Resources for Dissertation Writing

Formatting

As of June 30, 2021, UBC Library will no longer offer Thesis Formatting workshops or support. Students are encouraged to explore the many online resources that provide guidance on Thesis Formatting. For templates and FAQs, please visit the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies website.

Copyright

As the author of your thesis, you are responsible for making sure that you have the necessary permissions to use any work that you are not the sole creator of, including

• images from copyrighted sources (such as tables, figures, maps, photographs, etc.)
• long quotations or excerpts from a particular source
• published articles that you wrote or co-wrote
• other material that you've co-authored
• translations of copyrighted work
• scripts or recordings of performances
• copyrighted testing instruments (questionnaires, surveys, etc.)

UBC's Copyright Office has a guide to getting permission to use copyrighted material in your thesis; as with many things, don't wait until the last minute to deal with these issues!

Final Submission

Your finished thesis or dissertation will be submitted electronically; both the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and cIRcle, UBC's digital repository, have a part to play in this process. There are certain steps you need to follow in the correct order: Grad Studies has laid them out in detail here.

Graduate Pathways to Success regularly holds workshops and webinars on submitting your thesis or dissertation.

Deadlines

If you are planning to finish by a particular time, keep in mind that there are deadlines that need to be met. In particular, doctoral students have a number of deadlines to keep in mind as they approach the end of their programs. Grad Studies has listed those deadlines here; a general list of Grad Studies deadlines for both Master's and PhD students is available here.