ubc thesis submission deadline

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Graduate students can find "how to" guides and support information on our Workday support page .

NOTE ON DEADLINES: Thesis approval deadlines are for having your thesis fully approved in cIRcle, not just submitted. You are expected to submit at least five days ahead of any deadline in order to allow yourself time to make any needed corrections.

This section is only for final, post-defence submission of theses and dissertations.

Note on terminology: The term "thesis" in this section of the website is used collectively to refer to both master's theses and doctoral dissertations.

Final theses and dissertations are submitted electronically to the Library's electronic repository, cIRcle, where they will be open access.

[CREATIVE ARTS ONLY (Master of Fine Arts/Master of Music): As of October 21, 2017 , for MFA and MMus theses only, you may choose to submit to the collection in cIRcle “Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Creative Arts, 2017+ (CWL ACCESS)”. Access to this collection is permanently restricted to individuals who have a Campus-Wide Login (CWL). The collection is not available to the public. Please see cIRcle: Uploading Electronic Creative Arts Theses and cIRcle: File Format Guidelines .

You must submit your  final, defended thesis electronically to UBC's online information repository, cIRcle . PDF files must be compatible with Adobe Acrobat version 5, and must not be in "secured" format or password-protected . cIRcle does not accept secured or password-protected PDFs due to access and preservation concerns. A scan to PDF is not acceptable. If you have questions, please contact the cIRcle staff .

Your thesis will be reviewed for formatting by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and approved for inclusion in cIRcle. Your program cannot be closed and you will not be eligible to graduate until the content and formatting of the thesis have been officially approved and you have received an official email confirming final approval of your thesis. It is your responsibility to submit a thesis in the correct format and allow time for revisions to be complete in order to meet deadlines.

Note about pre-reviews: If you are preparing for final submission, your thesis will be reviewed more quickly if you submit directly to cIRcle rather than emailing it for review.

We recommend you submit your thesis a minimum of 3 - 5 business days before any deadline , as corrections may be required. Particularly around deadlines, the thesis team is exceptionally busy and there will be delays in activating accounts and reviewing theses. Additionally, you will need time to make any necessary corrections, as your thesis must be approved and accepted into cIRcle (not just submitted) in order for you to meet deadlines.

Thesis Availability

Your thesis will be available online in 3 - 4 days.

IMPORTANT:  If you would like to delay publication of your thesis , you must obtain approval from the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies before submitting your thesis.

Submitting Doctoral Dissertation for External Examination

For information on submitting a doctoral dissertation for transmittal to the External Examiner, please see the Final Doctoral Oral Examinations section of this website.

Checking the Thesis

Please use Resources for Thesis Checking to check formatting before attempting to submit your thesis.

Proofreading

Important: It is your responsibility to proofread your thesis carefully before submitting the final version, and to make sure that the thesis you submit is complete, accurate, and free of errors. You cannot make changes to your thesis after it has been accepted into cIRcle, so you will not be able to correct any errors after your final submission. Check for:

• consistent, sequential numbering of sections
• consistent abbreviations and units of measure
• correct symbols and special characters
• consistent headings and capitalization
• consistent line spacing and table formatting
• typographical errors
• grammatical errors

Proofreading is primarily your responsibility, but supervisors and examiners should not sign off on theses until they are free of errors.

The thesis team checks theses to ensure theses meet the formatting requirements, focusing on the preliminary pages and file names. If staff notice egregious mistakes elsewhere in a thesis they may require them to be corrected in the interest of ensuring a professional presentation of the work.

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Essential Tips for UBC Thesis or Dissertation Submission

By Amber Saundry on Sep 19, 2023

Photo courtesy: UBC Brand & Marketing

All UBC graduate students are required to submit their thesis or dissertation to cIRcle, UBC Library’s openly available digital repository, which currently holds more than 51,000 UBC theses and dissertations dating back to 1919.

If you’re a graduate student ready to submit your thesis or dissertation, we’ve outlined key steps on cIRcle’s Theses and Dissertations page . In this blog post, we’re highlighting some essential tips for a smooth process.

Who can help if I have questions?

Though cIRcle is the repository for UBC theses and dissertations, your Graduate Studies website is the first place to go for any questions about deadlines, preparation (including delay of publication & formatting), and submission (including account activation).

If the website does not answer your questions, UBC Vancouver students may contact Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS, [email protected] ), while UBC Okanagan students may contact the College of Graduate Studies (CoGS, [email protected] ).

Thesis approval deadlines mean your thesis or dissertation must be approved in cIRcle by G+PS (UBC Vancouver) or CoGS (UBC Okanagan) before the deadline passes.

This means you need to complete post-defense finalizations, request any necessary permissions, complete formatting, submit, and complete any requested corrections before your thesis or dissertation can be approved.  Any and all of these steps can take time!

Check permissions and consider embargo requirements

As the author, you are responsible for ensuring your thesis or dissertation complies with Canadian copyright law.  In some cases, you may need time to request necessary permissions to include particular components that were not created by you.  The Copyright at UBC Office has extensive information about your copyright and your thesis or dissertation , and can be contacted if you have specific questions.

During your submission to cIRcle, you’ll complete the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License .  You’ll retain copyright, while providing UBC the rights necessary to distribute and preserve your thesis or dissertation. Your thesis or dissertation will be licensed for use under a Creative Commons (CC) license , which indicates how others can share, use, and/or adapt your work.

If you need more time to complete publications or patent applications based on your thesis or dissertation research, or there’s a significant reason your work should not be released immediately, you may need to consider application of an embargo period.  You must do this after your defense, but before you proceed with submission to cIRcle .  For more information, see G+PS’ How to Request a Delay in Publication (UBC Vancouver) or CoGS’ Post-Defence Submission (UBC Okanagan).

Review formatting requirements

Your thesis or dissertation must conform to the specifications of the university, in both structure and formatting.

For thesis or dissertation preparation and formatting, UBC Vancouver students should refer to  G+PS’ Dissertation & Thesis Preparation and Formatting Requirements , while UBC Okanagan students should refer to CoGS’ Thesis and Dissertation Preparation .

Create a cIRcle account and request authorization

Before you can submit your thesis or dissertation, you must:

• Ensure your completed forms are submitted to G+PS/CoGS (as applicable).
• Create a cIRcle account .
• Send an e-mail with your name and cIRcle account e-mail to G+PS/CoGS (as applicable) in order to be authorized to submit to a thesis/dissertation collection .

You will be notified when your cIRcle account has been authorized, and you can proceed with submission. See G+PS’s Final Submission Instructions (UBC Vancouver) or CoGS’ Post-Defence Submission (UBC Okanagan) for necessary forms and more information.

Once you are ready to submit your thesis or dissertation, cIRcle provides a step-by-step submission guide .

For Master of Fine Arts/Music students only, there is an option to submit to a campus wide login (CWL)-access collection in cIRcle.  You can follow the associated step-by-step submission guide .

After you submit

Once submitted, G+PS (UBC Vancouver) or CoGS (UBC Okanagan) will review your thesis or dissertation, and notify you if you are required to complete any changes and re-submit (so keep a close eye on your e-mail).  Once your thesis or dissertation has undergone approval by G+PS/CoGS, you will receive a confirmation e-mail, and cannot make further changes.

After approval by G+PS/CoGS, your thesis or dissertation will undergo final review by the Library, which takes 1-3 business days.  Upon approval by the Library, you will receive an e-mail notification with the persistent URL for your thesis or dissertation. You’ll be able to view your thesis or dissertation online (unless you’ve requested an embargo) and it’ll be assigned a digital object identifier (DOI) that can be used to share and cite your work.

Congratulations! Your work can now be viewed around the world and will be preserved for future generations in the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection.

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UBC Theses and Dissertations

Open collections, limit this search.

The UBC Theses and Dissertations collection promotes open and comprehensive access to a significant body of unique knowledge created by graduate students to support further research and for private study. The authors retain copyright ownership and moral rights to their theses. The content of theses may not be re-purposed or exploited for commercial gain without the explicit permission of the authors.

UBC graduate students began submitting their theses online via cIRcle, UBC’s digital repository, in fall 2007, a practice that both simplified the submission process and also ensured the availability of this research to a global audience in a timely manner. As of March 2012, UBC Library has digitized and made openly accessible the full-text of more than 32,000 theses submitted by graduate students between 1919 and 2007. In addition to providing information about specific fields of study these theses also reveal important information about changes in pedagogy at the University and within academic disciplines. Authors concerned about having their pre-2007 theses included as part of this collection can notify [email protected] to have their thesis removed. Similarly, if copyrighted material appears in a thesis the copyright owner can request that material be removed.

Browse Theses & Dissertations

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Theses and Dissertations

Finding theses and dissertations.

• University of British Columbia
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This guide will assist you in finding theses and dissertations at UBC,as well as Canadian, American and international institutions. If you need additional assistance, please contact your subject librarian or visit an Information Desk at UBC Library .

Note on terminology: we normally refer to master's theses and doctoral dissertations . All are graduate theses. The generic term thesis is used here, unless it is necessary to distinguish between master's and doctoral theses. 

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• Last Updated: Feb 1, 2022 2:35 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.ubc.ca/theses

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Dissertation & Thesis Formatting Frequently Asked Questions

By Allan Cho on July 30, 2020

[Updated August 1, 2020]

The following are frequently asked questions regarding dissertation and thesis formatting.   We provide the following information as further support to answering commonly asked questions.  

Using memos in the body of a thesis. I am not aware of any UBC-specific formatting rules for memos. In other words, the UBC Grad Studies page has rules for block quotes but not for other things like memos. What about consistency? What about “complete memos” at the end of the thesis as appendices, but a shortened memo as a block paragraph in one of her chapters. Is this permissible? 

• APA has its own rules about writing memos, so  this is a grey area where citation style may/may not affect formatting in the thesis
• Please check with your department supervisor and also with previous dissertations/theses in your area of research for examples and best practices

Are there any formatting rules for creating captions for images/tables/figures that are in appendices? And is it a requirement to have these captions included in the Table of images/tables/figures of a thesis?

• No, there are no specific rules for captions in the appendices 
• Appendices must be limited to supporting material genuinely subsidiary to the main argument of the thesis. They must only include material that is referred to in the thesis.
• The following are appropriate for inclusion in the appendices:
• Additional details of methodology and/or data.
• Diagrams of specialized equipment developed.
• Copies of questionnaires or surveys used in the research.

How does citation style its impact paragraph spacing?   In my thesis, there is a space between every new section, sub-section, et cetera. But how would this change if a student is required to follow a very specific citation format?  (e.g. APA format in the thesis). 

• APA recommends no additional spaces between the start of new paragraphs/sections
• As a recommendation, you can go to Open Collections [ https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses ], and find recent previous submissions from your department.  

If you are still unsure, please contact your supervisor/advisor 

What is the main distinction between th e Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G&PS) p re-review service and the RC Thesis Formatting service? 

• G+PS offers a general review to see if you’re on the right path with very general guidelines; it won’t answer any specific questions about formatting or other services
• RC service will help refer you to correct resources for more nuanced questions (e.g. Copyright, ethics approval, etc.)
• RC provides a pre-formatted dissertation template for you to populate with your content
• RC provides support using this template 
• RC offers one-on-one consultations for specific questions on your template

What is the turn-around time for G&PS pre-reviews?

• According to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (G&PS), it is 2-weeks.

What are the deadlines for Dissertation and Thesis Formatting submission?

• For most updated deadlines, go here: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/deadlines?type=deadline&deadline_type=571

Do I  have the option to embargo my work?

Yes, all information about delaying and embargo of your thesis/dissertation can be found on G+PS – https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-dissertation-thesis-submission/delaying-publication-your-thesis

If I am an undergraduate student, should I still be using the Thesis Formatting template even though it seems to be intended for graduate students? Are there any formatting differences between an undergraduate thesis and a graduate thesis?

• Each undergraduate department may have its own specifications.  As undergraduates fall outside of the Faculty of Graduate + Postdoctoral Studies (G+PS), please contact your own department
• The Institutional Repository (cIRcle) has an archive of previous undergraduate theses with information on submission – https://circle.ubc.ca/submissions/submit-content/undergraduate/#fragment-5c201678217a9eeb6fca4f2cf24394f9-0

I found that in the thesis template, Chapter 1 doesn’t start at page 1 after the roman numerals.  I hope you can help me with this. It might be a problem with the Table of Content.  I am using the UBC thesis template.

• For your pagination issue, you can start with the two guides:
• How to guide:  PC (p.2)     Mac (p.2)
• Thesis Template User’s Guide: PC (p.4)     Mac (p.4)

I have an issue with converting my thesis into a PDF.  Some of the words (e.g. chapter headings in the table of contents and sub-section numbers) become blurry in the pdf format of the file. 

• The “blurriness” is indeed some sort of font formatting, and you can clear it as follows.  In the document, for each numbering level, click to select the number and press Ctrl+SpaceBar; this should revert font formatting to that of the underlying paragraph style.  Resource from: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/list-number-blurry-multilevel-list/ddd957aa-d531-4711-88e2-66fd4d7594fc
• The problem can be the PDF converter program. Sometimes, the PDF converter program may need to be reinstalled on the computer.  Try it again after reinstallation.

I need to create sub-sections in my Appendix C (e.g., C.2.1, C.4.1.1), but I don’t know how to do that. The UBC Research Commons template seems to only program to Heading 8.

Secondly, I also don’t know why the figure name sequence does not work in Appendices.

• First, Copy the template caption into Appendix B as it shows Figure 0.1. 
• Second, Right click the “0” choosing “edit field” and then change the file properties to Heading 7 (this is the heading level for appendices in the template). 
• Third, right-click the “1” choosing “edit field”.   The original field code is “SEQFigure \* ARABIC \s 2 “, the 2 after \s resets the sequence after each Heading 2, but appendices are under Heading 7.
• Fourth, change the whole code to “SEQFigure \* ARABIC \s 7 “
• Lastly, update the table of figures 
• ** Remember to separate each figure/table with its own page so that the Table of Contents will reflect these new sub-appendices

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Examination

The purpose of both the Master’s Thesis Oral Examination and the Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination is for the student to independently defend their dissertation. The examinations are also intended to serve as confirmation of the student’s knowledge of the research topic within the context of their field(s) of study.

In order to safeguard and promote the quality of graduate education, all students in thesis-based graduate programs must defend their dissertation in an oral examination before the degree can be granted. Both examinations are approved by the College of Graduate Studies.

Prior to the final defense, candidates must have fulfilled all coursework, examination and language requirements of the degree program. It is the responsibility of the candidate’s graduate program to ensure that all of these requirements have been met and that the candidate’s language proficiency is sufficient for the examination to be conducted with full communication between the committee and the candidate.

Both the Master’s Thesis Oral Examination and the Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination are considered public events at UBC Okanagan, and as such will be conducted in English.

To schedule an exam, create a committee or request approval for an examiner, please see the  Supervisors, Supervisory Committees, and Graduate Program Coordinators section  of our  Graduate Policy and Procedure Manual  and use the forms found below.

Remote Defences and Examinations

Master’s thesis defences and PhD oral examinations may be held remotely or in person.

If your thesis defence or oral examination is happening remotely, please see the resources below

Final Master’s Thesis Oral Examination

Master’s thesis defence resource.

Timeline to Defence Graphic: Master’s Thesis

Master’s Initiating Examination Forms

Notice of Master’s Thesis Oral Examination

This form is to be completed by the supervisor and delivered to CoGS either in hard-copy form or via email to initiate the scheduling of the defence. The form identifies the members of the Supervisory Committee members participating on the Examining Committee, the University Examiner and the Neutral Chair.  This form must be signed off by the graduate student, supervisor and program coordinator for approval by the Dean.

Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner Form

This form is to be used by a supervisor who is requesting the approval of a proposed external examiner.

Final Master’s Thesis Oral Examination – Neutral Chair’s Report

This form is sent to the Neutral Chair from the supervisor via email prior to the examination date. This form records the voting outcome by the examining committee for the student. The Neutral Chair ensures the University Examiner, and Examining Committee members have all signed the outcome selected. The Chair records their comments and observations before signing off.  All ballots are to be attached to the form as part of the process. The form is submitted to Graduate Studies 48 hours after the examination is completed by the Chair.

Masters Thesis Oral Examination Neutral Chair Responsibilities

This document can be sent to the Neutral Chair by the supervisor via email prior to the examination. It outlines the step-by-step responsibilities and procedures for the Neutral Chair.

Voting Ballots

The voting ballots are to be sent to the Neutral Chair by the supervisor via email prior to the examination.

Masters Thesis Oral Examination Announcement

This announcement form is posted on the College of Graduate Studies bulletin board and on UBC calendar events.

Final Oral Examination Committee Member Report

If the examiners are unable to achieve unanimity regarding the defense and/or the oral examination or the examiners choose, there must be no further discussion regarding that component of the examination and the Neutral Chair must select “Failure to Reach Unanimous Decision” on the Final Master’s Thesis Oral Examination Report and immediately inform the College of Graduate Studies of “lack of unanimity”. This form is also used if examiners choose ‘fail’. Each Examination Committee member (including the University Examiner) must provide a confidential Final Oral Examination Committee Member Report to the Dean of Graduate Studies explaining the reasons for their recommendation within five business days.

Master’s Final Submission Forms

Required forms.

Master’s Thesis Approval and Program Completion Form This form confirms that the student has completed all program requirements including any thesis changes that were required by the thesis defence committee.

Thesis Dissertation Submission Cover Sheet This form confirms that the thesis/dissertation is the final version that was approved by the examination committee & the supervisor, the thesis/dissertation conforms to the College of Graduate Studies formatting requirements, and acknowledges that the thesis/dissertation will be made publicly available.

Optional Forms

Request for Approval to Withhold a Dissertation Thesis from the Public Domain This form may be completed when:

• Time is required for completion and submission of a significant manuscript or patent application for a device or idea that might emerge from the thesis research
• The thesis describes something of considerable monetary potential which could, if you were given an opportunity to develop it, benefit you or the University
• Funding for the research was provided by a commercial company which has requested a delay in publication
• The thesis deals with a potentially dangerous product or process, or potential cure for a disease, for which you need more testing time before public release of the information

The following dates allow a student sufficient time to complete the thesis defence process, based on a successful defence and only minor revisions.

Students may initiate the process at any time, and have four periods to be considered for degree conferral (February, May, September or November).

February Degree Conferral 

December 7:  Last date for submission of documents/thesis to initiate a defence January 4:  Last date for the defence January 18:  Last date for submission of final documents/thesis for formatting review January 29:  Last date for the final thesis to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

APRIL PROGRAM COMPLETION/MAY DEGREE CONFERRAL

March 5:  Last date for submission of documents/thesis to initiate a defence April 2:  Last date for the defence April 16:  Last date for submission of final documents/thesis for formatting review April 30:  Last date for the final thesis to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

SEPTEMBER DEGREE CONFERRAL (2024 only)

June 5:  Last date for submission of documents/thesis to initiate a defence July 3:  Last date for the defence July 17:  Last date for submission of final documents/thesis for formatting review July 31:  Last date for the final thesis to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

AUGUST PROGRAM COMPLETION

July 5:  Last date for submission of documents/thesis to initiate a defence August 6:  Last date for the defence August 19:  Last date for submission of final documents/thesis for formatting review August 30:  Last date for the final thesis to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

NOVEMBER DEGREE CONFERRAL

September 9:  Last date for submission of documents/thesis to initiate a defence October 7:  Last date for the defence October 21:  Last date for submission of final documents/thesis for formatting review October 31:  Last date for the final thesis to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

DECEMBER PROGRAM COMPLETION

October 28:  Last date for submission of documents/thesis to initiate a defence November 25:  Last date for the defence December 9:  Last date for submission of final documents/thesis for formatting review December 18:  Last date for the final thesis to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

Program completion = when all program requirements are completed, including uploading your final thesis to cIRcle, and thesis formatting is approved by the College of Graduate Studies

Degree conferral = when your degree is officially conferred by Senate, when you can use your credential, and when your parchment will be available

PLEASE NOTE:

It is highly advisable to schedule your defence prior to or after the summer months of July and August given the unavailability of many faculty members.

For the same reason, it is highly advisable to schedule your defence prior to or after the month of December.

POINTS TO REMEMBER:

• You can complete your program at any time during the year as long as your coursework is completed and you have successfully defended a thesis
• Convocation is held in June of each year and you may choose to attend or not
• In order to graduate/have your degree conferred, a student must apply online through the  Student Service Centre (SSC) . Please note that application deadlines differ from the deadline dates above
• Click here for more information on  Graduation and Convocation
• Tuition and fees will continue to be assessed until your program is complete and closed out. If you have not paid the minimum number of tuition installments for the program, the remaining installments will be charged to you when your program is closed out.

Final Doctoral Thesis Oral Examination

Doctoral dissertation oral examination resource.

Timeline to Defence Graphic: Doctoral Oral Examination

DOCTORAL Initiating Examination Form

Notice of Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination

This form is to be completed by the supervisor and delivered to CoGS either in hard-copy form or via email to initiate the scheduling of the examination. The form identifies the members of the Supervisory Committee members participating on the Examining Committee, the External Examiner, the University Examiner and the Neutral Chair. This form must be signed off by the graduate student, supervisor and program coordinator for approval by the Dean.

External Examiner Email Notification Request Example

This is a sample email that the supervisor can use when initiating the request for invitation of an External Examiner.

Final Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination – Neutral Chair’s Report

This form is sent to the Neutral Chair from the supervisor via email prior to the examination date. This form records the voting outcome by the examining committee for the student. The Neutral Chair ensures the External Examiner, University Examiner, and Examining Committee members have all signed the outcome selected. The Chair records their comments and observations before signing off. All ballots are to be attached to the form as part of the process. The form is submitted to Graduate Studies 48 hours after the examination is completed by the Chair.

Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination Neutral Chair Responsibilities Procedures

Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination Announcement

If the examiners  are unable to achieve unanimity regarding the examination and/or the oral examination, there must be no further discussion regarding that component of the examination and the Neutral Chair must select “Failure to Reach Unanimous Decision” on the Final Doctoral Dissertation Oral Examination Report and immediately inform the College of Graduate Studies of “lack of unanimity”. This form is also used if examiners choose ‘fail’. Each Examination Committee member (including the External Examiner and University Examiner) must provide a confidential Final Oral Examination Committee Member Report to the Dean of Graduate Studies explaining the reasons for their recommendation within five business days.

Doctoral Final Submission Forms

Doctoral Dissertation Approval and Program Completion Form This form confirms that the student has completed all program requirements including any dissertation changes that were required by the dissertation examination committee.

The following dates provide a guideline for students to complete the dissertation examination process, based on a successful examination and only minor revisions.

Students may initiate the process at any time, and have four periods to be considered for degree conferral (February, May, September, or November).

FEBRUARY DEGREE CONFERRAL

October 26:  Last date for supervisor to submit the Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner November 23:  Last date for submission of documents/dissertation to initiate an examination January 4:  Last date for the exam January 18:  Last date for submission of final documents/dissertation for formatting review January 29:  Last date for the final dissertation to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

January 22:  Last date for supervisor to submit the Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner February 19:  Last date for submission of documents/dissertation to initiate an examination April 2:  Last date for the exam April 16:  Last date for submission of final documents/dissertation for formatting review April 30:  Last date for the final dissertation to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

April 24:  Last date for supervisor to submit the Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner May 22:  Last date for submission of documents/dissertation to initiate an examination July 3:  Last date for the exam July 17:  Last date for submission of final documents/dissertation for formatting review July 31:  Last date for the final dissertation to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

May 27:  Last date for supervisor to submit the Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner June 24:  Last date for submission of documents/dissertation to initiate an examination August 6:  Last date for the exam August 19:  Last date for submission of final documents/dissertation for formatting review August 30:  Last date for the final dissertation to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

July 29:  Last date for supervisor to submit the Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner August 26:  Last date for submission of documents/dissertation to initiate an examination October 7:  Last date for the exam October 21:  Last date for submission of final documents/dissertation for formatting review October 31:  Last date for the final dissertation to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

September 16:  Last date for supervisor to submit the Request for Approval of Proposed External Examiner October 14:  Last date for submission of documents/dissertation to initiate an examination November 25:  Last date for the exam December 9:  Last date for submission of final documents/dissertation for formatting review December 18:  Last date for the final dissertation to be approved by the College of Graduate Studies

Program completion = when all program requirements are completed, including uploading your final dissertation to cIRcle, and dissertation formatting is approved by the College of Graduate Studies

It is highly advisable to schedule your exam prior to or after the summer months of July and August given the unavailability of many faculty members.

For the same reason, it is highly advisable to schedule your exam prior to or after the month of December.

• You can complete your program at any time during the year as long as your coursework is completed and you have successfully defended a dissertation
• In order to graduate/have your degree conferred, a student must apply online through the  Student Service Centre (SSC) Please note that application deadlines differ from the deadline dates above

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How strict is the thesis submission deadline?

I defended and finalized my master's thesis. However, I am not getting any replies from the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in order for me to complete my thesis submission process and formally end my master's program. My question is how strict is the master's thesis submission deadline? It's the 27th of August. What happens if I submit my thesis on the 31st for instance. Does this mean I have to take an extra term? Thank you.

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The Master’s (MA) program in the Department of History is a 24-month program and requires full-time residential study. The history master’s program includes regional and thematic courses, methods and historiography, and a research seminar, culminating in the writing of thesis.

Program Requirements – MA Degree

Master’s students must complete six courses for a total of 18 credits. Below are the required courses.

• HIST 599 - The MA Research Seminar (3 credits) : The MA research seminar introduces students to the problems, materials, and research methods in the discipline; candidates must demonstrate their ability to use documents and other sources, and to write and defend papers based on such research. Ideally, the seminar paper will be the nucleus of the MA thesis. This is a mandatory course for MA students taken in Year 2 of the MA program.
• HIST 548D - Historiography (3 credits): The Historiography seminar involves an intense introduction to varieties of historical writing and the philosophic assumptions behind historical thinking. The Comparative History courses are designed to broaden student's knowledge and compensate for gaps created by specialization. This is a mandatory course for MA students taken in Year 1 of the MA program.
• Area and Thematic Courses (12 credits): The History Department's readings courses introduce students to the main historiographical problems and secondary literature in their fields of specialization. Readings and topics courses require written work (approximately 3,000-4,000 words per course) from students as evidence of their growing mastery of secondary literature.

Possible Options in lieu of Area and Thematic Courses (Readings and Topics Courses)

• HIST 525 - Professional Development For Historians (3 credits): This course (HIST 525) introduces students to professional skills and options for historians in both academic and non-academic careers.
• HIST 547D - Directed Studies Course (3 credits): This course (HIST 547D) represents a one-on-one directed readings course with a professor.  Normally, these courses are done with a supervisor and their student if there are no suitable graduate courses available for the student.  When a professor (usually the supervisor) agrees to do a directed readings course with a student, the professor must contact the graduate programme assistant to set up the course and register the student into the course.
• Graduate courses (3 credits) offered from outside of the History Department: With the permission of the Graduate Advisor, students may take up to 6 credits of graduate coursework from outside the History Department in lieu of readings and topics courses. Language courses may not be substituted for graduate readings courses.  Coursework should be consistent with the student’s program and approved by the supervisor, and if applicable, the graduate advisor.  Please consult your supervisor for possible graduate courses offered outside of the History Department, and then contact the graduate advisor for permission.  (Examples of non-history graduate seminars represent 500+ level courses from the STS department, Asian Studies, FNIS, etc.).
• Graduate course (3 credits) through the Western Dean's Agreement (WDA): Students at participating Universities in Western Canada can attend partner institutions as visiting students without having to pay the host university's tuition fees through the Western Dean's Agreement . Courses taken by MA students under the Western Deans' Agreement are eligible to be transferred as credits to their degree programs.

To Request a Transfer of Credits for Courses taken through the Western Dean's Agreement:

• Read through the GPS guidelines for Transfer Credits: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/faculty-staff/policies-procedures/transfer-credit
• Order an official transcript (hardcopy or e-transcript) from the University where you completed the graduate course to the UBC History Graduate Program:

For Hardcopy Transcripts (Mailing Address):

UBC History Graduate Program Room 1297 - 1873 East Mall Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z1

For Electronic Transcripts:

The issuing institution must send a link to a secure site to the History Graduate Program at [email protected] .  The graduate program will download the transcript from the secure site. Important: an e-transcript is downloaded via a link to a secure site. It is NOT an email attachment of any kind, even if sent from an authority at the issuing institution.

• Contact the History Graduate Programme Assistant ( [email protected] ) to assist you in preparing the "transfer credit form".

Updated: May 29, 2024

Link to Document: Graduate Course Schedule Link to Document:  Graduate Course Planning Guide

The MA thesis is the culmination of your work in the history graduate program. The preparation of this document involves isolating, defining and explaining a historical problem through the use of primary materials. The emphasis of the thesis is on the quality of the historical work, rather than exhaustive treatment of the subject.

Once a research topic is identified in consultation with the advisor, students should prepare a thesis prospectus indicating the nature of the problem they plan to investigate, the research methods, the literature relevant to the problem, and the availability of relevant materials. Students will need to select a second committee member who will provide advice and assistance throughout the remainder of the process.

The master’s thesis is about 40 pages (10,000 words) in length and in the genre of a scholarly article ready for submission to a peer-reviewed journal.

A thesis is evaluated and graded by the supervisor, committee member, and a third independent reader. A thesis may be accepted as presented, returned for revisions, or rejected. If there is a disagreement among the evaluators, the graduate advisor will mediate. A thesis earning a grade lower than 60 will be rejected. If the thesis is rejected, the student will be asked to withdraw from the MA program.

When a thesis has been approved, the Master's Thesis Approval and Program Completion form, signed by each of the student's committee members (Supervisor, committee member, third reader) must be submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

MA thesis evaluation procedure

• When the supervisor, committee member, and MA student consider that the MA thesis is ready to be submitted, they should choose an independent 3rd reader. As a general rule, the 3rd reader should be from the UBC History Department. However, recruiting a reader from another UBC department or even another institution would be acceptable if the supervisor, committee member, and student think it is advisable.  The use of an examiner external to the department should be exceptional. It would be the responsibility of the supervisor to discuss the department’s grading standards with the 3rd reader.
• The supervisor should contact this reader himself or herself on the advice of the committee member and MA student. In exceptional circumstances, she or he could submit a list of names to the graduate advisor who could contact the reader for the committee.
• The examiner would be given up to 2 weeks to assess a 40-pages MA thesis. She or he would be asked to submit a written report to the MA committee. This report should include a short summary of the thesis as well as a discussion of its strengths and weaknesses.
• The grade would be decided by a consensus between the supervisor, the committee member, and the 3rd reader. In matters of disagreement or failure to reach a consensus, the issue will be mediated by the graduate advisor on a case-by-case basis.
• The supervisor is responsible for conveying the decision to the graduate advisor and graduate programme assistant in writing. The final report should include the grade awarded by the examining team and summarize the reason behind the grade.

Before receiving the MA degree in History, candidates must satisfy the department's language requirement by demonstrating an adequate reading ability in a language other than English - either French or a foreign language appropriate to their field of study. Students who require a foreign language for their thesis research will be expected to take the language exam in that language.

The department holds language exams twice a year (usually in November and April). Candidates must translate a passage from the language they have chosen into English, with the aid of a dictionary, but without the assistance of a laptop computer.

The exam is a one page translation of text testing for reading ability of the target language. The grading scale represents:

• First class: student demonstrates professional level translation in target language.
• Pass: student demonstrates reading ability in target language
• Fail: student does not demonstrate reading ability in target language.

Requesting an Exemption to the Language Requirement/Exam:

Exemption from the language exam may be granted under certain circumstances, on a case by case basis, by submitting a written request to the History graduate advisor:

• Several departments at the university offer courses to help students acquire a reading knowledge of a foreign language, such as French, German, or Russian. Students who have successfully completed such a course at the third-year level or above, with at least a B (72%) average, can apply for exemption from the History Department's exam by submitting evidence of completion of the course to the History graduate advisor.
• Students whose projects rely on oral sources in a language other than English can make a request to be exempted from the language exam and to instead satisfy the language requirement with their demonstrated oral proficiency in the relevant research language. In such cases, the graduate advisor will consult with the student’s supervisor to confirm their ability and determine whether this requirement has been met.
• For all other circumstances, please contact the History graduate advisor in writing.  Exemptions may be granted on a case by case basis.

4. Submitting your MA Thesis To Formally Close Your Program

Once the MA thesis has been approved, the final step will be to submit the thesis to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (GPS) to close your program.

Step 1: Read the overview of the submission process: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-dissertation-thesis-submission

Step 2: Carefully follow the steps in the link below to submit your thesis to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to close your program: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/final-dissertation-thesis-submission/final-submission-instructions

In step 1, the MA student must fill out the "MA Thesis Approval Form" and coordinate with each committee member to get their signature approval.  Committee members can sign separate "MA Thesis Approval Forms" and return this to the student.  Once the student has all of the forms in step 1, they can email them to the History Graduate Programme Assistant ( [email protected] ) to verify the signatures and forward the forms to GPS on behalf of the student.

Dissertation/Thesis Submission Deadlines:

Check deadlines for dissertation/thesis submission dates: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/deadlines (Under Deadline Type --> Select Option: Thesis Final Submission --> Click: Filter)

Thesis approval deadlines are for having your thesis fully approved in cIRcle , not just submitted. You are expected to submit at least five days ahead of any deadline in order to allow yourself time to make any needed corrections.

5. Applying For Graduation

For Reference: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/current-students/graduation/applying-graduate

Every candidate for a degree must make formal application for graduation. Students apply through Student Workday . Login with your Campus-wide Login (CWL). Please check the Deadlines section of this website or contact your program to find out when the Application to Graduate is open.

If your application to graduate is not approved, then you must re-apply for the next graduation season.

Not attending the graduation ceremony?

You must apply to graduate regardless of whether or not you plan to participate in the scheduled ceremonies.

For questions about applying to graduate, please contact [email protected]

Conference Travel Funding

Graduate students are now eligible to receive travel funding to attend a conference at which they are presenting a paper. Over the course of a graduate career, each MA student will have access to $1,500 to attend conferences. Eligibility continues for up to four months after completion of the degree. As per University guidelines, payments will be made via reimbursement.

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Introduction

What is copyright, what is fair dealing and can i use it for my thesis, when to seek permission, how to obtain permission, what to include in permission requests, unable to get permission, citations & bibliographies, student responsibility, removing images, non-exclusive licences, circle submission, publishing your thesis, creative commons licensing.

All UBC graduate students are required to submit a copy of their thesis to UBC’s institutional repository ( cIRcle ), where it will be made available to the public. Submission into cIRcle requires that you sign a license that gives UBC the rights necessary to make the thesis available to the public. The specifics can be found at cIRcle’s  License & Copyright  page. You are personally responsible for ensuring that your thesis complies with Canadian copyright law, and the cIRcle license requires that you confirm that you have done so.

This guide is designed to provide you with a starting point for your understanding of and compliance with your responsibilities.

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Copyright is the sole and exclusive right of a copyright owner to produce, reproduce, perform, publish, adapt, translate and telecommunicate (e.g., post on the internet, email, etc.) a work, and to control the circumstances in which others may do any of these things.

Copyright law in Canada protects a wide range of works . Producing, reproducing, performing, publishing, adapting, translating and telecommunicating a “substantial” part of someone else’s copyrighted work is copyright infringement, unless (a) you fall within one of the exemptions set out in the Copyright Act , or (b) you have written permission from the copyright owner.

What is a “substantial” part of a work depends on numerous considerations, including:

• the quantity of what is being copied,
• whether what is being copied forms a material or essential part of the work, and
• what purpose the copied portion will be put to.

It is commonly understood that, for most purposes, copying more than a few sentences of a literary work, a few words of a short poem, a few bars of music, or a few seconds of a film is a “substantial” portion of the work. Also, copying any important part of a painting, graph or table, etc., is a “substantial” portion of a work.

Copyright protection comes into effect as soon as a work is created; there is no requirement that the work be registered or that the word “copyright” or the symbol © appear on the work. Accordingly, works that are publicly available on the Internet (such as images found via Google) are treated the same way under copyright law as materials distributed in any other way. In Canada, generally speaking, copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author, regardless of who holds the copyright.

This means that, if you have started writing your thesis, then your draft is already protected by copyright, which gives you control over the ways in which it can and cannot be legally used by others. At the same time, this also means that you need to think very carefully about how you are using the works of others, and about whether or not you will need permission to quote from or include these works in your thesis.

(For more information about copyright in general, please see the Basics FAQ and the Copyright Guidelines for UBC Faculty, Staff, and Students .)

Fair dealing is one of the user rights in the Copyright Act that allows any person to make a copy of a copyrighted work. In order for fair dealing to apply to your use of others’ works in your thesis, (a) the copying must be for one or more of the following purposes: research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review, or news reporting, and (b) the copying must be fair.

When copying copyrighted works for use in a thesis, such copying is primarily for the purposes of research, criticism, and/or review. Any fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review must mention the source and, if given in the source, the name of the author or creator of the work. Fair dealing should never be used merely for illustrative purposes or enhancing the content of the thesis without engaging with the third-party copyrighted materials for the fair dealing purposes listed above.

Sometimes you may hear that “copying for research or educational purposes is always fair” but this can be a misleading oversimplification. Ultimately, the fairness of the dealing is determined by a court of law if and when the rights holder makes a claim of infringement against the party that copied the work.

To determine whether a particular instance of copying may be considered “fair” for the purposes of fair dealing, the Supreme Court of Canada has stated that all relevant factors need to be considered, including the following, which comprise what is sometimes referred-to as the “six-factor” fair dealing test:

• the purpose of the proposed copying, including whether it is for research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review or news reporting;
• the character of the proposed copying, including whether it involves single or multiple copies, and whether the copy is destroyed after it is used for its specific intended purpose;
• the amount of the dealing from the individual user’s perspective, including the proportion of the work that is copied and the importance of that excerpt in relation to the whole work; this is often referred to as a “short excerpt” and must contain no more of the work than is required in order to achieve the fair dealing purpose;
• alternatives to copying the work, including whether there is a non-copyrighted equivalent available;
• the nature of the work, including whether it is published or unpublished; and
• the effect of the copying on the work, including whether the copy will compete with the commercial market of the original work.

There is no specific Canadian case law on how the six-factor test would apply to use of third-party content in theses that are freely distributed on the Internet and what kind of copying would be permitted. The CAUT Guidelines for the Use of Copyrighted Materia l is a useful resource to learn about the six-factor test and to help determine if using others’ works in your thesis might be considered fair. For more information on fair dealing in general, including the University’s approach to determining whether something is a “short excerpt”, please see UBC’s Fair Dealing Requirements for UBC Faculty and Staff .

In summary, if your use of others’ work in your thesis is “fair”, then you do not need to ask for permission to use it. If your use of the work would not be “fair” then you do need to seek permission to use it. As a graduate student, you are responsible for the content of your thesis and, thus, for determining whether your proposed use of copyrighted works qualifies as fair dealing or whether you need to seek permission. The University is unable to provide you with legal advice in this regard.

UBC Library offers workshops and consultation to support graduate students in the application of these guidelines. Workshops are offered in collaboration with UBC Library Research Commons while consultations can be booked online or by emailing [email protected] .

Because the University requires you to submit your thesis to cIRcle (which means that it is published online) and also to submit your thesis to Library and Archives Canada, it is important for you to understand that any improper use of the fair dealing right by you may constitute copyright infringement and risks exposing you, and the University, to legal liability from copyright rightsholders.

In addition, you may wish to publish your thesis (or parts of it) in an academic journal. Please note some publishers may not be satisfied with copyright works used pursuant to fair dealing and may require authors to obtain permission for third-party copyrighted materials prior to publication.

You should seek permission if your thesis contains any of the following and you are unsure if the work can be used pursuant to fair dealing, as described in the previous section:

• Images of any form that have been obtained from copyrighted sources. This includes any tables, figures, maps, graphs, photographs, screenshots, drawings, logos, video screen captures, etc. that have been obtained from websites, newspapers, journals, books, brochures, professors’ lecture notes, etc.
• Since you will typically be using the whole of the copyrighted image (as opposed to a small portion of the image), you should be particularly careful in undertaking your fair dealing analysis or obtain permission before including it in your thesis.
• Altering an image does not necessarily remove the need to seek permission nor change the fair dealing analysis. Common alterations include cropping, re-sizing, modifying colours, and annotating with text, arrows, and other visual call-outs.
• Keep in mind that just because something is freely available on the web does not necessarily mean that you have permission to reproduce it. Always check the Terms of Use or copyright licence information on the website.
• Long quotations or excerpts from any one source. Common sources of quotations include books, academic journals, newspapers, magazines, short stories, plays, and poems.
• Articles or parts of articles that you wrote and previously published in a journal to which you assigned copyright. Academic publishing agreements commonly require authors to assign their copyright to the publisher. Refer to  Including Published Material in a Thesis or Dissertation  for additional requirements from Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.
• Material co-authored with others. Each co-author shares copyright and must consent to your use of the work if you are seeking permission to use it.
• Scripts and recordings of any performance.
• Translations of copyrighted work.
• Testing instruments such as standardized tests, questionnaires, forms, and surveys.

Important : The list above is not exhaustive. If your use of copyrighted material is not described above, that does not necessarily mean that you do not need undertake a fair dealing analysis or to seek permission.

Seeking permission is a straightforward process, but obtaining responses from copyright owners can take a long time. You are strongly encouraged to send out your permission requests as early as possible.

Identify the Copyright Owner

The first step in the process is to identify the copyright owner. Usually you will be able to identify the owner somewhere on the work by looking for the copyright symbol ©, which should have the copyright owner’s name next to it. You’ll often find this at the beginning of a book, at the side of a photograph or at the bottom of a web page.

Permission from Individuals

If the copyright owner is an individual, then the next step is to email or write to that individual, explaining how and why you want to use the work and requesting permission. The permission should be in writing; an email message will suffice. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of who gave the permission, what was permitted, the date, and how to contact the person who gave the permission. (For more information about what information to include in your permission requests, see the next section of this guide.)

Permission from Commercial Publishers

If the copyright owner is a commercial publisher, the fastest course of action is often to search for the work in question at the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). The CCC handles permissions for a large number of publishers, and permission to include images in theses can often be obtained through the CCC website swiftly and at no cost.

If you cannot obtain permission through the CCC, then the next step is to check the publisher’s website. Many publishers will require that you submit your request directly to their permissions department, while others will require that you use an online form.

When you arrive at the website, look for a link that says “Rights and Permissions” (or something similar), then read through the available information to determine the correct method for requesting permission.

Permission from Journals

If the copyright owner is an academic journal (or an academic association/society that publishes a journal), then you may be able to obtain permission through the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), as discussed above. If permission is not available through the CCC, then you should check the journal’s website, which may provide one or more of the following:

• Advance permission for specific uses. For example, The Journal of Biological Chemistry provides advance permission for non-commercial use.
• Advance permission to journal authors who have signed over copyright
• Information on how to request permission
• Information on uses that are specifically prohibited

If you can’t locate any information about copyright and permissions on the journal’s website, then visit the website of the company or organization that publishes the journal.

If permission to use copyrighted material is given on a website, then print out or save an electronic copy of the web page that states this and keep it for your records. Note, saving a link to the page is not sufficient, as the link may break or the content of the website may change.

Proof of Permission

You should keep copies of all letters and forms granting you permission to use copyrighted material. These copies are for your own records; do not include them in your thesis or dissertation.

As mentioned above, email permissions are acceptable. The best possible proof of permission is one of the following:

• a completed copy of the Permission to Use Copyrighted Material form, or
• an original signed letter on the copyright owner’s letterhead.

Originals are best, though scanned copies work well too.

For more information about seeking permission, see UBC Copyright Basics FAQ 1.16 .

Include the following information in your requests.

Introduce yourself clearly.

Tell the copyright owner that you are a graduate student preparing a thesis or dissertation for submission as part of the requirements for your degree at the University of British Columbia.

Identify the work you are seeking permission to use.

Give standard reference information for the work you wish to use, including figure/table number, if any, and page numbers. You should briefly describe the context in which you propose to use the work in your thesis.

Tell the copyright owner where their work will be distributed.

• that your thesis will be publicly available in UBC’s online digital repository, and
• that you will be granting non-exclusive licences to UBC and to Library and Archives Canada.

You, of course, will not know at the time you are asking permission, whether your thesis will be published in an academic journal. If you believe that it is a realistic possibility, you may wish to ask the copyright owner’s permission to use their work in the published version of your thesis.

Send the copyright owner information about and a copy of the cIRcle licence agreement:

• [cIRcle Licence Agreement – downloadable PDF http://hdl.handle.net/2429/59877 ]
• [cIRcle Licence Agreement – online submission form https://circle.ubc.ca/submissions/license-form ]

Ask for specific action.

• Request a reply by a given date.
• Offer to send the copyright owner a copy of your completed work.

Keep copies.

• Keep copies of request letters and all correspondence with the copyright owner.

When you are unable to obtain permission or there is a charge for obtaining permission, you must either (1) remove the copyrighted material and insert the text described below; or (2) replace the material with a different work for which permission is either obtainable or not required (such as works that are covered by Creative Commons licenses or that are in the public domain ).

If you have removed copyrighted material from your thesis and not replaced it, you must insert the following:

• A statement that the material has been removed because of copyright restrictions
• A description of the material and the information it contained, plus a link to an online source if one is available
• A full citation of the original source of the material

Example: Figure 3 has been removed due to copyright restrictions. It was a diagram of the apparatus used in performing the experiment, showing the changes made by the investigating team. Original source: Wu, G. and Thompson, J.R. (2008) Effect of Ketone Bodies on Dairy Cattle. Biochem J. 255:139-144.

The brief description of the removed figure is important, as it gives the reader a chance to follow the thesis argument without needing to look up the actual figures. If possible, including a link to an online source is also very useful.

You must include full citations for any copyrighted material in your thesis or dissertation regardless of source. Each citation must include the copyright symbol, name of the copyright owner (who may or may not be the author), and, if applicable, a statement that the use of the material or adaptation (in the case of adapted graphics) is by permission of the copyright owner.

Examples of direct citations to copyright owners:

• Image title (© 2001 Jane Doe, by permission)
• Graph Title (© 2003 John Smith, adapted with permission)
• Poem Title (© 2005 Jane Doe, by permission)
• Testing Instrument Title (© 2007 Company Name, by permission)

Citations from published works should follow your chosen citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, etc.) but include reference to the specific page. Examples of sources from published works:

• Table 1 from © Author, A., Author, B., & Author, C. (2007). Book Title. City: Publisher. Page 45. By permission from publisher.
• Figure 4.1 from © Author, A., Author, B., & Author, C (2009). Article Title. Journal Title, 38(2), 186-204. Page 191. Adapted with permission from publisher.
• Photo Title from © Author, A. & Author, B. (2012, May 5). Title of Web Article. Website Title. Retrieved from URL. By permission from author.

Sometimes copyright owners will ask you to use a specific wording in your citation. If so, it’s important to follow their instructions exactly, word for word.

Otherwise, craft your citations in accordance with your degree program’s preferred style guide. If you are unsure about which style guide to use, ask your supervisor. If you need help with using a particular style guide, check out the Library’s “How to Cite” guide or contact the subject librarian for your discipline. If you need help with citing images in particular, check out UBC’s Image Citation Guide .

If you have any questions about copyright or permissions, please begin by consulting the resources available on the Copyright at UBC website. You are also invited to send your copyright or permissions questions to [email protected] .

If you have questions related to the thesis-writing process, please review the following resources from Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies:

• Resources for Thesis Preparation and Checking
• Final Dissertation & Thesis Submission
• Graduate Pathways to Success (GPS) Program

My supervisor said that I don’t need permission to include copyrighted images in my thesis, so can I submit my thesis without seeking permission?

Information

As the author of your thesis, you are responsible for ensuring that your use of copyrighted images and other material is compliant with Canadian copyright law.

Indeed, when you submit the final copy of your thesis, you must sign the  cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License  confirming that if you have copyrighted material in your thesis, you are either using that material under an exception available to you under the Copyright Act (such as fair dealing) or you have obtained permission to use it.

Can I just remove any copyrighted images from my thesis before submitting it, so I don’t need to worry about seeking permission?

For the reasons set out in the next paragraph, your thesis should be as complete as possible. Removal of material should only be an option if you are denied permission, if an unreasonable fee will be charged for use of the material, or if you receive no response from the copyright owner after making a reasonable effort at contact.

Theses are scholarly documents, and students are expected to complete them in accordance with scholarly best practices and their program’s requirements. Furthermore, by submitting your thesis to cIRcle , UBC’s digital repository, it will be publicly accessible online, so you want it to be as complete as possible to ensure that it appears professional, especially to future colleagues and employers. Your thesis is not only the culmination and crowning achievement of your graduate degree, but also the main surviving record of the work you completed during your degree. It is in your best interests to ensure that it is as complete as possible. By omitting images from your thesis, you run the risk of obfuscating the very arguments that you devoted so much time and effort to creating.

I know that I need to sign the cIRcle Non-Exclusive Distribution License before I can submit the final copy of my thesis, but I’m not entirely sure what I’m agreeing to. What exactly is a “non-exclusive licence,” and why do I need to grant such a licence to UBC in order to submit my thesis?

You own the copyright for your thesis, which means that you have the right to produce, reproduce, perform, publish, adapt, translate and telecommunicate your thesis, and you have the right to control the circumstances in which others may do any of these things.

By signing the UBC Thesis Licence Agreement, you are giving the University the permission to publish and archive your thesis in cIRcle.

Because this licence (or permission) is “non-exclusive,” you retain all of your rights as the copyright owner, and you may grant similar rights to others, at any time. This is in contrast to an “exclusive” licence, which would mean that the University alone would have the right publish and archive your thesis.

What is cIRcle, and where can I get help with submitting my thesis to cIRcle electronically?

cIRcle is an open access digital repository for research and teaching materials created by the UBC community and its partners. Its aim is to showcase and preserve UBC’s unique intellectual output by making content freely available to anyone, anywhere via the web.

Apart from theses and dissertations, cIRcle contains articles, conference and workshop papers, technical reports and working papers, books, datasets, learning objects, multimedia and audio-visual materials including podcasts, webcasts and more.

The University, via Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, requires you to submit your thesis to cIRcle electronically. For information on how to submit, please see the cIRcle instructions for electronic thesis submission.

As of September 2012, you can get in-person assistance with the thesis-submission process at the Koerner Library Research Commons .

If you have specific questions regarding cIRcle, please contact [email protected] . For questions related to your thesis submission, or to have your cIRcle login authorized for submission, please contact [email protected] .

You own the copyright to your thesis and are free to publish your thesis if you wish. However, if your thesis includes any copyrighted works (e.g. figures, tables, etc.) that you did not create and you are not able to use this work under an exception available to you under the Copyright Act (such as fair dealing), then you will likely need to obtain permission from the copyright owners in order to publish them.

This is true even if you have already obtained permission to use the works in your thesis, as the act of publishing your thesis would count as a different use of the works in question, and would therefore require separate permissions. With this in mind, as you make your initial requests for copyright permissions for your thesis, you may wish to think about asking for permission should you decide to revise your thesis for publication as a journal article or book at a later date.

The Scholarly Communications @ UBC website contains a wealth of information about scholarly publishing, including valuable resources for authors and information about how to make your work open access .

Also, you should be aware that students who have graduated may be contacted by publishing companies that have an interest in publishing their thesis. These companies often contact authors directly. You are free to grant permission, but you should research the company first to ensure that it is a reputable academic publisher. There are usually discussions among former students online that can give you an insight into the value of publishing with a particular company.

Creative Commons (CC) licences provide copyright owners with a simple and clear way to grant others permission to access and (depending on your preferences) to share and adapt your work for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

By applying a CC licence to your thesis, you can enhance the ease with which others can share and reuse your work. For more information about the various licences and what they allow, please see this useful overview .

To apply a CC licence to your thesis, you can simply select your desired licence when you submit your thesis to cIRcle (see: cIRcle’s submission instructions , step 3.7).

To apply a CC license to your other work, you can use the “Choose a License” form on the CC website. This form helps you choose a licence based on your preferences and then generates the appropriate text to apply to print works, as well as the HTML code to apply to online works.

In addition to information on the public domain available on the Copyright at UBC website, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries has published a FAQ on term extension that is available on their website. [Read More]

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