Ed.D Dissertation Style Guide

1. Preliminary Information

• Must have a minimum of three members.
• Chair must be a member of the GSE faculty.
• One committee member may be chosen, in consultation with the program director, from outside the program.

• The required style guide for dissertation is APA for all GSE programs. Please refer to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Edition. (NOTE: Students engaging in historical research for their dissertation may, with advisor approval, use Chicago 17th Edition instead of APA.)
• Please consult with Dean Matt Winkler at matt.winkler@gse.rutgers.edu, if you have formatting questions not addressed in this guide.

• Your dissertation must be converted to a PDF file and then submitted online at Rutgers Electronic Theses and Dissertations Submission system (https://etd.libraries.rutgers.edu/submit-your-etd).
• You must submit the signed title page to Dean Matt Winkler, who can be reached at matt.winkler@gse.rutgers.edu.

2. General Specifications

• Choose an easy-to-read type. Use one typeface throughout; script or italic typefaces are not acceptable for the main text (10–12 points).

• Double-space preliminary pages, appendices, references and all text.
• Single-space all footnotes, endnotes.
• Quotations of 40 words, or longer, should be in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Quotation must be double-spaced and indented 1/2 inch from the left margin. Do not indent the right margin.
• Verse quotations of two or more lines should be double-spaced and centered.
• Footnotes and endnotes should be single-spaced.

• All margins must be 1 inch.

• Preliminary pages (Abstract, Acknowledgement, Dedication, Table of Contents, List of Tables, List of Illustrations):  Lowercase Roman numerals, centered 1/2 inch from the bottom of the page.
• Text (Chapters, References, and Appendices): Arabic numerals, upper right-hand corner, exactly 1 inch from the right-hand edge of the page and 1/2 inch from the top. Begin with the number one (1) on the first page of text and number consecutively.
• Landscape pages: you must number these pages as if they were regular (portrait-orientated) pages.

3. Outline & Formatting Rules

• Provides a succinct summary of the dissertation, summarizing clearly the problem or problems examined, the methods employed, and the major findings.
• The abstract must be in English and may not exceed 2,450 characters (350 words)

• Includes all preliminary and concluding sections.

• Introduction
• Main Body:
• Main body must be divided into chapters or sections, each having a title and each beginning on a new page. As needed, chapters or sections are further divided into one or more series of subsections, each preceded by a subtitle.
• Graphs, figures, tables, charts, maps, and photographs must be suitably sharp and clear for reproduction on microfilm and must be suitable for binding.

• Footnotes belong at the bottom of the page, endnotes at the ends of chapters or at the end of the manuscript. Number notes consecutively. When notes are at the end of chapters, each chapter’s notes should begin with the number one (1). Be consistent throughout and conform to generally accepted practice in the discipline.

• It is a universal tenet in publishing that previously published work, or work pending publication elsewhere, be acknowledged. Academic fields vary in the degree to which they countenance reuse of material that has also appeared, or will appear, elsewhere. In those fields in which such practices are accepted, the following guidelines should be adhered to:
• Without exception, previous and pending publications must be acknowledged in the thesis or dissertation. There are several ways in which this may be done.
• If a thesis or dissertation is composed in part or in full of whole chapters or independent articles or reports already published, the preface or acknowledgments page must indicate this and give citations to the earlier publications. Even if the portions of previous publications are more partial, such acknowledgment in the front matter is recommended.
• It is presumed that the previously published material used in the thesis or dissertation represents the original work of the student. In the event that that is not the case, it has no place in the thesis or dissertation. In those fields in which the student typically works alone on the research and writing of the thesis or dissertation, it is expected that the writing will be his or her own. In those fields in which it is conventionally the case that work is done in close collaboration with others this may not be the case, but material written by others as part of a joint project should be referenced as such. In the case of coauthored material, comparable acknowledgment must be supplemented by a clear indication of the contribution of the author of the thesis or dissertation. In all cases, the major substance of the thesis or dissertation must be the original work of the student submitting it.
• In the case of shorter passages written by others, they may be quoted with proper attribution and any necessary permission.