The Doctoral Dissertation

The dissertation must be written on a subject approved by the candidate's doctoral program committee, must embody the results of original and significant investigation and must be the candidate's own work.

Format

Every candidate should review the Guidelines for Preparing Theses and Dissertations from the Graduate School and should consult the director of graduate studies for academic program style requirements.

All dissertation defenses shall be open to the general faculty. Academic programs are encouraged to announce dissertation defense dates to academic program colleagues.

Enrollment and Reporting

The candidate must be enrolled to defend the dissertation, which can only be defended when MU is officially in session. A report of the examination (pdf), carrying the signatures of all members of the committee, is sent to the Graduate School before the deadline preceding the anticipated date of graduation. For the dissertation to be successfully defended, the student's doctoral committee must vote to pass the student on the defense with no more than one dissenting or abstaining vote.

Submission to the Graduate School

The final copy of the dissertation must be submitted to the Graduate School as a PDF file on a CD-ROM. Specific instructions are provided in the Guidelines for Preparing Theses and Dissertations.

An archive of previously submitted electronic theses and dissertations is also available.