Standards for Ph.D. Qualification, Dissertation, and Degree 

Post-graduate education students at CIT represent the best and brightest minds in advanced engineering and technology. Graduate students work closely with faculty in their chosen field to develop and fulfill expectations for scientific research and study. The information below provides students and potential students with CIT criteria for successful completion of a doctorate degree from any department within the College of Engineering. Use the links to the right to review a specific section or scroll through the text provided.

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Qualifying exam

A qualifying examination is given to determine the student’s general knowledge of the fields of engineering appropriate to the individual’s program, and to assess the student’s ability to use this knowledge in the solution of problems and in the execution of original research. The specific format of this examination differs from department to department, and detailed information should be obtained from the individual department.

The examination comprises written and/or oral parts, and may include review of a thesis proposal (described in this section). The student will be considered to have passed the qualifying examination when he or she has successfully completed all the required parts. A candidate must take the qualifying examination at the time specified by the department. Upon satisfactorily passing the examination, the student will be accepted as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. If the student has not already received a Master’s degree, upon application and provided that all other requirements have been met, he or she may be granted the degree of Master of Science at the next commencement.

Passing the Ph.D. qualifying examination admits a student to candidacy for the Ph.D. degree for a period of no longer than six calendar years. If, at the end of this six-year period, the Ph.D. has not been awarded, the student must reapply for admission to the graduate program and will be judged competitively with other students applying at the same time.

If the student is re-admitted, he or she may, at the discretion of the department, be requested to pass the qualifying examination again before the Ph.D. is awarded. A student may petition for extension of the six-year limit under extenuating circumstances such as a forced change of advisor, military service, or prolonged illness. Note that the time limits on the duration of Ph.D. candidacy outlined here are more restrictive than those of the general university policy.

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Dissertation Overview

Thesis Proposal
The thesis proposal generally will be presented to the Dissertation Committee (see below) reasonably early in the student’s tenure as a Ph.D. student, within the time limits specified by the department. The purpose of the thesis proposal is to allow the student to demonstrate that the proposed research is likely to meet the criteria for doctoral dissertations, stated below, and that the proposed research can be accomplished in a reasonable period of time.

Dissertation Committee
The dissertation is prepared under the supervision of a faculty advisor who also usually serves as the chair of the Dissertation Committee. The Dissertation Committee shall consist of a minimum of four members. At least two of these will be full time Carnegie Mellon faculty affiliated with the candidate’s academic department, and at least one will be a person who is not primarily affiliated with the candidate’s department. Departments may impose additional constraints on the make-up of the Committee.

The Dissertation Committee shall review and approve satisfactory thesis proposals, and act as the examining body for the final public examination of the candidate on the thesis subject. It is recognized that faculty leaves or other absences may require substitutions to be made on the Dissertation Committee. Any such substitutions, however, should conform with the rules on the composition of the Committee.

Dissertation
The doctoral dissertation must embody the results of extended research, be an original contribution to knowledge, and include material worthy of publication. It should demonstrate the candidate’s ability to conduct an independent investigation, to abstract principles upon which predictions can be made, and to interpret in a logical manner facts and phenomena revealed by the research. (In the event that irreconcilable differences arise between a student and his or her faculty advisor on whether the dissertation research is ready to be defended, appeal may be made to the Department Head to resolve those differences.)

Dissertation Time Table

• Completion of Written Dissertation—not more than six years after being admitted to candidacy.

• Submission of Dissertation to Committee—at least one and one-half months before Commencement

• Public Announcement of Defense—at least two weeks before Dissertation Defense.

• Dissertation Defense—at least 15 days before Commencement.

• Submission of Dissertation to the Dean of the College of Engineering—at least 10 days before Commencement.

Upon completion of the dissertation, copies must be submitted to the Dissertation Committee according to the departmental regulations. If the dissertation is accepted by the Committee, the candidate is eligible for a final public examination. A public announcement of the date, time, place, candidate name, title, and dissertation committee must be posted in each CIT department at least 2 weeks prior to the date of the exam.

Upon satisfactorily passing this examination, the candidate will be recommended for the doctoral degree. One original and three copies of the dissertation must be presented to the appropriate Department Head. The original must be forwarded to the Dean of the College of Engineering for approval. The dissertation must be acceptable to University Microfilms, Inc. for the microfilming of doctoral dissertations, in which all candidates are required to participate. Both Carnegie Mellon and University Microfilm’s regulations governing the preparation of doctoral theses are outlined in a separate section of this document.

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Thesis and Dissertation Document Standards

The thesis or dissertation must be a document of the best professional standards. It is also good practice for the student to prepare a document that meets the criteria for publication in the relevant professional journals. As the original copy of the thesis or dissertation will be kept in the University Libraries, and copied for microfilming and other purposes, the paper and the production must conform to standards of long archive life and clear reproducibility. In addition, an electronic copy of the thesis or dissertation is required by CIT for archiving by the department.

These instructions provide a guide for the production of a high-quality thesis or dissertation document, and formatting specifications to ensure some basic consistency among CIT theses and dissertations. It is the responsibility of the student to see that these guidelines are met, and the responsibility of the department to confirm this before submitting the thesis or dissertation to the CIT Dean for approval. The guidelines in the booklet, Publishing Your Doctoral Dissertation with UMI Dissertation Publishing, provided by ProQuest/UMI should be followed. Download a copy of this booklet, or obtain it from the department's graduate coordinator. Other requirements specific to CIT are provided below.

1. SUBMITTAL DATE REQUIREMENTS

Each doctoral candidate is expected to have a substantially complete version of the dissertation in the hands of his or her PhD Committee no later than 1.5 months before the Commencement at which the degree is to be received. A minimum of one month must then be allowed for Committee review of the dissertation, the thesis defense, for further writing as required, and production of final print and supporting documents. The dissertation defense must take place no later than 15 days before the university graduation date to ensure that the time requirements for graduation are met.

Following approval by the PhD Committee for dissertations, or the advisor(s) for MS theses, and no later than 10 days before the university graduation date, the required copies of the final and complete thesis or dissertation must be submitted to the department, as specified below.

2. SUBMITTAL COPIES AND PROQUEST/CIT REQUIREMENTS

CIT requires the following copies of MS theses and PhD dissertations:

• One single-sided paper copy of good reproducible quality (to be submitted to the University Libraries and used for microfilming), to the College of Engineering Dean's Office.
• One paper copy to the advisor.
• One paper copy to the department, or to the relevant departments if the thesis or dissertation is for a joint degree.
• One electronic file (PDF format) with the entire thesis, to the department, or to the relevant departments if the thesis or dissertation is for a joint degree.
• One paper copy for the student.

Original signature pages will be associated with the copies for the University Libraries (via the Dean's office), the department, and the student. Only three original signature pages should accompany the dissertation submitted to the department head and Dean for review and approval.

Copies other than the single-sided one for submittal to the Dean's office may be double-sided. More copies may be made for distribution, as requested by a student. The preparation of the thesis and copies are the student's responsibility, unless departmental policies dictate otherwise.

Carnegie Mellon has an agreement with ProQuest/UMI to copy and preserve PhD dissertations on microfilm for easy availability and retrievability to anyone who might want to obtain a copy. The PhD candidate must choose a publishing option on Page 3 of the ProQuest/UMI booklet. If, in addition, the author wishes to copyright their work via ProQuest, he or she should fill out the appropriate form in the ProQuest/UMI booklet and attach payment as specified. A copy of the thesis with the appropriate documentation then will be submitted to the department's graduate coordinator.

ProQuest/UMI requires that each dissertation be accompanied by an abstract and title page. ProQuest/UMI requests that the abstract be 350 words or less; however, it is not required. ProQuest/UMI will truncate abstracts exceeding 350 words for their use, but will not alter the abstract in the publication transcript. If the author chooses, he or she may submit two abstracts: one not to exceed 350 words, for microfilming; and the other not to exceed 1,000 words, for the dissertation. For a more detailed explanation, refer to the ProQuest/UMI booklet. CIT recommends that abstracts not exceed 350 words.

The electronic version of the thesis or dissertation will be archived by the department on a non-public server. In some departments, the author will have the option to post the thesis or dissertation on a publicly-accessible internet site maintained by the department. The author will need to complete a form provided by the department to request such posting. All CIT thesis and dissertation authors also have the option to post their thesis or dissertation on the Carnegie Mellon Research Showcase electronic repository internet site: (http://repository.cmu.edu/). The author will need to complete a form provided by the University Libraries to request such posting. Posting of the thesis or dissertation on a publicly-accessible internet site does not constitute a breach of Carnegie Mellon's agreement with ProQuest/UMI. However, authors should consider carefully the copyright implications associated with posting their thesis or dissertation on a publicly-accessible internet site. Some publishers consider material that has been posted on a publicly-accessible internet site as having been published previously, and will not consider such material for publication.

3. GENERAL FORM

Except as specifically superceded by directions from the candidate's major department and the ProQuest/UMI booklet, the general rules with respect to form shall follow those provided below. Some of the guidance is from K. L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Thesis and Dissertations, 6th Edition, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1996.

4. SIGNATURE PAGE AND TITLE PAGE

The first page of each dissertation must be a signature page and must follow the format provided for regular degrees and joint degrees. Note, two samples are provided, one for joint degrees and one for all others. Upon successful completion of the final oral examination, the original signature page must be signed by the thesis advisor, the department head and the Dean or Associate Dean of the College of Engineering. Only three original signature pages should accompany the dissertation submitted to the department head and Dean for review and approval.

The signature page should be followed by a title page. The title page of the dissertation should follow the format provided in the template.

5. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS PAGE

All theses and dissertations must include an Acknowledgments section which, at a minimum, describes the source(s) of support for the research, even if it is self support. Acknowledgment of the source(s) of support is important ethically in all research publications and presentations, including theses, to give the sponsors the recognition they deserve, and also to disclose publicly the organization or persons funding the research.

For doctoral dissertations, the doctoral committee must also be listed in the acknowledgments, and the chair of the committee should be identified.  The doctoral committee should not be listed on the title page.

6. PREPARATION OF THE MANUSCRIPT: FORM

6.1 Title – Your dissertation will be a valuable source for other scholars only if it can be located easily. Modern retrieval systems use the words in the title—and sometimes a few other descriptive words—to locate your dissertation. It is essential that the title be a meaningful description of the content of your dissertation. Avoid highly specialized terms to the extent possible, and use word substitutes for formulas, symbols, superscripts, Greek letters, etc.

6.2 Preliminaries

A) Signature Page – see Section 4

B) Title Page – see Section 4

C) Copyright Notice – should follow the title page, on a separate page, if statutory copyright in the dissertation has been or is to be claimed

D) Acknowledgments – must include financial support acknowledgment as discussed in Section 5

E) Abstract – should not exceed 350 words; see Section 2

F) Table of Contents – with page references

G) List of Tables – with titles and page references

H) List of Figures and Illustrations – with titles and page references.

6.3 Body of thesis or dissertation

A) Introduction

B) Main Body – with larger divisions and more important minor divisions indicated by suitable, consistent headings

C) Summary and Conclusions – highlighting the key findings and conclusions of the work presented. For engineering and science theses and dissertations, this section often also includes recommendations for follow-up research.

D) References – >see discussion in Section 6.9

E) Appendices – each appendix should have a title and be listed in the Table of Contents

6.4 Page Numbering

Each page in a dissertation should be assigned a number. The following plan of page numbering generally is accepted:

A) For Preliminaries – use small Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, etc.). The numbering begins with ii; the title page counts as page i, but the number does not appear.

B) For Remainder of Dissertation – including the text, illustrations, appendices, and bibliography, use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.). Each page must be numbered. Try to avoid use of letter suffixes such as 10a, 10b. The numbering begins with 1 and runs consecutively to the end of the dissertation.

C) For More Than One Volume – each volume should contain a title page duplicating the title page of the first volume. If the volumes are separate entities, identify them further as Volume I, II, etc. In any case, the numbering may follow consecutively from one volume to another, or begin with Arabic 1 at each new title page.

6.5 Footnotes

If footnotes are needed, they should be placed at the bottom of the page below a 1.5 inch underscore (starting at the left border). The first line of each footnote should be indented 0.5 inches and identified by a raised numeral corresponding to that used in the test. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout each chapter.

6.6 Reproduction of Data

The data on which the dissertation is based should be made accessible to the reader in substantially complete form. Generally, this means that raw data should be reproduced in a convenient manner in one or more appendices to the main document. In the case of extensive data gathered from readily available published sources, specific detailed citations will suffice, provided that a minimum of one set of the raw data used in the dissertation, complete in all respects, is presented with the original copy submitted to the Library. Deviations from a procedure of full disclosure must be specifically approved by the Dissertation Committee and explained fully in the dissertation.

6.7 Copyright Permissions

As author, the student must certify (by signing the ProQuest/UMI agreement form) that any copyrighted material used in his or her dissertation, beyond brief excerpts, is with the written permission of the copyright owner, and that he or she will save and hold harmless ProQuest/UMI from any damages which may arise from copyright violations. Copies of permission letters should be attached to the agreement form.

6.8 Reproduction of Procedures

All instruments, analytic procedures, apparatus, or other critical elements in the execution of the study should be described in detail. Apparatus normally should be described in an engineering drawing and by photograph. Instruments normally should be reproduced in full in pictures or drawings, unless they are easily available from other sources. Procedures of analysis should be specified fully either by citation or by detailed discussion in one or more appendices. Computer calculations that are essential to the central arguments of the research must be fully and clearly explained. If the computer programs which provide the basis for these calculations are originated by the student, the student is required to provide a program listing and minimal documentation on the program in the thesis.

The program listing and documentation normally would be included in a separate appendix to the thesis. However, in the case of extensive computer work considered by the student and his or her advisor to be too long to include in the dissertation, presentation in the form of tables elucidating important components is acceptable. In this case, the student is advised to submit a separate internal report giving further details. Standard subroutines or packaged programs which are routinely included as software support to a computer installation and which can be readily obtained are exempted from this requirement, but these should be clearly cited and the source of these programs made apparent in the thesis.

6.9 References

Citations of the professional literature should be standardized throughout the dissertation. The form of citation should be consistent with the form used in a standard professional journal of the candidates' field. The Harvard Citation Style is used commonly in engineering and science. The following journals are recommended as samples in each field of engineering:

• Biomedical Engineering - Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering - Langmuir, Optimization and Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering - ASCE journals, e.g., Journal of Environmental Engineering, Journal of Transportation Engineering.
• Electrical and Computer Engineering - Proceedings of the IEEE.
• Engineering and Public Policy - Science, Proceedings of the IEEE.
• Mechanical Engineering - Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
• Materials Science and Engineering - Metallurgical Transactions.

7. ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE

Refer to the ProQuest/UMI form "Guide 1: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission to ProQuest/UMI" for margins, paper type, line spacing and additional formatting guidelines that have not been noted above.

(policy revised October 5, 2009)

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All But Dissertation (ABD) Status

After completion of all formal degree requirements other than the completion of and approval of the doctoral dissertation, and the public final examination, doctoral candidates shall be regarded as ABD (all but dissertation). CIT and CMU rules recognize two categories of ABD ("All but Dissertation) doctoral students:

• ABD Students in absentia (Registrar code:ABS).

• ABD Students with student status.

University policies governing ABD status are available at: http://www.cmu.edu/policies/documents/ABD.html. The major features of these policies are summarized below, and CIT-specific procedures are described.

In Absentia Status for ABD Candidates

An ABD doctoral candidate may, upon departmental certification thereof, be regarded as being in absentia when and, so long as, the following three conditions concur:

• The candidate has been enrolled as a full-time doctoral candidate at Carnegie Mellon University for at least one academic year. Part-time graduate enrollment may, at the department’s discretion, be counted pro rata towards this total.

• The candidate does not receive a stipend predicated on his or her status as a graduate student or doctoral candidate and paid by or administered by the university (whether teaching or research assistantship, scholarship, or fellowship).

• The student does not require substantial use of University resources. Note: Departmental certification of this condition shall be subject to guidelines established by the school or college. Typically, substantial use shall include: office space other than desk space, if available; all but minimal use of laboratory space or university-furnished laboratory equipment and expendables; and all use of computer resources that is not specifically exempted for thesis text preparation. In absentia candidates shall be permitted use of the libraries or consultation with faculty or students (in particular, with a thesis advisor or members of the advising and thesis committees). The university will provide in absentia candidates with identification for access to the library and other services permitted under the guidelines.

ABD students in absentia will not be certified by the university as a "student" for immigration or loan purposes. "Non-resident alien" students on J-1 or F-1 visas who become ABD in absentia must continue to follow Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) regulations and maintain their status as "full-time students." Any questions about employment or about leaving Carnegie Mellon for extended periods of time should be coordinated with the Office of International Education (OIE).

While an ABD candidate is in absentia, no formal enrollment or payment of tuition shall be required to maintain doctoral candidacy status, with the exception of the academic semester in which the degree requirements are to be completed.

An ABD candidate who is in absentia shall be required to enroll for a minimum of five units of graduate study during the academic semester in which the degree requirements are to be completed; in default of which a fee equal to the corresponding tuition shall be paid before the degree is conferred.

In addition, all ABD students in absentia will be responsible each semester for a $75 technology fee, which provides them with an Andrew email id and access to university licensed software.

 
Student Status for ABD Candidates

ABD students with student status may be certified as full-time students for immigration purposes. Ordinarily, ABD students with student status in CIT are required to register for a minimum of 36 units of academic credit per term, except that: "Under exceptional circumstances, ABD students who are self-supported, and who can demonstrate financial hardship, may petition the College through the departments for permission to register for 5 units of thesis research per semester." The exceptional circumstances for such approval include:

• Self-supporting with demonstrated financial hardship.

• At least three years of full time student status.

• Good standing and progress towards a degree.

• No more than two semesters of required work; ABD with student status and 5 units of tuition per term will not be allowed for more than two semesters of work, where a summer is considered to be one semester.

All doctoral degree candidates enrolled as students shall, in the semester in which all degree requirements are completed, pay tuition prorated by the quarter of the semester, whether used fully or partially. Payment will be waived if all degree requirements are completed by the end of the first full month of the semester in which the degree is completed (fall semester—September 30; spring semester—January 31; summer session—June 30). Doctoral candidates’ departments shall notify the Registrar’s Office of the appropriate financial arrangement.

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