1. PREPARING YOUR DISSERTATION FOR APA REVIEW
GSEP Writing Support Services

2. First Things First: Copyright Permissions
You will need to obtain copyright permission for most of the following, unless they are publically-owned materials*
Tables
Figures
Screenshots (Web)
Lyrics
Significant blocks of direct quotes (250+ words) from a published source
*City, county, state and federal sources (e.g., all legislative and public school documents, U.S. Census Bureau, legal decisions, etc).

3. Sample Permission Notes
Sample Permission Request Letter – See ProQuest/UMI Copyright Guide
Sample Permission Table/Figure Note from journal:
From “Facilitating Teaching and Learning Across STEM Fields,” by J. A. Ejiwale, 2012, Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research, 13(3) p. 89. Copyright 2012 by Institute for STEM Education. Reprinted with permission.
Sample Permission Note from book: The data in column 1 are from The Literature Review: A Step-by-Step Guide for Students (p. 28), by D. Ridley, 2008, Los Angeles, CA: Sage. Reprinted with permission.

4. Further Notes About Copyright Permission:
Get permissions as soon as you know that you’ll be using others’ tables, figures, etc. Some permissions can take months to obtain, so don’t wait until you’re already in APA Review.
Permission policies differ from publisher to publisher. Consult your publisher directly to determine the copyright policies that apply.
It is the author’s responsibility to (a) obtain letters of permission from copyright holders to reproduce copyrighted material and (b) enclose copies of these letters with the accepted manuscript, if necessary (placed in an appendix).
Additional Info and Resources: APA Manual, 6th edition, pp. 38,
APAStyle.org blog 4-part series: Navigating Copyright for Reproduced Images
Complete ProQuest/UMI Copyright Guide for your manuscript:
Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis: Ownership, Fair Use, and Your Rights and Responsibilities

5. New………..Sort of
All margins in the dissertation (including appendices) are now 1 inch due to double-sided printing when bound.
Include IRB documentation (e.g., approval, exemption) in appendix.
No signature page, just the list of your committee members (page ii).
Delete all personal contact information (your own and that of committee members); professional contact information is fine.
Month, year on title page must be month you upload to ProQuest/UMI for publishing (don’t forget the comma after month!).

6. Preliminary Pages Be sure each page is accurately formatted:
Proper page numbering
Lowercase Roman numerals begin on 2nd page of Table of Contents (typically Roman numeral v)
Arabic numerals begin on 1st page of Chapter One
Proper spacing
Proper order
Proper capitalization
Proper date (month, year on title page)
Check for any updates on the Dissertation Support Web pages: bit.ly/gsep-diss

7. Preliminary Pages: Table of Contents (TOC)
Capitalization for most headings must be upper/lower case (exception: LIST OF FIGURES)
No italics, bold, etc. in TOC (exception: VITA)
Each level of heading from text is indicated by indenting one tab space to the right (1/2 inch).
A minimum of two level groupings are required in the TOC (chapter titles [level one], first headings [level two])
Use automatic leaders; don’t manually insert periods from list to page # ……………………12
All page numbers should right align to one inch margin.
See preliminary page sample template:
List of Tables—All Titles are Upper and Lower Case (a.k.a. Title Case).
List of Figures—All titles are lower case except first letter (a.k.a. Sentence Case).

8. ABSTRACT Cannot exceed 350 words. 1st paragraph is never indented.
Use numerals, not words, to indicate numbers in abstract (unless they begin a sentence).
No citations or references to literature in the abstract. Only a summary of your study.
No bullets or other atypical formatting (uploading to UMI).

9. ABSTRACT – cont’d Should include the following:
Overall research problem (1st sentence or two)
Purpose of study
Theoretical foundations
Summarize research questions
Briefly describe overall design, methods, and data analysis procedures
Identify key results, one or two conclusions
Conclude with a statement on implications for positive social change.

10. For latest updates on APA style and formatting: www.apastyle.org
Common Format Errors
& vs. and – use & when citing multiple authors inside parentheses
Numbers vs. words – use numerals for 10+ (exceptions: time, dates, ages, scores, etc.)
1990’s vs. 1990s – possessive vs. plural s
Seriation within a paragraph: (a), (b), and (c)
Seriation as a list (use numbers when ordinal position is intended; otherwise use bullets): 1. 2. 3.
Italicize statistical symbols
Always use DOIs or URLs for electronic sources
Secondary sources: According to Smith (as cited by Adams, 2013)
For latest updates on APA style and formatting:

11. Online RESOURCES GSEP Community Web pages: bit.ly/gsep-writingsupport
Dissertation Community Web pages: bit.ly/gsep-diss