SoE Thesis / Capstone: Graduate

Graduate students who are getting ready to submit a thesis should see the Inamori School of Engineering Thesis Timeline and Graduate Manual.

Documents below are for your convenience.

The Inamori School of Engineering uses the reference style of the American Chemical Society (ACS) for undergraduate and graduate theses.

For assistance with using the ACS style, or reference management software, ask your librarian.

ACS Style Quick Guide

There are several reference management software options available; either Zotero or EndNote is recommended:

Zotero is a free option. It is open-source and has plug-ins for Word, LibreOffice, and GoogleDocs.

EndNote is a paid product made available by Alfred University to AU students, faculty, and staff. The desktop version will need to be downloaded from the U:Drive.

U:Drive > Public > AU Libraries > Endnote

Graduate students are required to submit three printed (paper) copies and an electronic copy (PDF) of their thesis. Two paper copies are for Scholes Library and the third is for your advisor. The electronic copy will be made available via AURA, Alfred's institutional repository. All copies (print and electronic) are submitted to the SoE Dean's Office; they will coordinate getting them to the appropriate offices.

AU Libraries needs multiple copies of your work for preservation and to make them available to future researchers. One print copy is added to the library's circulating collection (can be checked out like a book) and one copy is added to special collections (historical preservation). AURA serves both of these purposes with the electronic copy -- researchers around the world can access your thesis online, and it is an archival repository.

For best preservation, the library copies must be printed on special paper, not regular printer paper (and unfortunately it is more expensive than regular paper). These copies should be printed single-sided. Do not staple these copies.

Acceptable paper for theses:

• 100% cotton paper (often marketed as resume paper)
  • Available from Amazon, most office supply stores, other sources
• Permalife Archival 20lb Bond Paper
  • Available from archival suppliers such as Gaylord Archival and Hollinger Metal Edge

It is recommended that students coordinate purchasing paper to be more cost-effective. Unfortunately, students are responsible for supplying their own paper.

A data management plan (DMP) helps researchers work with, manage, share and archive their data effectively.  A DMP typically describes:

• What data will be produced as a part of the project
   
• How each type of data will be organized, documented, standardized, stored, protected, shared and archived
   
• Who will take responsibility for carrying out the activities listed above
   
• When these activities will take place over the course of the project (and beyond) 

What is in a data management plan?

• Description of types of data, samples, and physical collections you will be creating.
   
• Standards you will use for your data and the metadata to describe it.
   
• Policies for sharing, accessing, and re-using your data.
   
• Methods for archiving and preserving your data.

The DMP Tool is a service built to help researchers create a data management plan according to your needs and based on agency guidelines. You can currently create an account and use the tool.

You may be wondering whether or not to include some pieces of data / information in your thesis because of plans for future uses of the work. In general, you should not withhold any material from the thesis document based on these plans. However, your (or your advisor's) plans for future uses of the work may be relevant in how / when the thesis will be made available. If the research project is funded by or in collaboration with private companies, they may also have stipulations for how the information will be shared.

Hoping to publish information / data as a journal article or book chapter?

Most publishers do not consider a thesis / dissertation to be "prior publication," so there is no need to withhold material from your thesis. If a manuscript has been submitted for publication, or if there are plans to do so in the near future, you may wish to apply an embargo (delay of access) of up to 12 months to the electronic copy of the thesis which will be made available through Alfred's institutional repository, AURA.

If you have submitted a manuscript already, or know which journal / publisher you intend to submit to, you may wish to check their policies on thesis publication in order to make sure there will not be any issues. If no publisher is known, include the material in your thesis as normal (as stated above, it should not create any issues).

Hoping to apply for a patent based on the thesis work?

When aspects of a (potential) patent are disclosed to the world has an impact on the timeline and process for the patent application. If the research conducted for the thesis is connected with a potential patent (consult with your advisor), applying an embargo (delay of access) will be important for both the electronic and print copies of the thesis. On turning in the thesis document(s), indicate that there are patent concerns and include the patent application number if known. Again, do not withhold material from the thesis; indicate the desire for an embargo period -- up to 12 months is standard; a longer embargo period may be considered on an individual basis.

Was the research conducted with a private company or under contract?

On relatively rare occasions, research may include proprietary information which you are contractually obligated not to disclose. In this situation, consult with your advisor and with the company / contractor about what material to include in your thesis and how to indicate when information has been withheld.  You should also ask about if material could be included in the thesis document with access restrictions (such as an embargo) on the electronic copy. If there are contractual or proprietary concerns, this should be indicated on the thesis deposit paperwork at the time of submission.

Because this project will be completed over a long timeframe (research over multiple years and writing up the thesis document over one or two semesters) and may have different stages or elements, it can be challenging to stay on track -- the deadline seems very far away, until it is suddenly very close. Many students leave the deliverable of the project (the final write-up) until the last minute, resulting in high levels of stress and a final product that may not be reflective of the amount and quality of work that went into the project. Every student, and every project, is different, but here are some tips for keeping track of your progress and making your life easier:

Scheduling

• Build at least an hour or two into each week for working on your research project, and put it on your schedule like a weekly class meeting. You may use this time for reading research articles/documentation, doing data analysis, writing code, writing up your work for your final report/thesis, etc. The important thing is that you are making progress each week over the full length of the project.
   
• Do any training or orientation you will need for lab/workshop equipment early on. Having this completed will enable you to have more time for actually doing your research.
   
• Lab and workshop equipment can break. There may be a lot of people who all need the same piece of equipment. Allow enough time for your project that when a delay (inevitably) happens, you don't have to panic and can stay on track in progressing toward your final deadline.
   
• Faculty have busy schedules and a lot of responsibilities. Communicate with your advisor (and committee) to schedule meetings; it may not always be possible to meet with only a little bit of notice. Coordinating multiple schedules for your defense will be even harder -- get on people's calendars early.
   
• Work backwards from your desired defense date to manage deadlines. Your thesis must be made available via the Dean's office for at least a week before you can defend. Your thesis must be ready for your committee to review before you can defend -- it is strongly encouraged that you get and address feedback from your committee before you get to the defense.

Documentation

• Use reference management software (Zotero or EndNote) to keep track of journal articles, books, reports, etc. as you find them in your research. That way, when you are writing, or need to follow-up on a lead in the future, the information is at your fingertips. This technology will also format your references for you, saving a lot of time and headaches.
   
• Take progress photos as you conduct your research. Images of the research setup and/or design progression can be very helpful in final documents and in presentations. Taking photos throughout the project will make that possible, and they can be helpful for refreshing your memory and troubleshooting problems at future stages of your project.
   
• Keep your lab notebook(s) in accordance with the standards for your field. This detailed, dated documentation is important for your research practice and also for patent applications (or defense).
   
• Make (and follow) a plan for how you will collect, store, and label the data you collect. (A Data Management Plan (DMP).) Your data needs to be understandable to other people (and your future self) -- use clear file names and headers/labels for charts and tables. You should include a "readme" document or text file in which you write out what the file names, headers/labels, etc. mean and what software you used (and will need to access the data).
   
• Do a progress reflection periodically throughout your project. This doesn't necessarily have to be a formal document, it is for your (and your advisor's) reference. Make a list of what you worked on/accomplished, any major successes or difficulties you encountered, and anything you need to connect with other people about. Depending on your project structure, your advisor or project team may require formal progress reports, but even if they're not required, regular check-ins with yourself will help keep the project on track.

Final Write-Up and Presentation(s)

• Don't make putting your thesis document and presentation materials together an afterthought. When people in the future want to know about your research, these items are what they will be looking at.
   
• Take advantage of resources like the Writing Center and the Libraries for help with structuring your write-up and communicating your ideas.
   
• Work with your advisor and committee to get feedback well in advance of your final due date. It is common for students to receive required or recommended revisions and feedback they'll need to incorporate before their thesis is accepted. By building opportunities for feedback into the process, there will be less of these to deal with after you thought you were all done.
   
• Unless your advisor/committee advises otherwise, write for an audience who is familiar with the field, but is not an expert in the specific area you were researching.
   
• As early career researchers, your credentials (why the person looking at your work should care what you have to say) come in large part from you showing that you have done your research and are grounded in the scholarship of your field. That means that your references section is very important! Your work should be grounded in the academic and gray literature of your field so that you can then contribute to it.

If you plan to reprint any figures or tables in your thesis, you will need to be mindful of copyright and intellectual property (IP). When you (or anyone else) want to re-use copyrighted materials, you need to consider the complicated landscape of fair use and copyright permissions. Using someone's work without permission and not as a fair use infringes on their copyright -- even if you provide a citation.

While plagiarism and copyright violations sometimes overlap, they are different issues. Plagiarism is an issue of ethics and good scholarly practice; the impact of plagiarism is usually reputational and career-related. Copyright infringement (and other IP law) is a legal issue and if violation is found damages can be monetary (and significant).

Now that the scare tactics are out of the way, you'll be glad to hear that it is relatively easy to avoid these issues by providing citations and getting permission for re-using copyrighted work. Most publishers have a straightforward online process for requesting copyright permissions.

The Copyright and Intellectual Property page on this guide has more information, and there are many resources available online.

You can also contact your librarian for assistance.

Librarians are here to help you throughout the research process. One of the places we can be especially helpful is in the topic development phase. We can help you clarify your area of interest, come up with keywords and search strategies, and point you in the direction of good resources to start with. Email me to set up a time to talk about your assignment or research project.

The Engineering subject guide (aka LibGuide) is there to help! This guide has information about the different kinds of resources you may use in your project and links to library resources that will be particularly helpful for you.