harvard dissertation template

The Thesis Process

The thesis is an opportunity to work independently on a research project of your own design and contribute to the scholarly literature in your field. You emerge from the thesis process with a solid understanding of how original research is executed and how to best communicate research results. Many students have gone on to publish their research in academic or professional journals.

To ensure affordability, the per-credit tuition rate for the 8-credit thesis is the same as our regular course tuition. There are no additional fees (regular per-credit graduate tuition x 8 credits).

Below are the steps that you need to follow to fulfill the thesis requirement. Please know that through each step, you will receive guidance and mentorship.

1. Meet with Your Research Advisor

Upon admission to the program, set up an introductory meeting with your Research Advisor to discuss potential thesis topics as well as course selections that can support your thesis path. 

When you have completed between 24 and 32 credits, you work more intensively with your assigned Research Advisor to determine a specific thesis topic.

Log in to MyDCE , then ALB/ALM Community to schedule an appointment with your assigned Research Advisor via the Degree Candidate Portal.

Failure to work with your Research Advisor initially and then more intensively may result in your Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP) Application not being approved (see below) and/or the selection of a different thesis topic.  

Thesis Topic Selection Guidelines

Every effort is made to support research interests that are grounded in your ALM course work, but faculty guidance is not available for all possible projects. Therefore, revision or a change of thesis topic may be necessary.

• The above point about topic selection is particularly pertinent to scientific research (e.g., biology) that is dependent upon laboratory space, project funding, and access to private databases.
• This point is also critical for our candidates in ALM, liberal arts fields (i.e., anthropology, English, government, history, international relations, psychology, and religion) who are required to have Harvard faculty direct their thesis projects. Review Harvard’s course catalog online ( My.Harvard.edu ) to be sure that there are faculty teaching courses related to your thesis topic. If faculty are not available, you will need to choose an alternative topic.
• Your topic choice must be a new area of research for you. You cannot re-purpose prior research. If you want to draw or expand upon your own previously written scholarship for a small portion of your thesis, you need to obtain the explicit permission of your research advisor and cite the work in both the proposal and thesis. Violations of this policy will be referred to the Administrative Board.

We’ve put together this guide  to help frame your thinking about thesis topic selection.

While it is natural to follow your interests in selecting a thesis topic, it is important to avoid choosing a topic where your own passions might produce insurmountable biases and assumptions. A thesis is not a piece of advocacy work where you are out to prove something that you already believe. Thesis projects must take a fair and balanced stance by bringing in differing points of view from respected scholars in the field. 

2. Prepare Your Crafting the Thesis Proposal Application

Once you and your Research Advisor have confirmed your thesis topic, the next step in the process is to prepare and submit the CTP Application in order to gain registration approval for the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP) tutorial or course.

The CTP Application process confirms that you have done enough prior reading and thinking about your thesis topic to generate a pertinent and answerable research question. Pre-CTP preparation is critical as it helps to ensure that you will benefit from and succeed in the CTP.

Application Approvals and Denials. Your Research Advisor will provide feedback on your CTP Application.  If your application is not approved after 3 submissions, your Research Advisor cannot approve your CTP registration. 

If not approved, you’ll need to take additional time for further revisions and submit a new CTP Application during the next CTP submission cycle (if your five-year degree completion date allows).

Application Eligibility Requirements. To be eligible to submit a CTP Application, you need to (1) be in good standing and (2) have completed a minimum of 32 degree-applicable credits, including the research methods/statistics and Engaging in Scholarly Conversation requirement, if required for your field.

Advising Note for Psychology Candidates View More

Students in psychology sometimes face difficulty securing necessary IRB approvals for certain projects. For this reason, Research Advisors will not approve proposals that raise significant concerns about feasibility. Such concerns include cases where projects would require the researcher to possess a level of expertise or experience exceeding documented capabilities, as well as instances where the researcher is unlikely to be able to obtain appropriate faculty supervision for a proposed topic, question, method, or procedure. You must schedule an appointment with your Research Advisor at least three months in advance of the CTP Application deadlines to discuss potential research projects to ensure adequate time for assistance in developing a viable project idea.

Advising Note for Biology and former Biotechnology and Bioengineering and Nanotechnology Candidates View More

Thesis projects in these fields are designed to support ongoing scientific research happening in Harvard University, other academic institutions, or life science industry labs and usually these are done under the direction of a principal investigator (PI). Hence, you need to have a thesis director approved by your research advisor  prior  to submitting CTP Application. Your CTP Application is then framed by the lab’s research. Schedule an appointment with your research advisor a few months in advance of the CTP Application deadlines in order to discuss potential research projects and thesis director assignment.

The CTP Application is sent to our central email box:  [email protected] by the following firm deadlines:

• June 1 for fall CTP
• November 1 for spring CTP.  
• September 1 for the three-week January session (ALM sustainability candidates only)
• International sustainability students who need a student visa to attend Harvard Summer School must be officially admitted to the degree program before February 1, must submit the CTP Application on February 1, and must register for the CTP course on March 1 in order to submit timely I-20 paperwork. See international students guidelines for more information.

3. Register and Successfully Complete Crafting the Thesis Proposal

Once your CTP Application is approved, you register for the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP) tutorial or course as you would any other degree requirement.

The goal of the CTP is to produce a complete, well-written draft of a proposal containing all of the sections required by your Research Advisor. Creating an academically strong thesis proposal sets the foundation for a high-quality thesis and helps garner the attention of a well-respected thesis director.

Thesis proposals typically include approximately 15 to 20 pages of text, in addition to any required reference sections, such as bibliographies and glossary/definition of terms.

Tutorial experience. The fall and spring CTP  tutorials are not courses in the traditional sense. Although there will be assignments for you to complete during the CTP, with due dates, and there will be times when you and your classmates meet as a group with your Research Advisor, there won’t be a regularly scheduled class meeting time for the CTP. 

The main work for the CTP will consist of your working independently on your proposal with your Research Advisor by submitting multiple drafts and scheduling individual appointments.

Grading. You need to make self-directed progress on the proposal without special prompting from the research advisor. You receive a final grade of SAT or UNSAT (failing grade).

You are expected to incorporate all of your Research Advisor’s feedback and be fully committed to producing an academically strong proposal leading to a thesis worthy of a Harvard degree. If you are unable to take advice from your Research Advisor, follow directions, or produce an acceptable proposal, you will not pass the CTP.

The CTP for sustainability is a three-week course in the traditional sense and you receive a letter grade, and it must be B- or higher to receive degree credit for the course.

Academic Integrity. Successful CTP completion also includes a check on the proper use of sources according to our academic integrity guidelines. Violations of our academic integrity policy will be referred to the Administrative Board.

Maximum of two attempts . If you don’t pass the CTP, you’ll have — if your five-year, degree-completion date allows — just one more attempt to complete the CTP before being required to withdraw from the program. If you fail the CTP just once and have no more time to complete the degree, your candidacy will automatically expire. Please note that a WD grade counts as an attempt.

If by not passing the CTP you fall into poor academic standing, you will need to take additional degree-applicable courses to return to good standing before enrolling in the CTP for your second and final time, but only if your five-year, degree-completion date allows. If you have no more time on your five-year clock, you will be required to withdraw from the program.

Human Subjects

If your thesis, regardless of field, will involve the use of human subjects (e.g., interviews, surveys, observations), you will need to have your research vetted by the  Committee on the Use of Human Subjects  (CUHS) of Harvard University. Please review the IRB Lifecycle Guide located on the CUHS website. Your research advisor will help you prepare a draft copy of the project protocol form that you will then finalize with your thesis director to send to the CUHS. 

Given the amount of time that can be required for IRB review, drafting of the required CUHS project protocol forms need to be started with your Research Advisor during the CTP tutorial, before a thesis director has been assigned.

4. Post-CTP Proposal Approval, Thesis Director Assignment, and Registration

Successfully completion of the CTP means you have completed a well-written full draft proposal. Ordinarily, this full draft is not a final accepted proposal. Most students reach the final accepted proposal stage by submitting additional changes and edits to their RA post-CTP.

Post-CTP Changes and Edits Deadline. We expect you to work diligently and quickly with your RA post-CTP to move from full draft to final proposal stage. Indeed, you should have an approved final proposal and be registered in the thesis soon after CTP completion, within weeks, but no later than 3 months. You cannot delay. If you take longer than 3 months after the CTP to register for the thesis, you may be required to retake the CTP.

Thesis Director Assignment. Once your RA has determined that your draft has reached the final proposal stage, you move to the thesis director assignment stage. The Research Advisor places you with a thesis director by sending out your final proposal to prospective Thesis Directors.

Do not approach faculty to ask about directing your thesis.  You may suggest names of any potential Thesis Directors to your Research Advisor, but it must be the Research Advisor who makes contact with them. (If they are eligible/available to direct your thesis, after you have an approved thesis proposal.) You are not permitted to approach faculty to ask them about directing your thesis.

Registration. When a Thesis Director has been identified or the thesis proposal has been fully vetted by the preassigned life science Thesis Director, you will receive a letter of authorization from the Assistant Dean of Academic Programs officially approving your thesis work and providing you with instructions on how to register for the eight-credit master’s thesis. The letter will also have a tentative graduation date as well as four mandatory thesis submission dates (see Thesis Timetable below).

When registering for the thesis, you will have two weeks to pay in full.  This is an eight-credit course, so be sure to have the necessary funds available when you register.

You must be good academic standing to register for the thesis. If not, you’ll need to complete additional courses to bring your GPA up to the 3.0 minimum prior to registration.

Thesis Submission Deadlines and Graduation Timetable

The thesis is a 9-to-12-month project that begins after the Crafting the Thesis Proposal (CTP); when your Research Advisor has approved your proposal and identified a Thesis Director.

The date for the appointment of your Thesis Director determines the graduation cycle that will be automatically assigned to you:

As you can see above, you do not submit your thesis all at once at the end, but in four phases: (1) complete draft to TD, (2) final draft to RA for format review and academic integrity check, (3) format approved draft submitted to TD for grading, and (4) upload your 100% complete graded thesis to ETDs.

Due dates for all phases for your assigned graduation cycle cannot be missed.  You must submit materials by the date indicated by 5 PM EST (even if the date falls on a weekend). If you are late, you will not be able to graduate during your assigned cycle.

If you need additional time to complete your thesis, you need to formally request an extension by emailing that petition to:  [email protected] .  Regardless of when you started, the maximum allotted time to complete your thesis, including any granted extensions of time is 12 months.

Advising Tip to Meet Your Five-Year Deadline: The last possible time you can register for the CTP to meet your five-year deadline date is the fall term two years prior or, if a sustainability student, in the January session one year prior. It is not, however, recommended to wait this long. Indeed, it is vigorously discouraged.

For example, if your five-year deadline is May 2026:

• Complete the CTP in fall 2024 (or in January 2025, if a sustainability student)
• Be assigned a Thesis Director (TD) in March/April 2025
• Begin the 9–12-month thesis project with TD
• Submit a complete draft of your thesis to your TD by February 1, 2026
• Follow through with all other submission deadlines (April 1, April 15 and May 1 — see table above)
• Graduate in May 2026

5. Working with Your Thesis Director

You must work diligently and independently, following the advice of your Thesis Director in a consistent, regular manner equivalent to full-time academic work to complete both the research and the writing phases of your thesis by your required timeline.

You are expected to incorporate all of your Thesis Director’s feedback and be fully committed to producing an academically strong thesis worthy of a Harvard degree. If you are unable to take advice from your Thesis Director, follow directions, or produce an acceptable scholarly thesis product, you will not receive a passing grade.

You are required to produce at least 50 pages of text (not including front matter and appendices). Chapter topics (e.g., introduction, background, methods, findings, conclusion) vary by field.

Once registered in the thesis, we will do a 3-month check-in with you and your Thesis Director to ensure progress is being made. If your Thesis Director reports little to no progress, the Dean of Academic Programs reserves the right to issue a thesis not complete (TNC) grade (see Thesis Grading below).

6. Thesis Template, Format Review, and Academic Integrity Check

All ALM thesis projects must written in Microsoft Word and follow a specific Harvard Extension School format. A properly formatted thesis is an explicit degree requirement; you cannot graduate without it.

You are required to use the Extension School  ALM Thesis Template  or the Extension School ALM Thesis Template for Creative Writing  (specifically designed for creative writing degree candidates). The template has all the mandatory thesis formatting built in.

Besides saving you a considerable amount of time as you write your thesis, the template ensures that your submitted thesis meets the mandatory style guidelines for margins, font, title page, table of contents, and chapter headings. If you use the template, format review should go smoothly, if not, a delayed graduation is highly likely.

Your Research Advisor will complete the format review  prior  to submitting your thesis to your Thesis Director for final grading according to the Thesis Timetable (see above).

Academic Integrity. Format review also includes a check on the proper use of sources according to our  academic integrity  guidelines. Violations of our academic integrity policy will be referred to the Administrative Board.

7. Mandatory Thesis Archiving

Once your thesis is finalized, meaning that the required grade has been earned and all edits have been completed, you must upload your thesis to Harvard University’s electronic thesis and dissertation submission system (ETDs).

Uploading your thesis ETDs is an explicit degree requirement; you cannot graduate without completing this step. Furthermore, no changes to the thesis are allowed once it has been graded and archived in ETDs.

The thesis project will be sent to several downstream systems:

• Your work will be preserved using Harvard’s digital repository DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard).
• Metadata about your work will be sent to HOLLIS (the Harvard Library catalog).
• Your work will be preserved in Harvard Library’s DRS2 (digital preservation repository).

By submitting work through ETDs @ Harvard you will be signing the Harvard Author Agreement. This license does not constrain your rights to publish your work subsequently. You retain all intellectual property rights.

For more information on Harvard’s open access initiatives, we recommend you view the Director of the Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC), Peter Suber’s brief introduction .

Thesis Grading

You need to earn a grade of B- or higher in the thesis. If you fail to complete substantial work on the thesis, you will earn a grade of TNC (thesis not complete). If you have already earned two withdrawal grades, the TNC grade will count as a zero in your cumulative GPA.

If you earn a grade below B-, you will need to petition the Administrative Board for permission to attempt the thesis for a second and final time. The petition process is only available if you are in good academic standing and your five-year, degree-completion date allows for more time. Your candidacy will automatically expire if you do not successfully complete the thesis by your required date.

If approved for a second attempt, you may be required to develop a new proposal on a different topic by re-enrolling in the CTP and being assigned a different thesis director. Tuition for the second attempt is calculated at the current year’s rate.

If by not passing the thesis you fall into poor academic standing, you’ll need to take additional degree-applicable courses to return to good standing before re-engaging with the thesis process for the second and final time. This is only an option if your five-year, degree-completion date allows for more time.

The Board only reviews cases in which extenuating circumstances prevented the successful completion of the thesis.

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Beautiful LaTeX dissertation templates.

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Dissertate is a set of beautiful LaTeX templates for a thesis or dissertation. Here's a sample .

Note : You can download the templates here:

• UC Berkeley

One of the biggest hurdles in submitting a thesis or dissertation is getting the formatting right — the rules are arcane, and the registrar is pedantic. Few students have the background needed to design and typeset clean and stylish documents. Enter Dissertate. Dissertate is a set of beautiful LaTeX templates for a thesis or dissertation. To date, the software provides everything needed to support the production and typesetting of a PhD dissertation at Harvard, Princeton, NYU, and UC Berkeley, though it will be adapted to meet the requirements of other schools — eventually all of them. The format and styling are based closely on the requirements published by each university's registrar.

Examples of Dissertations using Dissertate

Austrailian national university.

• Duong, Ly. (2018). Unravelling the evolution of the Galactic stellar disk & bulge [Doctoral dissertation, Austrailian National University].

Flinders University

• Szpak, Ancrêt. L. (2015). The Social Space Around Us: the effect of social distance on spatial attention [Doctoral dissertation, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia].

Friedrich–Alexander University Erlangen–Nürnberg

• Harutyunyan, Nikolay. (2019). Corporate Open Source Governance of Software Supply Chains [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU)].

Harvard College & Harvard University

• Ayala, Peter. (2019). Evaluating Stock Market Performance Using Aggregated Employee Reviews [Bachelor's thesis, Harvard College].
• Dimiduk, Thomas. G. (2016). Holographic Microscopy for Soft Matter and Biophysics [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts].
• Fu, Daniel. Y. (2018). Design of Influencing Agents for Flocking in Low-Density Settings [Senior thesis, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts].
• Garruss, Alexander Shineman. (2020). Accelerating the Understanding and Design of Intracellular Biosensors by Massively Multiplexed Experimentation and Machine Learning (Pulication No. 28265270) [Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University].
• Limor, Gultchin. (2017). [ Just for Laughts: Utilizing Machine Learning to Rate and Generate Humorous Analogies ]( https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/38811513 [Senior thesis, Harvard College].
• Randle, Dylan L. (2020). Unsupervised Neural Network Methods for Solvong Differential Equations [Master's thesis, Harvard University].
• Xiong, Zhaoxi. (2019). Classification and Construction of Topological Phases of Quantum Matter [Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts].]

Hokkaido University

• Zhai, Hongjie. (2018). Study on Discovery and Exploration Systems Considering User’s Intention [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Hokkaido University].

Humboldt University of Berlin

• Lubitz, Timo. (2016). From signal to metabolism: A journey through the regulatory layers of the cell [Doctoral dissertation, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin].

National University of Singapore

• Lim Yong San, Gilbert. (2015). Automated Methods for Retinopathy and Glaucoma Screening [Doctoral dissertation, National University of Singapore].

New York University

• Heinrich, Lukas. (2019). Searches for Supersymmetry, RECAST, and Contributions to Computational High Energy Physics (Publication No. 13421570) [Doctoral dissertation, New York University].

Paris-East Créteil University

• Buczkowska, Sabina. (2017). Quantitative models of establishments location choices : spatial effects and strategic interactions [Doctoral dissertation, Université Paris-Est].

Paris Sciences et Lettres University

• Saussay, Aurelien. (2018). Trois essais sur les prix de l'énergie et la transition énergétique [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, de l’Université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres PSL Research University].

Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg

• Malygin, Mykola G. (2016). Gas Opacity in Planet and Star Formation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ruperto Carola Universitat].

Saint Martin’s University

• Lentz, Jotham C. (2018). A Fuzzy Architecture for Robotics Sensor Information Integration [Master's thesis, Saint Martin’s University, Lacey, Washington].
• Mortimer, Laura A. (2017). Fluid Velocity Vector Field Measurement in Synovial Joints [Master's thsis, Saint Martin’s University, Lacey, Washington].

Stanford University

• Hawkins, Robert. D. (2019). Coordinating on meaning in communication [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, Stanford, CA].

Technical University of Darmstadt

• Leonard, Mark. Ryan. (2019). Robust Signal Processing in Distributed Sensor Networks [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Technische Universität Darmstadt].

The Polytechnic University of Catalonia

• Pérez, Víctor Javier Jiménez. (2016). Improving the Efficiency of Multicore Systems Through Software and Hardware Cooperation [Doctoral dissertation, Universitat Politè cnica de Catalunya – Barcelona Tech Barcelona].

University of Amsterdam

• Lê, Hoàng-Ân. (2021). Outdoor image understanding from multiple vision modalities [Doctoral dissertation, University of Amsterdam].

University of Birmingham

• Kuszlewicz, James. Stevenson. (2017). Buoyancy-driven oscillations in helio- and asteroseismology [Doctoral dissertation, University of Birmingham].

University of Bologna

• Asri, Ankush. (2019). When Giulia and Andrea meet Salma and Omar: Essays on cultural adaptation [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universit´a di Bologna].

Universite de Bordeaux

• Golemo, Florian. (2018). How to Train Your Robot - New Environments for Robotic Training and New Methods for Transferring Policies from the Simulator to the Real Robot [Doctoral dissertation, Universite de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France].

University of California, Berkeley

• Langlois, Thomas A. (2018). Uncovering Human Visual Priors (Publication No. 10931026) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley].
• Meylan, Stephan C. (2018). Representing linguistic knowledge with probabilistic models (Publication No. 10931065) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley].
• Pacer, M D. (2016). Mind as Theory Engine: Causation, Explanation and Time (Publication No. 10194103) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley].
• Peterson, Joshua C. (2018). Leveraging deep neural networks to study human cognition (Pulication No. 10930700) [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley].

University of Cambridge

• Qin, Chongli. (2020). Phylogenetic Signals in Protein Data [Doctoral dissertation, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire].

University of Groningen

• Driesprong, F. T. (2015). Web-scale outlier detection [Master's thesis, University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands].

University of Mannheim

• Pietrantuono, Giuseppe. (2016). The Value of Citizenship. Experimental and Quasi-experimental Evidence from Germany and Switzerland [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Mannheim].

University of Oldenburg

• Hornauer, Sascha Alexander. (2016). Maritime Trajectory Negotiation for n-Vessel Collision Avoidance [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universität Oldenburg].

University of Paris Sud

• Li, Chuan. (2014). Superconducting proximity effect in Graphene and Bi nanowire junctions [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Paris Sud].

University of Virginia

• Yanhaona, Muhammad. Nur. (2017). PCubeS Type Architecture and IT Programming Language [Doctoral dissertation, University of Virgina].

University of Warsaw

• Dittwald, Piotr. (2014). Computational methods for large-scale data in medical diagnostics [Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Warsaw].

The University of Western Ontario

• Shannon, Matthew. (2016). The Spectral Variability of Astronomical PAHs [Published doctoral dissertation, The University of Western Ontario].

University of Zurich

• Asri, Maria Viola. (2021). Social Pensions for Greying India – Empirical Analyses of Potential Effectiveness Constraints [Doctoral dissertation, University of Zurich].

Yale University

• Vlastakis, Brian Michael. (2015). Controlling coherent state superpositions with superconducting circuits (Publication No. 10013061) [Doctoral dissertation, Yale University].

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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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• Dissertation

Requirements, deadlines, and other information on preparing and submitting a dissertation.

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PhD candidates must successfully complete and submit a dissertation to qualify for degree conferral. It is perhaps the most important and far-reaching undertaking in the entire doctoral program, having an impact that extends well beyond graduate studies. 

Requirements and Deadlines 

Each graduate program maintains specific requirements for the content and evaluation of the dissertation. Be sure to review your program’s departmental requirements prior to beginning the process. You should also review Harvard Griffin GSAS’s dissertation policies for important information about formatting, submission, and publishing and distribution options, including embargoes.  

Degrees are awarded in November, March, and May. Dissertation submission deadlines are noted in the Degree Calendar section of Policies . 

Help with the Dissertation 

Library research .

It’s never too early to start planning for your dissertation. The Harvard Library can help! The Library maintains a guide for graduate students engaged in scholarly writing titled the Writing Oasis . They also offer access to Overleaf , which is an online LaTeX and Rich Text collaborative writing and publishing tool that makes the process of academic writing, editing, and publishing quicker and easier. Overleaf has a section on Writing Your Dissertation that you may find useful.  

Writing 

Students can find support with planning and preparing to write the dissertation from their academic advisors and programs. The Fellowships & Writing Center also offers workshops on various aspects of dissertation writing, holds brainstorming office hours during which students may discuss their dissertations, and provides written feedback on dissertation chapters.  

Dissertation Completion Fellowships 

Harvard Griffin GSAS provides a dissertation completion fellowship (DCF) for one academic year to eligible PhD students in the humanities and social sciences who anticipate completing their dissertations within the year. Find out more in Policies .

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While Sandel argues that pursuing perfection through genetic engineering would decrease our sense of humility, he claims that the sense of solidarity we would lose is also important.

This thesis summarizes several points in Sandel’s argument, but it does not make a claim about how we should understand his argument. A reader who read Sandel’s argument would not also need to read an essay based on this descriptive thesis.  

Broad thesis (arguable, but difficult to support with evidence) 

Michael Sandel’s arguments about genetic engineering do not take into consideration all the relevant issues.

This is an arguable claim because it would be possible to argue against it by saying that Michael Sandel’s arguments do take all of the relevant issues into consideration. But the claim is too broad. Because the thesis does not specify which “issues” it is focused on—or why it matters if they are considered—readers won’t know what the rest of the essay will argue, and the writer won’t know what to focus on. If there is a particular issue that Sandel does not address, then a more specific version of the thesis would include that issue—hand an explanation of why it is important.  

Arguable thesis with analytical claim 

While Sandel argues persuasively that our instinct to “remake” (54) ourselves into something ever more perfect is a problem, his belief that we can always draw a line between what is medically necessary and what makes us simply “better than well” (51) is less convincing.

This is an arguable analytical claim. To argue for this claim, the essay writer will need to show how evidence from the article itself points to this interpretation. It’s also a reasonable scope for a thesis because it can be supported with evidence available in the text and is neither too broad nor too narrow.  

Arguable thesis with normative claim 

Given Sandel’s argument against genetic enhancement, we should not allow parents to decide on using Human Growth Hormone for their children.

This thesis tells us what we should do about a particular issue discussed in Sandel’s article, but it does not tell us how we should understand Sandel’s argument.  

Questions to ask about your thesis 

• Is the thesis truly arguable? Does it speak to a genuine dilemma in the source, or would most readers automatically agree with it?  
• Is the thesis too obvious? Again, would most or all readers agree with it without needing to see your argument?  
• Is the thesis complex enough to require a whole essay's worth of argument?  
• Is the thesis supportable with evidence from the text rather than with generalizations or outside research?  
• Would anyone want to read a paper in which this thesis was developed? That is, can you explain what this paper is adding to our understanding of a problem, question, or topic?
• picture_as_pdf Thesis

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RGU Harvard Templates: Dissertations, Theses

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RGU Harvard Templates

Print Dissertations/Theses

Please ensure that you follow the template exactly, including text formatting (CAPITALS, italics ), and any punctuation.

AUTHOR'S SURNAME, First Initial(s)., Year of approval of the degree by the awarding institution. Title of thesis or dissertation. Type, Name of the degree awarding institution.

Paraphrasing / Summarising

(Brown 2003)

Brown (2003) identifies that...

"..." (Brown 2003 p. 215)

According to Brown (2003 p. 215), "..."

Reference List :

BROWN, C.M., 2003. The provision of information to prisoners in Scotland: an investigation into the requirement and current methods of delivery with recommendations for a framework of effective information provision. Unpublished MSc dissertation/thesis, The Robert Gordon University.

Electronic Dissertations/Theses

AUTHOR'S SURNAME, First Initial(s)., Year of approval of the degree by the awarding institution. Title of thesis or dissertation. [online]. Type, Name of the degree awarding institution. Available from: URL [Accessed date].

(Sutton 2007)

Sutton (2007) identifies that...

"..." (Sutton 2007 p. 120)

According to Sutton (2007 p. 120), "..."

SUTTON, I., 2007. An assessment of hand drilling potential in upland and lowland Dambo environments of Malawi. [online]. MSc dissertation/thesis, Cranfield University. Available from: http://protosh2o.act.be/VIRTUELE_BIB/ [Accessed 15 May 2014].

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• Harvard Library
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Research Guide for CES Visiting Scholars

• Dissertations & Theses
• HOLLIS (and other) Catalogs
• Finding Primary Sources Online
• Outline of Primary Sources for History
• Periodicals/Articles
• Policy Reports
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Dissertations

General sources, german, dutch, and scandinavian dissertations, electronic dissertations.

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This page lists resources for dissertations (general and RLL-related) along with information on electronic dissertations. In general, Harvard's Interlibrary Loan service cannot obtain dissertations; in many cases you'll need to acquire directly from the institution where the work was submitted. 

To find doctoral dissertations from North American universities and some European institutions, search:

Dissertations and Theses Full Text

This is the largest database with 2.7 million citations for Masters and PhD dissertations. Full text for most dissertations from 1997 on (at this writing, 1.2 million full text dissertations available for download in PDF format). Hosted by ProQuest. Use Harvard's Get It Interlibrary Loan link to request print dissertations.

  Harvard dissertations and theses

As above, most of these from 1997 are available via ProQuest.

Havard dissertations and theses since 2012 are also available in our online repository, DASH , and in HOLLIS. If a dissertation from 2012 forward is not available in full text, the author has placed an embargo on it (up to 5 years) and the library won't be able to obtain it, but you may be able to ask the author.

Use Harvard's Interlibrary Loan to obtain any theses and dissertations found by searching

Center for Research Libraries Catalog: Dissertations

Request item through Get It (ILL link)

To find print sources, search HOLLIS Classic: Subject beginning with... e.g. Dissertations, Academic--France--Bibliography.

dissonline.de Search for German and Swiss electronic dissertations and "Habilitationen." For dissertations that have not been digitized, search the catalog of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek .

Gegnir (IS) Click on "Námsritgerðir" (Icelandic interface) or "Thesis search" (English interface) to limit to dissertations.

HELKA (FI) Select the Advanced Search and "Väitöskirja/Dissertation or Thesis" from the search box.

Det Kongelige Bibliotek/The Danish Royal Library (DK) Search on "thesis," "dissertation," or "afhandling" (the latter if you want dissertations in Danish) together with your search terms.

Libris (SE) Select "Dissertations" under "Type of publication" box to limit your search to dissertations.

Nasjonalbiblioteket (NO) Select "Post graduate theses" in the search box to limit your search to dissertations.

National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System (NARCIS): Promise of Science   (NL) The "Promise of Science" provides access to over 21,000 full-text doctoral e-theses from all Dutch universities. It is a subset of NARCIS and DAREnet. Dates of coverage vary, but dissertations are mostly from recent years.

Österreichische Dissertationsdatenbank (AU) This database references over 55,000 dissertations and theses held at Austrian Universities; select dissertations are available online.

Ongoing research and development in the e-sphere:

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , an inter national organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).

The Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations A wiki maintained by the NDLTD ETD Revision Team. Addresses issues for submission and administration of e-dissertations, whether born-digital or digital versions of print documents.

The European Working Group of the NDLTD is the DART-Europe E-theses Portal (DEEP). Intended to be the single European portal for dissertations, DART-Europe is a collaboration of research libraries and library consortia, endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche).

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