UCI Theses and Disserations Manual - Basic Information for the Candidate
Congratulations! You are approaching the last step toward attainment of your graduate degree.
Your Master's thesis or Ph.D. dissertation, as the permanent scholarly statement of your research, should be error-free and appropriately prepared for binding and, in the case of dissertations, for microfilming. You are responsible for submitting a manuscript that fits the format described in this manual and is free of spelling and format errors. The University Archives staff will review your manuscript and will not accept it unless it has been appropriately prepared. Once your manuscript has been accepted by the University Archives, no changes to the text or substitution of pages may be made.
The requirements described in this manual apply only to the formatting of your manuscript, not to its scholarly content. UCI's Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the Graduate Council of the Irvine Division of the Academic Senate, and the University Archives have established these criteria and regulations in order to provide all Master's and Ph.D. degree candidates with a uniform presentation format.
It is important that you work with your thesis/dissertation committee and/or your department to develop your manuscript. Be aware that your particular school or discipline's criteria for preparation and submission of manuscripts may vary from this manual. School of the Arts students, for example, are not required to submit their theses to the University Archives, but may do so if they wish to have a copy of their manuscript bound and housed in the UCI Libraries. If an art student does choose to submit to the Archives, their manuscript must conform to the requirements in this manual, except for the signature page.
You and your committee are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of everything in your manuscript. All formatting requirements specified in this manual must be adhered to. Refer to sections 6.5 and 6.6 of the manual for answers to frequently asked questions about thesis/dissertation preparation and submission and an overview of common mistakes to avoid. For all other matters of organization, presentation, and documentation, your manuscript should meet the standards for published journal articles or monographs in your field.
[back to Table of Contents][top of page]
1.2.1. Maintain Your Current Enrollment at UCI
To maintain your status as a graduate-degree candidate, you must continue your full-time enrollment as a UCI student until your thesis/dissertation has been approved by your faculty committee and accepted by the University Archives. If your student status lapses, so does your candidate status. To maintain your full-time enrollment, you must pay either the quarterly Registration Fee and enroll in a minimum of 12 units or, in certain cases (see section 1.2.3.), pay a Filing Fee.
Deadlines for each option above are published in section 6.4. of this manual and in UCI's quarterly Schedule of Classes. These official deadlines are final, and they usually occur at the end of the tenth week of classes.
The faculty review and/or the defense of your thesis/dissertation must be completed prior to the filing deadline. If you miss the deadline, the formal conferral of your degree will be delayed until (at minimum) the following quarter. The University Archives is not able to approve extensions; only Graduate Studies may approve extensions. The student’s department must contact Graduate Studies with this request.
You may pay a Filing Fee instead of the regular quarterly Registration Fee if, prior to the beginning of the quarter in which you expect to receive your degree, you have met all degree requirements.
The Filing Fee is half the amount of the Registration Fee. To pay the Filing Fee, you must have the chair of your thesis/dissertation committee sign a "Filing Fee Petition" form, which is available from your department or the Office of Graduate Studies. The form must also be signed by your Department Chair or Graduate Advisor. Students in the Schools of Engineering, Humanities, Social Ecology, and Social Sciences also need their Associate Dean's signature on the petition form.
Once your petition has all the required signatures, take it to the Cashier's Office (228 Administration Building) and pay the Filing Fee by the deadline, and then submit the signed petition to the Office of Graduate Studies (120 Administration).
If you do not receive permission to pay the Filing Fee, you must continue to enroll and pay the full Registration Fee until you have completed all your degree requirements.
1.2.4. Follow the Requirements in this Manual
The requirements in this manual pertain to manuscript formatting, manuscript submission, and copyright matters. They take precedence over any style manuals used by your academic discipline or adopted by your committee. Since requirements change over time, it is important to note that the requirements in this manual supersede all prior editions.
Students are responsible for adherence to all requirements specified in this manual. Do not rely principally on the format of another student's thesis/dissertation when preparing your own manuscript.
The Office of Graduate Studies and the University Archives conduct quarterly workshops on the preparation and filing of theses and dissertations. You are strongly urged to attend; contact the Office of Graduate Studies for the date and time of the next session.
Bring your thesis/dissertation, along with the applicable forms (see section 5.), to the University Archives (Langson Library 525) as soon as possible after your committee has approved it.
The Archives staff reviews your manuscript to ensure that:
- The correct type of paper has been used.
- The margins, pagination, and other formatting requirements have been followed.
- All required preliminary pages are present.
- All committee members have signed the manuscript.
- Your graduate degree paperwork is complete.
If there are changes to be made as a result of this review, you must correct them before the University Archives will accept your manuscript. Before you attempt to submit your final manuscript on cotton paper, you may bring a draft to the Archives for a critique. Please see the Special Collections and Archives web site at http://special.lib.uci.edu for hours and location of the reading room.
When all is in order, the University Archives will validate your degree paperwork and submit it to the Office of Graduate Studies. Provided that you have met all other school and departmental requirements, you will then become eligible to be awarded your graduate degree.
1.3.1. Your Manuscript After Submission
All approved thesis/dissertation manuscripts completed by UCI students automatically become available for public access and circulation as part of the UC Irvine Libraries collection. The UC Irvine Libraries retain the original and one copy of your thesis/dissertation manuscript. The copy is bound and shelved in the stacks for public access and circulation. The original becomes part of the University Archives and is not available for circulation. Manuscripts from the "hard" sciences are shelved in the Science Library; all others are shelved in the Langson Library.
Dissertations are published by UMI Dissertation Services (a division of ProQuest Information and Learning Company) or another designated firm approved by UCI that makes dissertations available worldwide through an online index. In addition, abstracts are printed and indexed in Dissertation Abstracts International.
The time needed for microfilming, cataloging, and binding varies; allow a minimum of five months for the entire process from submission of your manuscript to the University Archives to the time your manuscript is available for circulation.
[2. Preparing Your Manuscript]
 Back to Table of Contents |
Top of Page  |
