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Thesis Handbook

Chapter III: Thesis Format
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Requirements

The following format requirements set forth by the Graduate College Executive Committee establish a minimum University-wide standard of quality and legibility for the presentation of the thesis.

Theses must adhere to the format requirements in effect at the time of deposit.

A Note on Departmental Requirements

The format guidelines contained in the Thesis Handbook describe only Graduate College requirements for student theses. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign confers graduate degrees in over 100 units, and many of these departments have additional, discipline-specific format requirements. Departments may have specific requirements regarding the style used for formatting references; the Graduate College does not. Students should consult with their program regarding departmental format requirements and departmental thesis review procedures.

The Graduate College Thesis Office will not begin the thesis format review without the signed Departmental Format Approval form.

Document Setup and General Format Requirements

Note: Format requirements occasionally change. Do not copy the format from another student’s thesis. See “Tips for Minimizing the Stress Related to Thesis Deposit” in Appendix A for further explanation.

Margins

To preserve the legibility of the thesis throughout the process of binding, microfilming, or photocopying, margins should be set as follows for all pages in the thesis:

Left (binding edge): 1.5 inch
Top: 1 inch
Bottom: 1 inch
Right: 1 inch

Theses with any material (other than page numbers) extending beyond these margins will not be accepted for deposit.

Fonts

Script and ornamental fonts will not be accepted.
Font size should be from 10- to 12-point and should be roughly comparable in appearance to Times New Roman. Font size should remain consistent throughout the front matter and main text and must be easily legible.
Fonts for footnotes, figure captions, table data, references, and material in an appendix or curriculum vitae are allowed to differ from the main text.

Line Spacing

Spacing may be set from 1.5 lines to Double and must remain consistent throughout the front matter and main text.
Single-spacing is only allowed for footnotes, endnotes, references, lengthy quotations, bulleted or numbered lists, figure or table captions, or material in an appendix

Text Alignment

The text of the thesis should be left-aligned (with a ragged right edge); do not fully justify or right-align text.
Headings may be left-aligned or centered; do not fully justify or right-align headings

Document Sections

A thesis typically has three main components: (1) everything before the main text (referred to here as “front matter”); (2) the main text; and (3) everything after the main text (referred to here as “back matter”).

See Appendix B for a list of examples of front matter, main text, and back matter.

The text of the thesis must be left-aligned; do not fully justify or right-align text.
The main text must be divided into chapters, and the front and back matter must be divided into chapter equivalents. (Examples of chapter equivalents are Abstract, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, References, Appendix, Author’s Biography, and the like; see also Appendix B).
All chapters and chapter equivalents must begin on a new page.
Subsections within chapters or chapter equivalents should not begin on a new page. The text of a subsection must immediately follow the text of the previous section, except where prevented by a normal (unforced) page break. (For example, a section such as “List of References” or “Notes” that is included at the end of a chapter is considered a subsection, and, therefore, must not begin on a new page.)

Page Numbers

Page numbers must be displayed on all pages other than the copyright page (if included) and the title page.
All front matter pages (other than the copyright page, if included) must be consecutively numbered with Roman numerals (i.e., i, ii, iii, etc.)
All main text and back matter pages must be consecutively numbered with Arabic numerals (e.g., 1, 2, 3, etc.); back matter page numbering should continue from the main text.
The copyright page (if included) is not considered a numbered page.
The title page is considered page i, but this number should not be displayed on the page.
The page immediately following the title page is considered page ii. (The Certificate of Committee Approval is no longer included as part of the thesis.)
The first page of the main text must be numbered as page 1.
Page numbers must appear in the same location on all pages of the thesis, including on pages with rotated figures or tables.
Page numbers must be located at least 0.5 inch from the edge of the page.

Headings

The font size and style chosen for chapter titles must remain consistent for the titles of all chapters and chapter equivalents. (See Appendix B for examples of chapter equivalents.)
Headings may be centered or left-aligned.
Heading levels must be differentiated from each other. That is, a main-level heading within a chapter must be made readily distinguishable from a sub-level heading within the same chapter by changing alignment (left or center) or capitalization or using a boldface or italic font or through the combination of any of these.

Heading Examples:

CHAPTER 1: THIS IS A CHAPTER TITLE

1.1 THIS IS A MAIN-LEVEL HEADING

1.1.1 This is a Sub-level Heading

1.1.1.1 This is a secondary sub-level heading

A section must not have a sub-level heading without first having a main-level heading.
Headings that occur at the bottom of a page (without at least one line of text below the heading) must be moved to the top of the following page.
Only chapter and chapter equivalent titles are required to be included in the Table of Contents.
If headings from within a chapter are included in the Table of Contents, the wording and spelling of the headings found in the text must exactly match those found in the Table of Contents.
If a heading occurs on a page with a rotated figure or table, the heading should not be rotated with the figure or table. The heading should be displayed horizontally between the left and right margins like all other headings within the thesis. See “Sample Rotated Figure” in Appendix B.

Title Page Format Requirements

Refer to “Title Page Check by Email” in Chapter II for information regarding the title page check performed by the Graduate College Thesis Office.

Refer to Appendix B for master’s and doctoral title page examples as you read through the following sections on the format requirements for the title page.

See “A Thesis Exceeding 500 Pages or 2.5 Inches in Thickness” later in this chapter for additional requirements for title pages of multiple volumes.

The title page is the first numbered page (i) of the thesis, but the page number should not be displayed anywhere on the page.

Title (2 inches from the top edge of the page)

Set the title in all capital letters.
Center the title horizontally between left and right margins
Single-space the entire title (including any subtitles)
No symbols, mathematical equations, or abbreviations containing subscripts or superscripts are allowed in the title. Because such material cannot currently be entered into electronic catalogs and databases, it must be spelled out.

BY and Official Name (3.5 inches from the top edge of the page)

The student name that appears on the title page must exactly match the official name as recorded in the University’s files and the name as it appears on the Certificate of Committee Approval and the Departmental Format Approval forms. UI-Integrate Self Service does not provide students with the University’s official record of their name. Therefore, students should have their title pages checked by the Graduate College Thesis Office before adviser/committee approval (i.e., before the Certificate of Committee Approval and Departmental Format Approval forms are signed).

Set BY in all capital letters.
Set your name in all capital letters.
One blank line must separate BY and your name.
Center BY and your name horizontally between the left and right margins.

Previous Degree Information

One blank line should separate your name and the first line of your previous degree information.
List only bachelor’s degrees or higher on the title page (i.e., no certificates, associate degrees, or the like).
List previous degrees in order of award date, with first degree received listed first and last degree received listed last.
Each line of previous degree information should contain only the following: degree abbreviation, official university or institution name, and year of degree conferral.
Only include the location of the university or institution if it is part of the university’s official name (e.g., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).
Do not include majors in the previous degree information.
Center previous degree information horizontally between the left and right margins.
Single-space previous degree information.

The Label THESIS or DISSERTATION (5.5 inches from the top edge of the page)

Title pages for master’s theses should display the label THESIS.
Title pages for doctoral dissertations should display the label DISSERTATION.
Set THESIS or DISSERTATION in all capital letters.
Center THESIS or DISSERTATION horizontally between the left and right margins

Text Block with Degree, Major, and Year of Conferral

One blank line should separate the label THESIS or DISSERTATION and the text block.
Single-space the text block.
Center the text block horizontally between the left and right margins.
The text block will be either 4, 5, or 6 lines long and must be divided into the following lines exactly as shown:

(1) Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
(2) for the degree of <add earned degree> in <add major>
(3) with a concentration in <add concentration>
(4) with a minor in <add minor>
(5) in the Graduate College of the
(6) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, <add year of degree conferral>

Line 2 of the text block must contain: (a) the degree for which the thesis is being submitted and (b) the student’s major (not the name of the student’s department).
The major must fit entirely onto line 2 of the text block. (It may be necessary to reduce the font size of the entire text block in order to allow for the major to fit entirely onto the second line.)
Most students will not include lines 3 or 4. There are very few campus-approved graduate concentrations and graduate minors. (The list of campus-approved graduate minors can be found at www.grad.illinois.edu/current/minorslist.htm.) If a concentration or minor cannot be verified by the University’s records, it will not be allowed on the title page.
The year in line 6 of the text block must be the year of the degree conferral period for which the student will deposit (e.g., if a student deposits in December 2008 for the May 2009 graduation period, the year in the text block should be 2009).

Location (7.5 inches from the top edge of the page)

Center the location (Urbana, Illinois) horizontally between the left and right margins.
Do not abbreviate Illinois.

Adviser or Committee Information (8 inches from the top edge of the page)

Master’s students will use the heading “Adviser:” or “Master’s Committee:”, depending on which is applicable or preferred. Some master’s students have more than one adviser, in which case the heading “Advisers:” may be used.
Doctoral students will use the heading “Doctoral Committee:”
The heading “Adviser:” or “Doctoral Committee:” or equivalent must be aligned at the left margin of the page.
One blank line should separate the heading “Adviser:” or “Doctoral Committee:” or equivalent and the names of the committee members or adviser.
List each committee member on a separate line.
Single-space the names of the committee members.
Adviser and committee member names should be indented approximately 0.5 inch from the left margin of the page.
For committees, the committee chair should be listed first, and the director of research (adviser) should be listed second; all other committee members may be listed in the order preferred by the student or the student’s adviser.
The committee chair should be indicated by adding a comma and the word “Chair” after the chair’s name.
The director of research (if different from chair) should be indicated by adding a comma and the phrase “Director of Research” after the director’s name.
“Co-Chair” and “Co-Director of Research” designations may be used when applicable.
Faculty members should be listed with their professorial title (i.e., Professor, Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, etc.).
The professorial title should be spelled in full (do not abbreviate) and listed before the faculty member’s name.
Affiliations should be listed only for committee members who are not University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign faculty (i.e., departmental affiliations should not be listed).

Table of Contents Format Requirements

Refer to the Table of Contents examples provided in Appendix B as you read through the following section.

A Table of Contents is required in all theses deposited in the Graduate College Thesis Office. The purpose of the Table of Contents is to be a quick, useful reference that guides the reader to the main sections within the thesis. It is not the purpose of the Table of Contents to outline the argument of the thesis in detail.

The Graduate College Thesis Office requires only that the titles of chapters and chapter equivalents that occur after the Table of Contents be listed in the Table of Contents. (Do not list in the Table of Contents anything that appears before it.) Main-level headings from within chapters may be listed in the Table of Contents, if deemed appropriate by the student or adviser. The Graduate College Thesis Office strongly recommends that students do not include lower-level headings in the Table of Contents (see “Tips for Minimizing Stress Related to Thesis Deposit” in Appendix A).

The wording and spelling of titles and headings listed in the Table of Contents must exactly match the wording of the titles and headings found in the text.
If headings are numbered, heading numbers listed in the Table of Contents must exactly match the heading numbers found in the text.
Page numbers listed for headings must be correct.
List only the page number of the first page of the section. Do not list a range of page numbers.
Do not use boldface or italic type or underlining in the Table of Contents. (Boldface or italic type or underlining may be used for headings found in the text, however.)
The capitalization and format of headings listed in the Table of Contents is not required to match the capitalization of headings found in the text. However, the use of capitalization must remain consistent within the Table of Contents.
Titles and headings must not extend into the page number column; lengthy headings should be broken onto a second line approximately 0.5 inch before the page number column.
Page numbers must be aligned at the right margin of the page.
Leader dots must be displayed between the heading and the page number.

Format Requirements for Figures, Tables and Other Illustrative Material

Refer to the sample figures provided in Appendix B as you read through the following section.

A thesis may include tables, figures, photographs, musical examples, charts, graphs, line drawings, maps, and other illustrative materials. For discussion purposes, these media will be called figures.

All figures, tables, and other illustrative material must fit within the minimum margins. Theses with any material extending beyond these margins will not be accepted.
Figures must be numbered consecutively throughout the entire thesis. Students may choose either a straight sequence (1, 2, 3, etc.) or the decimal system (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, etc.), in which the first digit corresponds to the chapter number and the digit after the decimal point is the figure number within the chapter. Using this method, figures in Appendix A, B, C, and so forth would be numbered A.1, A.2, B.1, B.2, C.1 and so on. Figures should not be numbered by the section (e.g., do not number figures 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.2.1, 1.3.1, etc.).
Figure captions may be single-spaced and are not required to be set in the same font style or size as that of the main text. However, font style and size must remain consistent from one figure caption to the next.
Figure captions should appear on the same page as the figure to which they refer.

Figure Placement

Figures should not be placed out of the order in which they are numbered.
The Graduate College Thesis Office strongly encourages students to group figures at the end of chapters or at the end of the main text to avoid many of the problems associated with placing figures next to their corresponding text.
If figures are grouped at the end of a chapter or the main text, each figure may be placed on a separate page.
Multiple figures may be placed on the same page as long as doing so does not compromise their legibility.
Figures grouped at the end of a chapter are considered a section, the first page of which should display the appropriate section heading (i.e., “Figures”, “Tables”, “Figures and Tables”, etc.).
Figures grouped at the end of the main text are considered a chapter, the first page of which should display the appropriate chapter title (i.e., “Figures”, “Tables”, “Figures and Tables”, etc.).
Do not add figure callouts (i.e., <place Figure 2.1 about here>) anywhere in the thesis.

Rotated Figures

Figures that are rotated should be rotated counterclockwise so that the top of the figure faces toward the left (binding) edge of the page.
Figure captions should be rotated with the figure.
Page numbers should not be rotated; page numbers should appear in the same location as on all other pages in the thesis.
Any chapter titles or section headings on pages with rotated figures should not be rotated. Titles and section headings should be displayed horizontally between the left and right margins as all other titles and section headings in the thesis.

Multiple-Page Figures

Every page with a part of a multiple-page figure must indicate at least (a) the figure number and (b) the fact that the figure is continued.
The figure caption is only required to appear once; an abbreviated label such as “Figure X.X (cont.)” may be used on subsequent pages.

Oversized Figures

If reducing a figure to fit within the required margins would prevent it from being legible and the figure cannot be broken across multiple pages, the figure may be printed on an oversized, folded page. The page should be folded to fit within the thesis such that the page unfolds to the right (i.e., the page should not be folded along the left side of the page, which is the binding edge). In this case, the page number must appear in a manner consistent with the page numbers in the rest of the document.

Color Figures

Labels, symbols, and other data within figures should be made identifiable through other means than the use of color.
The use of color is acceptable; however, theses may be converted to black-and-white if they are archived on microfilm or partially reproduced on a photocopier.
Images should be able to be reproduced well when copied; colors will be converted to shades of gray and may no longer be easily distinguishable.
Shaded areas, such as countries on a map, will be more distinct and have better contrast on microfilm if crosshatching is used instead of color.

Other Format Requirements

(Optional) Copyright Page

Inclusion of a copyright page is optional. If included, the copyright notice must include the following three parts:

The copyright symbol or the word “Copyright” or the abbreviation “Copr.”
The year of degree conferral for which the thesis is being submitted.
The name of the student (name should match the name on the title page).

The copyright notice should appear centered both horizontally and vertically on the page. See Appendix B for a sample copyright page.

(Optional) Lists of Tables, Figures, Symbols and/or Abbreviations

The Graduate College Thesis Office does not require the inclusion of a List of Tables, List of Figures, or the like. (See “Tips for Minimizing the Stress Related to Thesis Deposit” in Appendix A.) However, departmental requirements may differ.

If included, the List is considered a chapter equivalent. It should be placed after the Table of Contents and should be listed in the Table of Contents.
If included, the List should be formatted exactly like the Table of Contents, except that captions may be shortened in the List (refer to the requirements in the previous section “Table of Contents Format Requirements”).

Bibliography or References

All theses are required to have either a bibliography or a list of references. The Graduate College Thesis Office does not require the use of a specific formatting style for references. However, departments may require the use of a reference style that is appropriate to the student’s discipline of study.

When placed at or near the end of a thesis, the references section is considered a chapter equivalent; therefore, the title of the section should be formatted like a chapter title.
Items listed in the references section may be single-spaced.
In some scientific and engineering disciplines, the references may be placed at the end of each chapter instead of at the end of the thesis. In this case, the heading “List of References” or “Literature Cited” is appropriate. When the list of references appears at the end of a chapter, it should not begin on a new page because it is considered a subsection of that chapter.

(Optional) Appendix

The appendix is a section that is placed near the end of the thesis and may contain material such as tables, figures, maps, photographs, raw data, computer programs, musical examples, interview questions, sample questionnaires, CDs, and many other types of material

An appendix is considered a chapter equivalent and the appendix title should be formatted like a chapter title.
Headings within the appendix should be formatted in a manner consistent with headings found in the main text.
Material in an appendix may be single-spaced.
If there is more than one appendix, they should be numbered as A, B, C, and so on. Each appendix should be treated as a separate chapter equivalent and will therefore start on a new page.
Pre-rendered material included in an appendix, such as scanned images of questionnaires or release forms, should be reduced in size in order to allow for a heading that is formatted the same as headings of the same level elsewhere in the thesis

See the section below entitled “CD-ROMs and Other Non-print Media” for information regarding appendix material submitted on a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, or the like.

Curriculum Vitae or Author’s Biography

The Graduate College requires that either a curriculum vitae or an author’s biography be included in all doctoral dissertations.

Curriculum Vitae

Refer to the following Web page of the Graduate College Career Services Office for CV examples: www.grad.illinois.edu/careerservices/academic/cvs/.

A curriculum vitae (CV) or vita is a comprehensive list of your educational credentials and teaching experience, research interests and areas of specialization, awards, presentations, and publication experience.

The title for this chapter equivalent should be either “Curriculum Vitae” or “Vita.”
The student’s name should match the name as it appears on the title page.
All information on a CV should be arranged in reverse chronological order.
A CV may be several pages long, but information on the CV appears in short, well-organized sections or lists.
The line spacing and font style and size of a CV are not required to match that of the main text.
The CV must be the last item in the dissertation.

Author's Biography

See Appendix B for a sample author’s biography.

An author’s biography is a short biographical paragraph that may include date and place of birth, educational institutions attended (after high school), degrees and honors won, publications, and teaching and professional experience.

The title for this chapter equivalent should be either “Curriculum Vitae” or “Vita.”
The title for this chapter equivalent should be “Author’s Biography.”
The first use of the student’s name an author’s biography should match the name as it appears on the title page.
The font style and size must match the font style and size of the main text.
The line spacing should match that of the main text.
It should be written in the third person in paragraph form and begin with the name of the author, and it must be concise.
The author’s biography must be the last item in the dissertation.

Printing Considerations

Paper

Both copies of the thesis must be on white, 8.5 x 11-inch paper. The Thesis Office accepts 20-pound, standard grade paper.

Print Quality

Thesis copies submitted for deposit should be high quality. Laser copies are preferable, although many ink jet printers also produce acceptable copies. If you are concerned about print quality, bring a sample page to the Thesis Office. Photocopies without any smudges or blemishes may be submitted for deposit.

Pages with illegible or disfiguring erasures or corrections, or with changes likely to be unclear in photographic reproduction, will not be accepted, and the pages will have to be replaced. All corrections should be made on the original manuscript before it is photocopied.

Color Copies

Color copies are acceptable and even encouraged for deposit. However, students should bear in mind that the thesis will be converted to black-and-white when reproduced on a photocopier or archived on microfilm. Data in figures and other illustrative material should not be dependent on the use of color for interpretation.

CD-ROMs and Other Non-print Media

CD-ROMs and other non-print media containing additional material may be included with the thesis. However, it is recommended that the thesis be understandable without the material contained on the CD. Such material is best considered as a separate appendix.

CD-ROMs must be clearly marked with your name, degree, thesis title, department, university, and appendix title.

Example:

Anne Elizabeth Garvie, Ph.D.
Coffee Consumption of Graduate Students Trying to Finish Dissertations
Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 200x
Appendix A: Interview Transcriptions

CD-ROMs should be submitted in a hard-plastic CD case.
If a CD is included, a related appendix page must be included as a part of the thesis and should be numbered accordingly. This page should include information about the contents of the CD-ROM, such as “Appendix A: Interview Transcriptions” and a brief description of the material.

A Thesis Exceeding 500 Pages or 2.5 Inches in Thickness

Manuscripts over 2.5 inches thick (more than approximately 500 pages) must be separated into two volumes of approximately equal size.

The division of a manuscript into volumes should occur at the end of a chapter (not partway through a chapter).
Pagination of the second volume should continue from the first (i.e., do not begin renumbering the second volume at page 1).
Each volume must be deposited with two title pages, and each title page must indicate the appropriate volume number (use Arabic numerals to indicate volume number, not Roman numerals). The label “VOLUME 1” or “VOLUME 2” should appear two spaces above the heading “DISSERTATION” or “THESIS” on the title page.
Each volume must be deposited in its own pocket folder. The first volume will look like any other manuscript, with the required front matter pages. The second volume will have only a copy of the title page added at the beginning, to identify its origin.

Supplemental Material to Be Deposited with the Thesis

All students are required to submit one (1) signed Departmental Format Approval form and one (1) signed Certificate of Committee Approval Form. In addition, doctoral students are also required to submit a signed ProQuest/UMI Publishing Agreement, an abstract formatted for ProQuest, and a completed Survey of Earned Doctorates.

Departmental Format Approval Form

The Departmental Format Approval form indicates to the Graduate College Thesis Office that the academic department has reviewed the thesis for discipline-specific format and style requirements and has approved the thesis to be submitted to the Thesis Office for the format review.

This form is available at www.grad.illinois.edu/forms/DeptFormAppr.pdf.

See a sample Departmental Format Approval form in Appendix B.

Refer to “Departmental Format Review” in Chapter II for important information regarding the departmental format review process. The Thesis Office will not begin the format review of your thesis without a signed approval form from your department.

Certificate of Committee Approval (CCA)

The Certificate of Committee Approval certifies that the academic department has reviewed the content of the thesis and has approved the thesis to be submitted to the Graduate College Thesis Office for deposit.

This form is available in PDF format at www.grad.illinois.edu/forms/certificate/. You can either download this form or open it directly in your browser to complete and print the form. We highly recommend that you use the PDF version of the form.

If your thesis title is longer than four lines, you may not be able to complete the PDF form online. The Graduate College provides a Microsoft Word template version of the CCA form, called a .dot file, which accommodates longer titles. To use the Word template, you will need to download and install the template in your Word document template directory. Instructions for downloading and using the Word template can also be found at www.grad.illinois.edu/forms/certificate/.

Refer to “Adviser/Committee Approval” in Chapter II for additional information regarding the Certificate of Committee Approval.

See a sample Certificate of Committee Approval in Appendix B.

ProQuest/UMI Publishing Agreement (Doctoral Students Only)

The Proquest/UMI Publishing Agreement and related material, including “Guide 2: Subject Categories” (under the heading “Related Material”), are available at www.grad.illinois.edu/thesis/ProQuest.htm.

The Graduate College requires every doctoral dissertation to be published for the purpose of archiving the significant work of University of Illinois graduate students. The Graduate College has determined that publishing dissertations through ProQuest/UMI is the method that most effectively ensures the continued existence of the work of University students in perpetuity. First, ProQuest publishes doctoral students’ abstracts in Dissertation Abstracts International, creates a negative microform copy of each dissertation for archival purposes, and sends a microfilm copy of every document to the University Library. Second, as an official satellite repository of the Library of Congress, ProQuest also maintains a copy of every dissertation completed at the University of Illinois, thereby safeguarding against the loss in part or in whole of the University’s collection of dissertations housed at the University Library.

The ProQuest/UMI publishing agreement is not a copyright transfer agreement. As the author of the dissertation, the student retains control of the work’s intellectual content (see Chapter IV, “Intellectual Property Considerations,” for important information regarding copyright issues related to the dissertation). The agreement gives ProQuest only a non-exclusive license to reproduce and distribute the work in the manner selected by the student (see “Publishing Options” below).

The ProQuest/UMI Publishing Agreement is an agreement made between the student and ProQuest; the Thesis Office does not act as the student’s representative.

Publishing Options

Students should read pages 1 and 2 of the publishing agreement (available at www.grad.illinois.edu/forms/diss_pub/1-07dpa-2.pdf) in order to understand their options before signing the agreement. ProQuest offers students a choice between open access and traditional publishing options. The agreement also allows students the opportunity to select additional release and restriction options.

Open Access (OA-1). Option OA-1 (Open Access) allows students to make their theses available to the broadest possible audience by allowing interested persons to freely access their work via the internet. In addition, readers will have the option to purchase a copy of the work and will be able to discover the work through major search engines. Students choosing this option will be required to pay an additional $95 fee (payable to ProQuest by cashier’s check or money order included with your deposit materials) and will not be eligible to receive royalties.
Traditional (TR-1). Option TR-1 (Traditional) allows students to make their work available for purchase on demand. Readers will be able to purchase a copy of the work and will be able to discover the work through major search engines. Students choosing this option may be eligible to receive royalties on the sales of their work. There is no additional fee for this option.
Release and Restriction Options (OA-2 or TR-2). In some cases students may wish to embargo the release of or restrict access to their work through ProQuest/UMI. Options include embargo periods of up to 2 years, search engine restriction, and third-party sales restriction. To embargo the release of the work for a period of up to 2 years and/or to restrict access to the work through ProQuest/UMI, students may choose either option OA-2 (Open Access) or option TR-2 (Traditional) and check the relevant box(es).

Students choosing option OA-2 will be required to pay an additional $95 fee (payable to ProQuest by cashier’s check or money order included with your deposit materials).

Students choosing an embargo or restriction option should understand that such restriction of access applies only to availability of the work through ProQuest. Thesis copies will not be temporarily withheld from public release through the University Library unless a patent hold is approved by the Office of Technology Management (see “Applying for a Patent Review” in Chapter IV for more information on patent holds).

ProQuest Abstract (Doctoral Students Only)

See Appendix B for a sample ProQuest Abstract.

The ProQuest abstract is not included in the thesis, and only one copy is required. It will be published in Dissertation Abstracts International (for more information, see www.umi.com/products_pq/descriptions/dai.shtml).

The ProQuest abstract must observe the following five format guidelines:

Header formatted exactly as follows:

THESIS TITLE (ALL CAPS)

Your Name, Degree Abbreviation
Department or Unit Name
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 200x
Adviser’s Name, Adviser

Body text of abstract double-spaced
No page number
Body text of abstract must be written in English.
Body text of abstract must be the same body text of the abstract in the thesis.

Survey of Earned Doctorates (Doctoral Students Only)

The Survey of Earned Doctorates may be downloaded from www.grad.illinois.edu/forms/SurveyofEarnedDoctorates.pdf.

The University of Illinois participates in a long-standing national survey of doctoral students conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and other supporting institutions.

Although all doctoral students are required to complete the survey, students may decline to answer any or all of the questions. Students must indicate refusal with the word “refused” for each question they decline to answer. Even if you decline to answer every question, you must still submit the form.

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Contents | SearchThesis Handbook

Chapter III: Thesis Format PDF | PrintRequirements

Contents | Search
Thesis Handbook

Chapter III: Thesis Format
PDF | Print

Requirements