MS Degree

MS Degree: Thesis Production

Thesis Details

Publication: An MS thesis represents a document based on a combination of directed and independent research that is suitable for publication. It is highly desirable to produce a published paper from the thesis research, but a submitted or accepted publication is a not a requirement for the award of the MS degree.

Length: A thesis typically consists of one or two chapters describing your original research. We'll call these  "data chapters" to distinguish them from a stand-alone introduction or conclusion.

Format: See the Graduate School's Thesis Formatting Handbook for details. Both the "manuscript" or the "monograph" formats are acceptable to the department.

Manuscript format is used for theses that contain more than one data chapter. Each data chapter is written as a scientific paper, including abstract, introduction, etc., and may be formatted for its target journal. A thesis written in manuscript format must also contain additional sections: a separate general abstract, general introduction, and general conclusion. The purpose of these general sections are to tie together the data chapters and integrate the totality of the work.

Single-chapter manuscript format is for theses with a single data chapter written in the style of a scientific paper (with an introduction and conclusion and all the other bits), but unlike the monograph format below, a thesis in this format also contains a general introduction and general conclusion. This is a good choice if you want to include more background or context to the work than is appropriate in the paper's introduction and conclusion.

Monograph format is typical for a thesis that consists of a single data chapter. In a monograph thesis, there is no need for a general introduction or general conclusion section. Instead, the thesis will contain one abstract, one introduction, and one conclusion (as well as all the other sections of the scientific paper).

Whether manuscript or monograph, the thesis should follow all the Graduate School guidelines; see the Graduate School web site and the UAF Thesis Formatting Handbook for these guidelines. Theses that do not conform to current Graduate School formatting guidelines will be returned to students for correction. We highly recommend that you attend a thesis formatting workshop. These are offered by the Graduate School on a regular basis; check their website for a calendar.

Authorship: The student must be first author on publications resulting from thesis chapters.  Chapters that are already published and those intended for publication should be footnoted with the actual or intended citation, including all co-authors. The student is the sole author of the thesis abstract, general introduction and conclusion, and sole-authored chapters; these sections should be written in the first person singular. The first person plural is appropriate for properly-footnoted co-authored data chapters.

Deadlines: Deadlines for submission of the thesis are posted here.

Draft the Thesis
  • Work with your graduate advisor to produce a full first draft of each chapter. This will normally require several drafts.
  • Once your committee chair is satisfied with the draft of a thesis chapter, submit it to the remainder of your committee for comments. Usually all committee members will request further revisions. Some committees will also want to see the general abstract, introduction, and conclusion before clearing you to defend the thesis.
  • Once your whole committee agrees that the thesis is ready to be defended, set a date for your oral defense.
Defend the Thesis
  • Schedule a 1-hour public presentation (leaving 15 minutes for questions). The public presentation will be followed by a closed-door oral defense that will take up to two hours. All committee members must be present, either in person or via video-conference.
  • The department encourages you to give your public presentation in a hybrid format. You should feel free to invite family and friends both in and out of town to hear about your work.
  • Guidelines for setting up a Zoom defense and post-defense exam are available here.
  • Defenses should be advertised at least 2 weeks prior to their occurrence. Please work with the Graduate Student Coordinator, uaf.bw.grad@alaska.edu to schedule your defense and advertise it. See the Defense Advertising Protocol.
  • After the defense, submit a "Report on Thesis Defense" form for faculty signatures.
  • If the outcome is successful, complete and submit the thesis as described below. If the outcome is "conditional" or "fail", the defense should be rescheduled within 6 months. A second conditional or failed defense will result in dismissal from the program.
  • Graduate advisory committee members will be asked to complete a short survey on the quality of oral communication after the defense. The survey is primarily for programmatic assessment, but students may request to see the feedback if they wish. An example of the survey content can be accessed here.
Complete Thesis Review
  1. Incorporate all further changes requested by the committee.
  2. Obtain signatures from all committee members on your Thesis Approval Form. To do this, fill in the  parts of the form you can and send it to the graduate coordinator (uaf.bw.grad@alaska.edu). Do not route the form for signatures yourself.
  3. Chair review - Submit an electronic copy of the thesis (preferably in Microsoft Word) and a completed thesis checklist to uaf.bw.grad@alaska.edu. The thesis should be formatted according to the Graduate School's Thesis Formatting and Submission Handbook and free of previous comments and edits. The chair-level review will not begin the review until all members of the committee have signed the Thesis Approval Form and the checklist is received. Expect the review to take up to two weeks. When completed, the Chair will sign the Thesis Approval Form.
  4. CNSM Dean review - Once the Chair has approved the thesis, you should submit a clean version of the revised thesis to uaf.bw.grad@alaska.edu (again, preferably in Microsoft Word) for transmission to the Dean. The Graduate Coordinator will upload the document; do not email it directly to the Dean. The Dean's review may take 2 weeks and require additional edits.
  5. Graduate School - Once edits have been made and the Dean has approved and signed the Thesis Approval form, the thesis will go to the Graduate School.
  6. Complete any changes that the Graduate School requires and upload the final thesis to Proquest.
  7. When the thesis is final, please email a copy to the Graduate Student Coordinator.
  8. If you would like a bound copy of your thesis, you can order this from ProQuest or you can send them to another business for printing/binding. If you chose to print via ProQuest, payment is via credit card and the hard copy will be printed on archival paper, not thesis paper.
  9. Verify that you have completed all required tasks on the Graduate School's Ready to Graduate page.