cwru dissertation guidelines

Dissertation Digests communicate the main findings from a doctoral dissertation (e.g., DBA, executive DBA, executive Ph.D., D.M., etc.) that highlight the practical and theoretical importance of the findings and reports how evidence was used to make inferences by applying rigorous qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods.

Each submission should follow a defined format with the following section headings:

• Abstract (maximum of 200 words)
• Synopsis (maximum of 800 words): Use these sub-section headings:
• Problem of Practice
• Conclusions
• Practical Relevance
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Research Method

Use Times Roman 12-point type and the 8.5 x 11 inch page setting. The document should be double spaced throughout; place page numbers in the lower-right corner; and leave top and side margins of at least one inch.

The length of the submission should not exceed a maximum of 10,000 words including the abstract, the synopsis, figures, tables, references. Dissertation Digests will not have appendices. However, the authors must provide additional materials—which will not be published—in order to provide reviewers a sufficient understanding they deem necessary to determine how data was sampled, collected and analyzed for the final results, regardless of method used in the research. Examples include survey instruments, correlation tables, or sample of coding steps or coding trees. The additional materials should be included at the end of submitted manuscript under the heading of “Additional Materials for Reviewer.” The authors may choose to make some of these additional materials available with an appropriate link. For citation and reference style, use the Academy of Management Journal style, which can be found here.

The editors reserve the right to request the full dissertation on which the submission is based. If requested, the EMR editors will only use the full dissertation to help evaluate the EMR submission. Upon completion of its review, the EMR will remove the full dissertation from any EMR repository. Authors of accepted articles are asked to submit a biographical sketch of about 100 words. The sketch should identify relevant professional occupations and, if possible, authors academic affiliation and degree (in progress or earned). Authors should identify their key contributions to management practice and academia. Contact information including affiliations, postal address and email address should be made available. During the review please keep the EMR managing editor ( [email protected] ) informed of your changed address or long absence. A high-resolution photograph should also be provided not exceeding 250 KB.

Authors should review the EMR Mission Statement and Purpose prior to preparing their submission. Articles are submitted online [details to be determine for the web site and therefore this section is a work in progress].

Accepted papers will be copy-edited by a professional copy editor. Authors are expected to review edits in page proofs. EMR will contact authors about one month after the managing editor assigns the manuscript to an issue.

Ensure key technical terms are defined. A technical term is a word or phrase that is not in general use, that is, not normally be in the dictionary with a meaning that anyone other than you would normally ascribe to it. Put quotation marks around the first appearance in your submission of each technical term and provide a definition in the Glossary.

Avoid using abbreviations for the names of concepts. Use ordinary words for variable names, not code names or other abbreviations. Be consistent with naming conventions for constructs in text, tables and figures.

Names of organizations and research instruments may be abbreviated, but give the full name the first time you mention one of these

Use text to describe mathematical concepts. In others words, use “we surveyed 200 engineers,” rather than “we surveyed n=200 engineers.” However, do use commonly accepted mathematical symbols such as β for regression weights and numbers to report results. Numbers are presented at most with two decimals. Put spaces on either side of equals signs, minus signs, etc.

Avoid language that might be interpreted as denigrating or biased.

Write in the active voice (“They did it.”) instead of the passive voice (“It was done.”) to make it easier to for readers to see who did what. Use the first person (“I” or “we”) to describe what you, or you and your coauthors did.

Tables and Figures can be used but they should be done sparingly and only when necessary to convey an important point central to the submission.

Authorship Guidelines

Case Western Reserve University

Guidelines on Authorship of Research and Scholarly Publications

Approved by Faculty Senate, April 25, 2005.

Contributing to knowledge is a core activity of faculty, staff and students in a research university. Contributions to knowledge are evaluated by the publications produced, regardless of the medium or format. Recognizing that authorship can sometimes be a complex process, Case offers these guidelines for helping faculty, staff and students navigate authorship issues. For the purposes of these guidelines, publications include any and all articles, abstracts, and/or manuscripts based on original work (research and scholarship) conducted at Case. These guidelines describe what is expected of faculty, staff and students in authorship matters and are intended to encourage open communication about authorship issues.

Purpose of the Guidelines

• Granting agency and public concerns are requiring explicit standards of accountability for all authors of research and scholarly publications.
• In multiple investigator research and scholarly projects, standards are needed so that contributors can anticipate and understand their rights and responsibilities related to authorship or acknowledgment. However, in very large, multidisciplinary, or multi-institutional projects, following these precise guidelines may not be feasible; nevertheless, scholars are expected to adhere to the spirit of the guidelines.
• Not all contributors in any research or scholarship endeavor have the same role, power or seniority in relationships; it is necessary to clarify the roles of all those involved and to understand each person's rights and obligations in authorship. The potential scholarly contributions of all collaborators, including students, need to be considered in the decisions of authorship.

Responsibilities and Criteria for Authorship

• Authorship is attributed to persons responsible for the intellectual content of the publication. Only those who have contributed substantially to the conception, execution, or interpretation of the work such that they are willing and able to take public responsibility for the publication should be included as authors. Honorary authorship, that is, listing someone as a coauthor in the absence of substantial intellectual contribution, is discouraged.
• All authors must have contributed to developing the manuscript and have read and understood the entire contents of the publication.
• All authors must be sufficiently familiar with the conduct and at least the general interpretation of the research to accept responsibility for its integrity and credibility.
• It is the responsibility of the author corresponding with the journal or conference, or his/her proxy, to ensure that authorship decisions conform to Case guidelines and ensure that all authors approve the final submission before publication.
• All investigators accepting authorship should also accept the responsibility of avoiding unnecessary duplicate journal publication of similar material. Previous publication should be cited in any repeated use of data or theory, and a new publication should meet the criterion of making a new intellectual contribution to the field.
• In the absence of meeting the above criteria, limited contributions such as provision of standard materials (for example, plasmids, cell lines, tissue, antibodies), performance of incidental assays or measurements, use of facilities, routine patient care, critical review of the manuscript, providing access to subjects or providing an environment and/or financial support for the research, collecting or analyzing data in a routine format, chairing or advising a dissertation or thesis committee, having an administrative relationship to the research, or contributing to the general intellectual development of one or more authors are insufficient to justify authorship unless the above criteria have also been met, but may be recognized by acknowledgment. For large group projects, it is important at the outset that all members of the research team understand and agree to principles of authorship. It is also important that procedures for resolving more detailed concerns, such as the timing of presentations or publications, order of authorship, and privilege of presenting results at meetings, be discussed to the extent feasible at the beginning and throughout the work as needed.
• If disputes or questions concerning authorship have not been successfully resolved among members of a collaboration, these disputes or concerns should be brought, by the individual having a concern, for assistance in resolution to the following administrative officials, in this order: a) the department chair, division head, or similar first line of academic management, b) the Dean, and c) the Provost. However, if these matters involve allegations or evidence of scholarly misconduct or threats of retribution, they must immediately be brought to the attention of the appropriate university official, as per Chapter 3, Part 2, II, Policy for responding to allegations of scientific misconduct, in the Faculty Handbook. Journals, societies, and conferences may have different authorship policies that are more stringent or more lenient than these guidelines. In such cases, the guidelines expressed in the present document are to be considered as the minimum standards to which all Case faculty, staff and students should adhere

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2023-24 General Bulletin

School of Graduate Studies

Tomlinson Hall, Room 203 Phone: 216.368.4390 [email protected]

The Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies (SGS) is the unit through which Case Western Reserve University offers graduate programs and university certificates in the humanities and social sciences, biomedical and natural sciences, engineering, and selected disciplines related to professional fields. These programs lead to the degrees of Master of Arts, Master of Fine Arts (theater and dance), Master of Science, Master of Public Health, Master of Engineering and Management, Master of Engineering, Doctor of Musical Arts, Doctor of Philosophy, and Graduate and Post-baccalaureate Certificates. Several programs offered jointly with the professional schools and local affiliated institutions lead to dual degrees such as MA/JD, MA/PhD, MA/MD, MA/MSN, MS/MBA MS/MD, MS/MPH, MA/MSW, MSW/MPH, MA/MPH, DMD/MPH, MHCM/MPH, PhD/MPH, JD/MPH, MSN/MPH, MBA/MPH, MD/MPH, MD/PhD, PhD/DNP, and MSW/PhD. There are also integrated programs with undergraduate and graduate study which allow undergraduate students to enter graduate study before they complete their undergraduate programs. A complete list of degree programs offered can be found on the Graduate Studies website . The School of Graduate Studies, overseeing university-wide standards of quality in admission and performance, presently awards graduate degrees in seventy-six programs: fifty-two with doctoral programs and twenty-four with others in which the highest degree is the MA, ME, MEM, MFA, MPH, or MS.  Enrollment in the School of Graduate Studies for Fall 2022, excluding non-degree registrants, totaled 2,463, of which 48% were men, 51% were women, and 30% were international. During the academic year 2021-2022, the school awarded 644 master’s degrees and 192 doctorates.

Faculty Senate Committee on Graduate Studies

General responsibility for overseeing postdoctoral affairs, programs of graduate study and for academic and other general regulations applicable to all graduate students and programs is delegated to the Faculty Senate Committee on Graduate Studies . Each department, school, or interdisciplinary committee is responsible for its particular graduate programs within the framework of the general regulations. The Committee on Graduate Studies consists of the dean of graduate studies, the associate dean of graduate studies, the associate vice president for research, one voting member elected by each constituent faculty Graduate Committee (or its equivalent) from among its members, three members of the University Faculty at-large, at least one of whom must be an elected member of the Faculty Senate, four graduate/professional students, at least one of which will be a professional student, and one postdoctoral scholar/fellow.

Graduate Student Council

All graduate and professional students at CWRU are represented by a Graduate Student Council (GSC). Representatives are elected from each school or college that offers graduate programs as outlined in its constitution and bylaws.

Administration

Charles E. Rozek, PhD (Wayne State University) Vice Provost for Graduate Education & Academic and Faculty Affairs

Lynmarie Hamel, JD, MEd (Case Western Reserve University) Senior Associate Dean of Graduate Studies

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SJD Seminar and Thesis Formatting

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Thesis Template

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MS Word Formatting

Setting up the document.

Page Numbering & Sections

Inserting a Table of Contents

Tagging Headings

If your entire dissertation is in a single MS Word file and you tag your headings, the software can automatically generate a table of contents. 

Here is how to tag the headings:

• Type your top-level heading.
• Highlight it
• From the "home" menu, there is a ribbon that gives you the option of different styles.
• Click "Heading 1."
• Repeat these steps for second-level headings (clicking "heading 2") and third-level headings (clicking "heading 3")
• If the appearance of the headings is not what you and your advisor want, refer to "style sheets," above.

To Insert a Table of Contents:

• Put the cursor where you want the table of contents to be
• Go to "references" menu
• Click "table of contents"
• Click "Automatic Table" (either 1 or 2 is good)
• If you change your document after inserting the table of contents, highlight the table of contents, right-click, and click "update table."  All the page numbers will update.

Anchoring Footnotes for "Supra" references

Both Mac and PC:

You can link a footnote back to a previous footnote.  To do this:

• Click in the footnote where you want the supra to go
• Click the References tab
• Click Cross-reference

• Change the Reference type to Footnote
• Chose the footnote and click Insert

If you add footnotes in after the fact, you'll need to update your footnote.  To do this

• Click anywhere in the footnotes
• Press Ctrl + A 
• Press Ctrl + F9

That's it!

Inserting copy-and-paste as plain text

Copying and pasting as plain text.

Right-Click where you want to paste the text

Select the "paste as text" option, or press CTRL-SHIFT-V

Click "paste special."

On the next screen, select "unformatted text."

Formatting block quotes

Guidelines for using block quotations:

• Do not use quotation marks.
• Indent the entire quotation five spaces from the left and right margins.
• Single spacing is required. 

Small caps font

Bluebook citation for titles of books and journals uses "Large and Small Caps" font. 

To choose Large or Small Caps, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher

Choose either Small Caps or All Caps.

To choose Large or Small Caps, click the Format Drop down at the top

Outline View

Using Outline View is the simplest way to update formatting for the headings of your thesis. Select the View tab at the top toolbar. Then select "Outline."

Your toolbar should switch to the Outlining tab. Select the text of the heading you would like to format. Use the green arrows (or [Tab] and [Shift + Tab]) to increase or decrease the style Level. If you are using the Law Library's Template , the Heading 1 style will correspond to Level 1, Heading 2 to Level 2, etc.

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U.S. Theses and Dissertations

International Theses

• PhdData (The Universal Index of Doctoral Dissertations in Progress) This site holds a database of doctoral dissertations in progress around the world.
• Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR) Includes links to 100+ sites providing e-theses.
• Australasian Digital Thesis Program A distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research students at Australian universities.
• SUDOC The database includes records of dissertations produced in French institutions. Search for theses by limiting to Dissertations in Advanced Search.

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