the access copy of the thesis.
• HOLLIS : The metadata about your work will be sent to HOLLIS . This will make your work discoverable through the Harvard Library catalog.
• DRS2 : Your work will be stored in Harvard Library’s digital preservation repository, DRS2 . This will be the preservation copy of the thesis.

By default, theses will be made available through DASH one year after students submit their theses via ETDs @ Harvard for degree completion (see Embargoes ). DASH is operated by Harvard Library’s Office for Scholarly Communication and is the University’s central service for openly distributing Harvard’s scholarly output.

Note that any embargo applied to the DASH version of the thesis will be applied to the Countway Library and department versions of the work. Back to top

Bound Thesis Fee Currently we are not receiving bound thesis copies.  Doctoral students will not be charged bound thesis fees. Back to top

Additional Bound Copies Students may secure extra copies of their work for their own purposes.  These additional copies may be purchased through  Acme Bookbinding . or through ETDs @ ProQuest . Back to top

COPYRIGHT AND PUBLISHING CONSIDERATIONS

Understanding Your Copyright and Fair Use The Office for Scholarly Communication has created copyright-related resources for your reference.

The first addresses your copyrights and identifies some considerations when publishing (see “ Planning to publish? ”). It is important that you envision any future use you may like to make of your work. Any publishing contract you sign can affect your potential future uses, such as use in teaching, posting your work online on either a personal or departmental website, or any potential future publication. Before you sign a publication agreement, you can negotiate with a publisher to secure licensing terms that best suit your needs. It is important that you read any contract you sign and keep a copy for your own records.

The second resource discusses fair use (see “ Fair use ”), what it is, the laws that have determined its shape over time, and tips for ensuring that use of third-party material (including quotes, images, music, film, etc.) in your thesis is fair. Back to top

Copyright Registration Your work is copyrighted as soon as it is fixed in a tangible form. You are not required to register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office to enjoy protection of your work. However, if you choose to do so, you may register your work with the Copyright Office online . Back to top

Acknowledging the Work of Others Students are responsible for acknowledging any facts, ideas, or materials of others used in their own work. Students should refer to the statement on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism in the Harvard Chan School’s Student Handbook . Back to top

Use of Copyrighted Material A thesis is a scholarly work, and as such use of third party material is often essential. Fair use applies to the reproduction of any third party material, including your own previously published work, that you may use in your thesis.

If you have questions about copyright and fair use, please contact the Office for Scholarly Communication . Back to top

Steps for Using Published and To-Be Published Work When submitting an article for publication that you intend to use in your thesis, you should secure permission to do so (along with permission to reuse your own work as you would like) from your publisher in your publishing agreement. If the default contract does not let you retain these rights already, then you should use an author addendum to secure these rights (see “ Planning to publish? ”).

You may use your own previously published material as part of your thesis with the permission of the publisher. Again, refer to your publication agreement for details. If your contract does not specify these rights, then contact the publisher to negotiate this use. Back to top

FORMATTING GUIDELINES The following are instructions on how to format your thesis. If, after reading the instructions here, you have additional questions about the requirements, please contact the Registrar’s Office at (617) 432-1032; [email protected]. Back to top

Text   All text should be double-spaced on one side of the page with footnotes single-spaced. The font size should be at least 10 point, but no larger than 12 point.  The font and font size should be consistent throughout.  All text should be black. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Margins The margins of the thesis must be 1 inch on all sides. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Pagination Students’ theses must follow the pagination guidelines as illustrated below. It is customary not to have a page number on the page containing a chapter/paper heading. Drawings, charts, graphs, and photographs should be referred to as figures and should be numbered consecutively within the text of the thesis with Arabic numerals. Each figure should carry a suitable caption; e.g., Fig. 42. Arrangement of Experimental Equipment. Check pagination carefully and account for all pages.

All page numbers should be consecutive and centered at either the bottom or top of the page.
 Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Title The title of the thesis should be brief and should indicate the general subject treated. Nine words are usually sufficient to describe the investigation. Students are strongly encouraged to embed keywords into their title, so that the title will be retrievable on computerized listings. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Title Page The title page must contain the following information, well-spaced and centered on the page:

For DrPH Students:

TITLE OF DOCTORAL THESIS

STUDENT’S NAME

A Doctoral Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

for the Degree of Doctor of Public Health

Harvard University

Boston, Massachusetts.

Date (the month in which degree will be awarded, year of graduation (e.g., May 2021)

Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Abstract The abstract should not exceed 350 words. It should immediately follow the Title Page, and should state the problem, describe the methods and procedures used, and give the main results or conclusions of the research. The abstract should be double-spaced. The author’s name and the title of the thesis, as well as the name of the thesis advisor, should be included on the abstract page. The author’s name should be right justified, the title of the thesis centered, and “Thesis Advisor: Dr. ____________” should be left-justified at the top of the abstract page.

Thesis Advisor: Dr. [Advisor’s name]                                                    [Author’s name]

[Title of thesis]

           The text of the abstract, not to exceed 350 words, should be double-spaced.  The first line of each paragraph is indented.  Full justification of the text is not recommended.

Students will also be required to submit a text version of the abstract via the online-submission tool. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Body of Thesis The thesis should consist of manuscripts suitable for publication in a scientific medium appropriate to the candidate’s field and/or approved reprints of the published work(s) (see Steps for Using Published and To-Be Published Work and Use of Copyrighted Material ).

Technical appendices should be added where necessary to demonstrate full development of the thesis material. Papers published under joint authorship are acceptable provided the candidate has contributed a major part to the investigation. The degree candidate is expected to be senior author on at least one of the papers. In the case of manuscripts published under joint authorship, the co-authors or the advisor may be consulted by the readers or the CAD to clarify the nature and extent of the candidate’s contribution. In addition to evaluating the quality and significance of the work, those responsible for accepting the thesis [the Department(s) and Doctoral Project Committee] may determine whether the format is suitable for publication in a scientific medium appropriate to the degree candidate’s field(s). Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Figures and Tables Figures and tables must be placed as close as possible to their first mention in the text. They may be placed on a page with no text above or below, or they may be placed directly in the text. If a figure or table is alone on a page with no narrative, it should be centered within the margins of the page.

Figures and tables referred to in the text may not be placed at the end of the chapter or at the end of the thesis. Figure and table numbering must be either continuous throughout the thesis or by paper (e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2). For example, there cannot be two figures designated in a thesis as “Figure 5.”

Headings of tables should be placed at the top of the table. While there are no specific rules for the format of table headings and figure captions, a consistent format must be used throughout the thesis. (See Citation and Style Guides )

Captions of figures should be placed at the bottom of the figure. If the figure takes up the entire page, the figure caption should be placed alone on the preceding page and centered vertically and horizontally within the margins. Each page receives a separate page number. When a figure or table title is on a preceding page, the second and subsequent pages of the figure or table should say, for example, “Figure 5 (Continued).” In such an instance, the list of figures or tables will list the page number containing the title. The word “Figure” should be written in full (not abbreviated), and the “F” should be capitalized (e.g., Figure 5). In instances where the caption continues on a second page, the “(Continued)” notation should appear on the second and any subsequent page. The figure/table and the caption are viewed as one entity and the numbering should show correlation between all pages. Each page must include a header.

Horizontal figures and tables must be positioned correctly and bound at the top, so that the top of the figure or table will be at the left margin (leave a 1 inch margin on the long edge of the paper above the top of the table).

Figure and table headings/captions are placed with the same orientation as the figure or table when on the same page. When on a separate page, headings/captions are always placed in vertical orientation, regardless of the orientation of the figure or table. Page numbers are always placed as if the figure were vertical on the page.

Figures created with software are acceptable if the figures are clear and legible. Legends and titles created by the same process as the figures will be accepted if they too are clear, legible, and run at least 10 or 12 characters per inch. Otherwise, legends and captions should be printed with the same font used in the text. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Footnotes Footnotes are reserved for substantive additions to the text and should be indicated by an asterisk in the text. Extensive use of footnotes is not encouraged. The footnote should be placed at the bottom of the page. A horizontal line of at least two inches should be typed above the first footnote on any page. Footnotes should be placed so that at least one inch is left at the bottom of the page. Use single-spacing within footnotes. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Bibliography To document the sources of information, a bibliography must be included at the end of the papers or thesis. References may be numbered or listed alphabetically. If references in the bibliography are numbered, then corresponding in-text references should be indicated by listing the number in parentheses after the name of the author.

Bibliographic Example:

23. Gibbs, C.S.: Filterable virus carriers. J. Bact., 23, 1932, 113.

In-Text Example:

“. . . as Gibbs (23) has stated.”

The initial number should be omitted if references are listed alphabetically.

Within any bibliographic section there should be consistency and adherence to an acceptable journal style for a bibliography. Each reference in the bibliography must contain the name of the author, title of the paper, name of publication, volume, date, and first page.

More than one publication by the same author in the same year should be indicated both in the bibliography and in the text by the use of underlined letters, etc., after the date of publication. The standard system of abbreviation used by the Quarterly Cumulative Index should be followed for the abbreviations of journal titles.

If students’ individual papers have different bibliographic styles, then it is not necessary to change the bibliographic style of one to match the other. Consistency within each bibliographic section is the most important element. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

Supplemental Material Supplemental figures and tables must be placed at the end of each chapter/paper in an appendix. If additional digital information (including text, audio, video, image, or datasets) will accompany the main body of the thesis, then it should be uploaded as supplemental material via the ETDs @ Harvard online submission tool. Back to top  |  Back to Formatting Guidelines

CITATION & STYLE GUIDES

• The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
• Crews, Kenneth D. Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest, 2000.
• Day, Robert A. and Barbara Gastel. How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper. 6th ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.
• MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Modern Language Association of America, 2008. Strunk, William. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2005.
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2010.
• Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Chicago
• Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. 7th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

THESIS SUBMISSION CHECKLIST ☐ Is the Signature Page unnumbered and positioned as the first page of the PDF file? ☐ Is there a blank page after the Signature Page? ☐ Does the body of the thesis begin with Page 1? ☐ Is the pagination continuous? Are all pages included? ☐ Is every page of the thesis correctly numbered? ☐ Is the placement of page numbers centered throughout the manuscript? ☐ Is the Title Page formatted correctly? ☐ Is the author’s name, in full, on the Title Page of the thesis and the abstract? ☐ Does the author’s name read the same on both and does it match the Signature Page? ☐ Is the abstract included after the Title Page? ☐ Does the abstract include the title of the thesis, the author’s name, and the thesis advisor(s)’ name? ☐ Is the title on the abstract the same as that on the title page? ☐ Are the margins 1” on all sides? ☐ Is the font size 10-12 point? ☐ Are all charts, graphs, and other illustrative materials perfectly legible? ☐ Do lengthy figures and tables include the “(Continued)” notation? ☐ Has all formatting been checked? ☐ Is the Survey of Earned Doctorates  completed? ☐ Has the Survey of Earned Doctorates’ confirmation email or certificate been uploaded to ETDs @ Harvard?

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What's on this page?

Step 1: format your dissertation according to the harvard griffin gsas policies.

• Step 2: Attach your Thesis Acceptance Certificate (TAC) as the first page of your dissertation.
• Step 3: Add required documents to ProQuest ETD
• Step 4: If applicable, request a delayed release of your dissertation.
• Step 5: Submit your dissertation using ProQuest ETD
• Step 6: Check the status of your submission
• Related forms

Who is this for?

Harvard Griffin GSAS students who are currently writing their dissertation or preparing to submit one

• After you submit your dissertation through ProQuest, the Registrar's Office will review your dissertation for formatting compliance. We will email you directly if  your dissertation does not meet the requirements. A sample dissertation can be viewed here .

Step 2: Attach your Thesis Acceptance Certificate (TAC) as the first page of your dissertation.

• Check to confirm that your TAC is complete and electronically signed.
• You must also upload the TAC to ProQuest ETD separately from your dissertation as indicated in Step 3. 

Step 3: Add required documents to  ProQuest ETD .

• Upload the TAC to the Administrative Documents section of ProQuest ETD. 
• Complete the Harvard Griffin GSAS Employment Exit Survey.
• Complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates.

Step 4: If applicable, request a delayed release of your dissertation. 

If you would like to request a delayed release of your dissertation longer than 2 years :

• Upload a signed  Dissertation Delayed Release Request  to the Administrative Documents  section of ProQuest ETD. The form should show Director of Graduate Studies approval of your request.
• If you do not have a completed document when submitting your dissertation, you must ask your Director of Graduate Studies to email  [email protected] , acknowledging approval of the delayed release request. 

Step 5: Submit your dissertation using ProQuest ETD .

• Harvard Griffin GSAS requires dissertations to be submitted using ProQuest ETD.
• You must submit your dissertation by 11:59 pm on the  deadline date  for the given degree period.
• NO EXTENSIONS ARE PROVIDED.

Step 6: Check the status of your submission.

• You can check the status of your dissertation submission at anytime by logging in to ProQuest ETD . 

Related Forms

Thesis acceptance certificate, dissertation – delayed release request, need assistance, dissertation support.

Visit :  ProQuest Support

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Email :  FAS Registrar's Office – Enrollment Services Team

•  with questions about submitting your dissertation

Harvard Griffin GSAS – Dissertation Formatting Guidelines

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Program Submission

Students must submit their dissertation by the date established by their program (generally six to eight weeks prior to the Registrar’s Office dissertation submission deadline) and follow the program’s instructions on the number of copies to submit and format (bound or unbound). 

Please note : Students are responsible for notifying their department of any requested embargoes that were approved at the time of online submission.

Thesis Acceptance Certificate

Students must complete a thesis acceptance certificate (sometimes referred to as the dissertation acceptance certificate), which includes the title of the dissertation and signatures of at least three advisors approved by the student’s program and whose membership follows the Harvard Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (Harvard Griffin GSAS) policies on the Dissertation Advisory Committee . Electronic signatures  from committee members are acceptable. If a TAC is submitted with electronic signatures, an additional TAC with handwritten signatures will not be required. A  document version of the certificate is available if needed.

The title and the student name on the thesis acceptance certificate must read exactly as it does on the title page of the dissertation, meaning if you use your full middle name or middle initial on one document, it must be the same on the other document. The thesis acceptance certificate must also be uploaded as a separate "Administrative Document" when submitting the electronic dissertation to ProQuest ETD . All thesis/dissertation acceptance certificates are forwarded to the Harvard University Archives.

A copy of the signed thesis acceptance certificate should appear before the title page of the online dissertation submission; no page number should be assigned to the thesis/dissertation acceptance certificate. The thesis/dissertation acceptance certificate will be included in all copies of the dissertation.

Registrar’s Office Submission

Students must submit their dissertation in PDF format to the FAS Registrar’s Office through ProQuest ETD by the deadline established for each degree conferral date (see the Degree Calendar  or the  Registrar’s Office website . Major formatting errors that are not corrected in a timely manner may prevent you from receiving your degree.  During the submission process, students are asked to upload a separate copy of the signed thesis/dissertation acceptance certificate, approve two license agreements, and complete two surveys (the Harvard Griffin GSAS Employment Exit Survey and the Survey of Earned Doctorates). If you are requesting an embargo of more than two years, you will need to submit a signed approval form from the department's director of graduate studies (DGS) with your dissertation submission.

Redaction and Editing 

Ordinarily, students and alumni may not edit their dissertation once the submission deadline has passed. The FAS Registrar's Office will review the submissions to ProQuest ETD after the deadline, but prior to degree conferral, for formatting policy compliance. If errors are identified, students are given a brief window prior to degree conferral to make these limited formatting changes.  

In very rare cases, a dissertation may require redaction, which is the process of obscuring or removing sensitive information for distribution. If sensitive or potentially harmful material appears in the dissertation (e.g., commercially sensitive information, sensitive personal data, risk of harmful retribution, etc.), a student should contact the  Office for Scholarly Communication . 

In exceptional circumstances, in order to correct discrete errors caught after the formal submission of the dissertation, the author may request permission to submit an errata statement. The request will be reviewed by a committee assembled by the Dean of the Harvard Griffin Graduate School of Arts and Sciences that includes at least one faculty member from the author’s disciplinary area. 

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Registrar's Office   Faculty of Arts and Sciences  Harvard University  Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Campus Center Office  1350 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 450  Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Tel: 617-495-1543  Fax: 617-495-0815

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• Thesis Formatting

Social Studies Senior Theses should be between 20,000 and 30,000 words of text. Theses that exceed 30,000 words may be penalized by up to half a grade for excessive length. Theses that do not reach the minimum required length may fail to receive honors. You are required to attach a word count to your thesis. To do so, type out the word count on an otherwise blank page and include it as the last page in your thesis. Theses will not be accepted without a word count.

One copy of your thesis is to be submitted electronically to the Social Studies office, uploaded to the Social Studies 99 Canvas site. If you are a joint concentrator, you should submit one copy of your thesis to Social Studies and one to your joint concentration.

Apart from quotations of more than 50 words and from foot­notes, theses should be double-spaced.   

Pages must be numbered.

The margins should be one inch at the top and bottom of each page, with one inch at the left edge and one inch at the right.

Follow the foot- or end-noting conventions of the discipline with which the essay is most closely associated.  

Here is an example of the text that should be appro­priately centered and spaced on the title page:

(title of essay)

An Essay Presented

(first name, middle name, and last name of author)

The Committee on Degrees in Social Studies

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree with honors of Bachelor of Arts

Harvard College (month and year)

Acknowledgements  

When the thesis is submitted, please leave out an acknowledgements page. If your thesis is accepted for archives, you will be contacted to provide an acknowledgements page and any minor updates you wish to include.

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To be made up of:

• Year of submission (in round brackets).
• Title of thesis (in italics).
• Degree statement.
• Degree-awarding body.
• Available at: URL.
• (Accessed: date).

In-text citation: 

(Smith, 2019)

Reference List:  

Smith, E. R. C. (2019). Conduits of invasive species into the UK: the angling route? Ph. D. Thesis. University College London. Available at: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10072700 (Accessed: 20 May 2021).

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Quantum simulation and computation with two-dimensional arrays of neutral atoms

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