Student Policies Dissertation Policies Student Organizations

Dissertation Online Handbook

Professional Dissertation Procedures

Timelines for the Professional Dissertation

The Professional Dissertation process is organized around firm timelines designed to ensure that all students complete the Professional Dissertation prior to leaving for Internship. Students are required to enroll in a minimum of 6 credit hours of PSI 998, Professional Dissertation prior to graduating from the program. All students must enroll in a minimum of 1 credit hour of PSI 998, Professional Dissertation during Fall and Spring Quarters of years 2, 3, and 4 of the doctoral program. The timelines below apply for all full-time students on a standard 4+1 curricular plan. Students on other curricular plans may have very different timelines and should clarify these timelines with their academic advisors and the Office of Academic Affairs. The timelines are summarized below and each step of the Professional Dissertation process is explained.

1. Year 2, Fall Quarter: No later than the end of Fall Quarter of the Second Year, students must submit a Chair and General Topic form to the OAA.  Failure to submit the Chair and General Topic form by the deadline will result in assignment of a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies. Students may change their topic and chair after this date as long as subsequent deadlines are met. Students must enroll in 1 credit hour of PSI 998, Professional Dissertation, during Fall Quarter of the Second Year. The intent of this deadline is to encourage students and faculty to get an early start on the Professional Dissertation requirement.                                                                                                           

2. Year 2, Spring Quarter: Students must enroll in 1 credit hour of PSI 998, Professional Dissertation, during Spring Quarter of the Second Year. The focus should be working on the Dissertation Prospectus. Failure to enroll as required will result in assignment of a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies. 

3. Year 3, Fall Quarter: No later than October 15th of the Third Year, students must complete the Professional Dissertation Prospectus. At a minimum, the prospectus must include: a literature review, a statement of the problem or hypothesis, an outline of additional proposed content beyond the literature review, and a reference list.

 Students must submit a copy of the prospectus along with a Summary of Prospectus form completed by their dissertation committee to the OAA by the October 15th deadline.  Students must enroll in 1 credit hour of PSI 998 during Fall Quarter of the Third Year.  Failure to submit the summary form and/or enroll in PSI 998 will result in assignment of a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies. The student will also be delayed in taking the Clinical Comprehensive Examination (CCE) until the prospectus is approved.  Progress toward completing the prospectus will be evaluated as part of students' Second Year Annual Performance Review.

4. Year 4, Fall Quarter: No later than September 15th of the Fourth Year, the Professional Dissertation Chair must notify the OAA that a complete first draft of the Professional Dissertation (including text in all sections) has been completed. The student also submits the complete draft along with a signed Completion of Full Draft form to the OAA. Students must enroll in 1 credit hour of PSI 998, Professional Dissertation, during Fall Quarter of the Fourth Year. Failure to meet these requirements results in lossof eligibility to apply for internship in Fall Quarter of the Fourth Year, generates a grade of "U" in PSI 998 and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies, and delays graduation by at least one year. Students who do not meet this deadline must either delay internship applications for a year until Fall Quarter of Year Five or use the internship match process in Year Four if the faculty determines by that time that the student meets all criteria for internship readiness.                                                                                             

5. Year 4, Spring Quarter:  No later than June 1st of students’ fourth year in the program, students must complete the oral dissertation defense. Students must submit the completed Oral Defense Rating Scale and Dissertation Revision Agreement to the Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) by June 1st. Failure to meet this requirement results in a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies , and may result in loss of eligibility to start internship.  In the event internship is delayed, the training director of the internship program will be notified.   

6. Year 4, Summer Quarter:  No later than July 15th of students' fourth year in the program, or if starting internship early, two weeks prior to the date departing for internship, students must submit the final manuscript of the Professional Dissertation to OAA, including all revisions recommended by the Dissertation Committee. Failure to meet this deadline may result in cancellation or delay of the start of the internship.  In the event internship is delayed, the training director of the internship program will be notified.

NOTE: Students must submit a Program Requirements Checklist, with the Professional Dissertation section completed and signed by the student and Dissertation Chair, to the OAA for review prior to departing for internship.

Changing Topic or Chair

Students who change their dissertation topic or chair must still meet the deadlines in items 3-6 above.                                                                                                                      

Academic Probation

Students may be placed on academic probation whenever they earn their second grade of “U” in PSI 998, Professional Dissertation. If this action is taken, the student will be required to develop a written plan with the Chair and/or Committee for completing timelines and removal from probationary status. This plan will be filed with the OAA.                                                              

Credit for PSI 998, Professional Dissertation

Students are required to enroll in a minimum of 6 credit hours of PSI 998 during their time in the program. As noted above, each student will enroll in 1 credit hour of PSI 998 during Fall and Spring Quarters of their second, third, and fourth years in the program. Grades of “U” (Unsatisfactory) in PSI 998 are permanent grades and the student must enroll in additional sections of PSI 998 until a total of 6 credits are completed with a passing grade.

Special Curricular Programs 

Students on a curricular program that differs from the standard 4+1 program must meet deadlines that are moved up one year from the deadlines for students in the standard 4+1 program. Any student who changes his or her curricular plan in a substantive way after entering the program should confirm all deadlines with the Professional Dissertation Chair and the OAA.  In any case where a non-standard curricular program is developed, a written plan must be submitted to the Chair and OAA as it pertains to completing the Professional Dissertation. 

Composition of the Professional Dissertation Committee

Once a student has a general idea of the topic of the dissertation, he or she should begin the process of selecting a Dissertation Committee. The Dissertation Committee is composed of three persons, the Dissertation Chair and two members of the Committee. The Chair of the Dissertation Committee must be a member of SOPP's Fully-Affiliated Continuing Faculty (i.e. a core faculty member). A listing of SOPP core faculty members and their research interests is available from the OAA.  Often, the Chair is selected first and the Chair assists the student in identifying individuals who might serve as members of the Committee. Of the two members of the Dissertation Committee, one must be a psychologist, or a person whose graduate education was psychological in nature. This individual may be a member of SOPP's Fully-Affiliated (core), Contract, Adjunct or Clinical/Voluntary faculties or a member of the community of professional or academic psychologists. The second member of the Dissertation Committee may be a psychologist, as broadly defined above, or a member of another profession or academic discipline. Finally, an additional person may be added to the committee at the discretion of the Chair or student if that person's expertise would significantly enhance the quality of the dissertation.

The student must submit the proposed Dissertation Chair and General Topic form to the Office of Academic Affairs for review and approval no later than the last day of Fall Quarter of the student's second year in the program. The Forms section of this handbook contains a sample Dissertation Chair and General Topic form.  Failure to meet this deadline will result in a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) being assigned to PSI 998.

The student must submit the completed Professional Dissertation Topic and Committee form by the end of Spring quarter of the student’s second year in the program.  The Forms section of this handbook contains a sample Dissertation Topic and Committeeform.  Failure to enroll as required will result in assignment of a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies.  If the student is proposing that an individual serve on the Committee who is not on SOPP's Fully-Affiliated (core), Contract, Adjunct or Clinical/Voluntary faculties, a curriculum vita for that individual must be submitted with the form for review by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.

Any change to the Professional Dissertation Committee must be approved, in writing, by the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. In the rare circumstance in which a student requests a change in the composition of the Professional Dissertation Committee, this request should be submitted in writing to the Office of Academic Affairs. When a faculty member who is a Chair or a member of a Professional Dissertation Committee leaves the SOPP, the departing faculty member is permitted to continue serving on the Dissertation Committee, if desired.  If the departing Committee member does not wish to continue serving on the Committee, the Committee may be reconstituted.  In this instance, the student will work with the Chair to identify a third committee member. The student must then submit a new Professional Dissertation Topic and Committee form to the OAA.  If the membership of a Professional Dissertation Committee is changed after the Prospectus has been approved, the student may be required to schedule a second Prospectus meeting with all members of the new Committee present.

Professional Dissertation Prospectus

The student develops a written Professional Dissertation Prospectus and works with the Chair and members of the committee until it is determined that the student is ready to meet formally with the full committee. The student meets with the Professional Dissertation Committee for approval of the final Professional Dissertation Prospectus. All committee members must be present at the Prospectus meeting and indicate their approval of the Professional Dissertation project by signing the Summary of Prospectus Meeting form. Because the Prospectus meeting must be conducted with all Committee members present, students are strongly encouraged to schedule alternate dates for the Prospectus meeting as a precaution against a meeting being cancelled because of emergencies or other unforeseen events that prohibit a member from being present. The student may need to schedule additional Prospectus meetings in order to secure group approval of the proposed project. At the conclusion of the final Prospectus meeting, the student submits the signed Summary of Prospectus Meeting form, narrative summary, outline, and references to the Office of Academic Affairs by October 15th of the student's third year in the program. The Forms section of this handbook contains a sample Summary of Prospectus Meeting form.  Failure to meet this deadline results in a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) being assigned to PSI 998 and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies. In addition, the student will also be delayed in taking the Clinical Comprehensive Examination (CCE) until the prospectus is approved.

Guidelines for the Professional Dissertation Prospectus

1. Introduction/Focus of the Dissertation:  This section of the dissertation clearly and cogently highlights the issues which the project seeks to clarify.  For instance, the target population is clearly defined.  The statement of the problem identifies methodological flaws in the extant literature, areas of overemphasis or neglect, inadequate procedures or assessment, etc.  The statement of the problem also addresses theoretical confusions, ambiguities, and blind spots.  Ultimately, the statement of the problem clearly communicates the reasons why the topic is important and argues for the compelling nature of this particular dissertation.  In articulating the uniqueness of this student’s scholarly contribution, the statement of the problem explains the potential implications of the project, the way the information may be used by the targeted population, and the usefulness for psychologists and other helping professionals.  In short, the statement of the problem demonstrates how the proposed dissertation meets the school’s standards for professional dissertations which include these criteria:

• It is an original creative work. 
• It is produced independently by the student with limited technical guidance from the Chair and Committee. 
• It is a product that exemplifies the student’s ability to think critically and to critically evaluate research, theory or other scholarly work. 
• It represents a synthesis and integration of scholarly work, research, or theoretical perspectives. 
• It represents a substantive scholarly contribution, demonstrating focus and depth of knowledge in a particular area of professional psychology. 
• It represents a vehicle for the student to formulate and challenge hypotheses and to demonstrate an ability to communicate clearly both in writing and orally. 
• It is a project or undertaking the topic of which is generally psychological in nature and consistent with the school’s mission. 

2. Aim and Purpose:  Once the problem and its implications have been defined in the prospectus, the writer should clearly operationalize the individual project’s aims, purposes, and goals. This narrative section should include specifically what the student plans to do in the dissertation (e.g. propose a new treatment program for eating disorders with multicultural populations, make an argument for culturally sensitive treatments, and offer a new treatment approach based on the literature review). This section also includes how the student plans to accomplish his or her goals, i.e., generate recommendations for improving service delivery to a particular underserved population, create a treatment manual for an under-researched clinical problem, design an empirical study to better understand a clinical issue, etc.

3.  Literature Review:  After the aim and purpose have been clearly delineated, the student must identify the literature base(s) which needs to be addressed.  A critical review of the literature is a key component of the dissertation prospectus and will be important in establishing the context of the dissertation proposal.  As a general rule of thumb, the literature review should consist of at least 20 pages of double spaced text. 

4.   Preliminary Outline of the Dissertation: The preliminary outline should communicate the logical flow of ideas throughout the dissertation. The individual topics and sections should be delineated and followed by clear identification of constituent parts of each section or subsection.  The outline should provide information on the dissertation’s comprehensiveness detailing the student’s coverage of relevant topics.  Major points in the outline should include reference citations. 

5.  References:  A reference list should be attached to the narrative statement of the problem, aim and purpose, and outline. The reference list should be as complete as possible documenting the candidate’s coverage of material.  All references need to be cited according to the APA Publication Manual (6th Edition).

Submission of Complete Draft of the Professional Dissertation

No later than September 15th of the Fourth Year, the Professional Dissertation Chair must notify the OAA that a complete draft of the Professional Dissertation (including text in all sections) has been completed by the student. One copy of the full draft of the Professional Dissertation must also be submitted to the OAA along with a signed copy of the Completion of Full Draft form.

The Forms section of this handbook contains asample Completion of Full Draft form.  Failure to meet this requirement results in loss of eligibility to apply for internships in Fall Quarter of Year Four, generates a grade of "U" (Unsatisfactory) in PSI 998 and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies, and delays graduation from the program by at least one year. 

Oral Defense of the Professional Dissertation

Following the contract established at the Professional Dissertation Prospectus meeting, the student develops the Professional Dissertation manuscript. When the student, Chair and Committee determine that the Professional Dissertation is of acceptable quality and form, the oral defense is scheduled. The deadline for students to complete the oral dissertation defense is June 1st of the fourth year in the program.  Failure to meet this requirement results in a grade of “U” (Unsatisfactory) and other applicable consequences per the Grading and Remediation Policies and may result in loss of eligibility to start internship.  In the event internship is delayed, the training director of the internship program will be notified. 

The student contacts all Committee members and determines a mutually agreeable time and date, schedules a room for the defense to occur, and distributes a copy of the Professional Dissertation manuscript to each committee member a minimum of 10 working days prior to the scheduled defense. Typically, two hours is a sufficient time frame to complete the oral defense meeting. The student must also notify the Office of Academic Affairs at least 10 working days in advance of the scheduled meeting using the Oral Defense Scheduling form. Because the Professional Dissertation Defense must be conducted with all members of the Committee present, students are strongly encouraged to schedule alternate dates for the Professional Dissertation Defense as a precaution against a meeting being cancelled because of emergencies or other unforeseen events that prohibit a member from being present. The only exception is that for a committee with four members, the fourth member does not have to be present for the defense meeting.

The student and Professional Dissertation Committee meet for the oral defense. Those present include the Professional Dissertation Committee members, and any students or faculty who may wish to observe or participate in the examination (first year students are encouraged to observe at least one Professional Dissertation defense). Students wishing to invite observers who are not members of the academic, scientific or professional community must have prior approval from the Chair. Videotaping of the oral examination is prohibited.

The Professional Dissertation Defense meeting is conducted as follows:

• The candidate makes a 10-15 minute formal presentation of the Professional Dissertation.
• The Committee Chair and members examine the candidate.
• In the time remaining, the observers examine the candidate (if applicable).
• Any observers are excused from the room. At the Chair's discretion, the candidate may be examined further by the Committee after any observers have been excused.
• The candidate is excused and the Committee evaluates the candidate.
• The candidate returns and receives the Committee's evaluation and any suggestions for revision of the Professional Dissertation.
• The Chair submits the signed Professional Dissertation Evaluation Rating Scale and Dissertation Revision Agreement to the OAA by June 1st.

Submitting the Electronic Dissertation

The School of Professional Psychology has joined the OhioLink Electronic Theses and Dissertation (ETD) Center to allow its doctoral students to submit their dissertations electronically. 

The Office of Academic Affairs (OAA) coordinates and approves the submission of electronic dissertations to the ETD Center.  All fourth-year SOPP students eligible to begin their internship in the subsequent academic year must deposit their professional dissertation electronically to the ETD Center by July 15th.   Exception: Those students scheduled to begin their internship early (i.e., in the summer) must submit their dissertation two weeks before departing for internship.  Failure to meet this deadline may result in cancellation of eligibility for internship and may delay graduation by at least one year.  In the event internship is delayed, the training director of the internship program will be notified.

Students must submit their electronic dissertations in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF).  PDF files should have all fonts embedded and may not disable printing or text access.  Dissertations prepared in Microsoft Word can easily be converted to PDF. You must first install a PDF converter on your computer.  There are a number of free PDF converters available for download by searching online. To convert your Word document to a PDF file, click Save As, select a location to save the file, type in a file name, and click the Publish button. For questions of a technical nature concerning PDF, HTML, etc., please contact the Office of Academic Affairs or the STAC at 775-2656. 

SOPP has a set of defined procedures for students to submit an electronic dissertation.  For additional information regarding the submission of an electronic dissertation, please review the Frequently Asked Questions at the following link:   http://www.wright.edu/sopp/documents/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.pdf.   These FAQs are also included at the end of the hard copy edition of this handbook.

The OhioLINK ETD Center is a repository for complete, final theses and dissertations. Students should submit their electronic dissertations to the ETD Center only after the following actions have been completed:

• The PDF manuscript, with all revisions completed as recommended by the dissertation committee, must be forwarded via email to sopp_etd@wright.edu  for a format check prior to submission to the ETD Center.  This review will evaluate the dissertation for proper format and style as established in the Dissertation Handbook and current edition of the APA Manual.  This review is intended to minimize the likelihood of the dissertation being rejected after the deposit deadline.  However, it in no way guarantees the acceptability of the final copy.  The manuscript should be submitted for format check well in advance of July 15th to allow sufficient time for final revisions to be made prior to the deadline.

                 IMPORTANT:  The DF manuscript approval page must not contain signatures of the dissertation chair and approval authority. 

• The dissertation approval page with all required signatures must be submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs on bond quality paper by July 15th.  This document will be kept in the student’s academic file in OAA.  The ETD will not be published online until OAA receives the signed approval page.

Once the format check has been completed and the signed approval page has been received, the OAA will inform students to submit their electronic dissertation to the ETD Center.   Go to http://etd.ohiolink.edu/submit/ to complete the ETD Submission Form.  Students navigate a series of pages and enter information about the author, paper, and degree; permissions and UMI publication, and ending with upload of the full text. An email message will be forwarded to the student and OAA confirming when an electronic dissertation has been submitted.

Once the electronic dissertation (PDF file) has been submitted, it will reside in a secure location on the ETD site where it may only be accessed by the Office of Academic Affairs.  The OAA may publish, edit, or reject the submission and can modify or correct any of the submitted fields. Corrections can be made to names, dates, degree, etc.

The OAA will not publish electronic dissertations until after students have completed their internship and after the degree conferral date which is typically September 15th each year.

The OAA designates online when a paper is approved (i.e., it is “published”) and the ETD system immediately moves the document into the publicly accessible site.  Upon approval, the document’s bibliographic information, abstract, and full-text are included for public use.  Students will receive an email notification when the dissertation is published. Once published, it is usually not possible to make any changes to the dissertation or to any other information supplied. When an electronic dissertation is submitted, the student gives OhioLINK and SOPP permission to make the dissertation available for open access on the Internet including access through major Internet search engines.

The publication agreement is part of the ETD Submission Form and can be found at http://etd.ohiolink.edu/submit/.   It is important that students read and understand this form before submitting their dissertation. The publication agreement outlines what OhioLINK and SOPP may do with the copy of the dissertation published in the ETD Center.

Students should select, “Do not upload to UMI” on the Permissions and UMI Publication page of the ETD Submission Form. SOPP uses OhioLINK to publish and store its electronic dissertations.  In addition, students should select, “The author is not requesting UMI to handle the application for copyright registration” as SOPP follows U.S. Copyright Office provisions. 

Copyright

Students typically select, “Standard copyright only” on the Permissions and UMI Publication page of the ETD Submission Form.  Students may elect not to use this option if they prefer to have a Creative Commons license; more information about this option can be found at the link on the permissions page.

Copyright is a form of legal protection for original works of authorship, including works published online. Copyright applies to a work as soon as it is created in a tangible form, such as being saved to an electronic file. Your electronic dissertation is automatically protected by copyright, although you may choose the additional protection of registering your copyright. For further copyright information, please see the U.S. Copyright Office Frequently Asked Questionsat http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/.

Copyright also protects any other authors’ works included in your ETD.  SOPP students must adhere to applicable provisions as stated in the ETD Center Publication Agreement and APA Manual, and work with their dissertation committee to ensure compliance.  Further information pertaining to publishing the dissertation, restricting access, technical issues uploading an ETD, making changes to an ETD, and obtaining a hard bound copy of the manuscript can be found at the following FAQ link: http://www.wright.edu/sopp/documents/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.pdf

To obtain assistance with submitting an electronic dissertation, contact the Office of Academic Affairs or, for technical questions, contact the Student Technology Assistance Center (STAC) located in Room 240, Paul Laurence Dunbar Library.  This office can be reached by calling 937.775.2656 or email at www.libraries.wright.edu/stac, The STAC has the hardware, software and personal assistance necessary to assist you in converting your document to PDF and for preparing a professional quality electronic dissertation.