6.11 SUBMISSION OF THE FINAL PAPER COPIES OF THE DISSERTATION
6.11.1 APPROVAL OF FINAL DRAFT
The final hardcopies of the dissertation are due in to the Director of PhD in Leadership Studies no later than May 1st for spring graduation, or December 1st for Fall graduation.
The final copy of the dissertation is in essence equivalent to a printed and bound book. Most professionals would be unlikely to consider a book trustworthy or reliable if it is full of spelling errors, grammatical errors, and looks shabby. Most professionals would probably refrain from acquiring future volumes from a publisher that produced poor quality work. Thus it is with the dissertation. It is the ultimate professional document that demonstrates the highest caliber of academic preparation and skill. Grade school errors are not appropriate, and are in fact an insult to the students, the faculty, and the institution. Spelling, grammar, and style errors are easy enough to correct if students are conscientious about their work, and take pride in the final product.
The dissertation ultimately says a lot about the researcher more than anything else. It is easy for students to convince themselves that those errors really don’t matter, but when someone else picks up their study and finds them in mass quantities, the researcher’s personal and professional credibility is brought into question.
THEREFORE, final copies of dissertations that evidence excessive error of grammar, spelling, punctuation or style may be rejected and graduation delayed until an acceptable copy is received.
6.11.2 SUBMISSION OF THE FINAL DRAFT
Due to library archival needs, all copies of the final version of the dissertation must be printed on 20 to 24-pound acid-free paper, or 20- to 24-pound 100% cotton bond paper. In addition to the hard copies of the dissertation, students must submit an electronic copy of the dissertation as an Acrobat PDF file.
6.11.3 DISSERTATION SUBMISSION FORMS AND FILING FOR COPYRIGHT
Doctoral students must submit the proper forms permitting copyrighting and microfilming at the time the final copies are submitted. Students retain copyright of the completed dissertation. Information about copyright law can be found at the ProQuest web site at http://www.umi.com/.
As part of the copyright process, the Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary and Graduate School retains the right to reproduce and disseminate the dissertation in any form and by any means for any purposes chosen by the college. This includes use in the classroom as a model for instructional purposes.
6.11.4 DISSERTATION COPYRIGHT PAGE
The copyright page of the dissertation must contain the information contained in the example below and appear at the bottom of the copyright page in the dissertation.
Student, Joe E. 2014. Dissertation title sentence style: Capitalize only the first word of the first and second phrase, or Proper Names. PhD dissertation, Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary and Graduate School.
© Copyright 2014. Joe E. Student.
All Rights Reserved. Lancaster Bible College | Capital Seminary and Graduate School has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by Adult Learner Services, including without limitation preservation or instruction.