PhD Degree

PhD Degree: Dissertation Production

Dissertation details

A Ph.D. dissertation usually consists of three to four manuscripts of a quality suitable for publication in a scientific journal, along with a general introduction to the topic and a set of general conclusions. Typically, one or several chapters have already been submitted or accepted for publication. This is acceptable provided that the graduate committee approved the chapter prior to submission.

The dissertation must include a General Introduction and a General Conclusion. The general introduction should provide a rationale for the research as a whole, including an appropriate literature review. Journal articles often limit how long an introduction can be; this is your opportunity to show us how broadly you've read about this topic. The general conclusion should synthesize the results across all of the chapters and may provide recommendations for future research.

The dissertation should follow all the Graduate School guidelines, including formatting; see the Graduate School website for these. Dissertations 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; visit their website for a schedule. Because chapters are likely submitted to different journals, it is acceptable to have different formatting in different chapters.

The student must be first author on publications resulting from dissertation 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 text of a chapter that is already published should be identical to the published text.

The student is the sole author of the dissertation. Write in the first person singular for the dissertation abstract and general introduction and conclusion. The first person plural is fine for co-authored data chapters.

Deadlines for submission of the dissertation to the Graduate School are posted on the Graduate School website. However, prior to submission, your dissertation will need to be reviewed and approved by all committee members, the Chair of the Department or the Wildlife Program Chair, the Dean of the College of Natural Science and Mathematics (CNSM) and the Dean of the Graduate School. Typically the Department Chair's deadline is 4 weeks prior to the Graduate School deadline. Plan accordingly.

Write the Dissertation
  • Work with your committee chair (major 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 each chapter, submit it to the remainder of your committee for comments. Usually all committee members will request further revisions.
  • Once the entire committee is satisfied with a chapter, it may be submitted for publication.
  • Once your whole committee agrees that the entire dissertation is ready to be defended, set a date for your oral defense.
Defend the Dissertation
  • Defenses should be advertised at least 2 weeks prior to their occurrence. Please work with the Graduate Student Coordinator to schedule your defense and advertise. See the Defense Advertising Protocol.
  • Request an outside examiner with the Request for an Outside Examiner form (use the Grad School Forms button on the right). Outside examiners are representatives of the Graduate School who ensure that the defense is fair. They may choose to participate actively.
  • Plan on an hour-long public presentation (including about 15 minutes for questions) followed by a closed-door oral defense that can take up to three hours. All committee members must be present, either in person or via tele- or videoconference.
  • Guidelines for setting up a Zoom defense and post-defense exam are available here.
  • Complete the Report on Dissertation Defense form.
  • The outcome of the defense may be "pass", "conditional", or "fail". Conditional and failed defenses may be rectified or repeated once within 6 months.  Any assessment other than “pass” on the second attempt, including both “conditional pass” and “fail,” will result in dismissal from the program.
  • Initiate the "Approval of Defense" form and route it. You will find it at the UAF Graduate School website under Current Students / Forms / Competency Forms drop-down menu.
  • 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 the Thesis Review
  1. Incorporate all further changes requested by the committee.
  2. Initiate the electronic "Approval of Dissertation" form. You will find it at the Graduate School website.
  3. Submit an electronic copy of your dissertation to the department (uaf.bw.grad@alaska.edu), preferably in Word, for chair review. At the same time, attach a completed B&W Checklist. Be aware that the chair will not review a dissertation unless all the committee members have signed the form. Expect this review to take up to two weeks. The Chair will contact you with requests for further changes.
  4. Once all chair-requested edits have been made and the chair confirms the document is ready for the dean and signs the dissertation approval form, submit the revised dissertation again to uaf.bw.grad@alaska.edu with a note indicating it is ready for the dean to review. The dean would also prefer a document in Word. Expect this review to take another 2 weeks. The dean may have additional comments and requested edits that you should incorporate.
  5. Once the Dean approves your dissertation and signs the approval form, save the dissertation as a pdf and upload it to Proquest.
  6. The Graduate School may request additional edits. Please deal with these promptly.
  7. When the dissertation is final, please email a copy to the Graduate Student Coordinator.
  8. If you would like a bound copy of your dissertation, 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 on thesis paper.