Thesis & Dissertation Preparation
At the University of Kentucky, Master's degrees (Plan A) require the completion of a thesis. Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Education degrees require the completion of a dissertation. The Doctor of Musical Arts degree requires the completion of a project. This work reflects the quality of the program that supervises the student and the university that awards the degree. Therefore, the Graduate School sets criteria and standards for the format of the written work which will be available not only to the immediate campus, but also to a wider scholarly community via the Web. Each program has selected the style manual(s) most consistent with scholarly practice in their specific discipline. The student should consult with the Director of Graduate Studies concerning the manual to be used . Note: the general format specifications contained in the Graduate School instructions take precedence over those in the style manuals used by individual programs.
Since Fall 2013, theses and dissertations are submitted in electronic form and are published to UKs institutional repository, UKnowledge, on the internet. The purpose of UKnowledge is to gather, archive, and promote the university’s intellectual and creative contributions to the world and to weave that work into the larger open access network of scholarship. Published theses and dissertations are assigned a unique identifier (DOI) as a permanent web address. Users of the publication are tracked and monthly download reports are emailed to authors. After publication, works are cataloged by UK Libraries and are added to WorldCat (a free online search tool that allows users to find materials at libraries around the world) and the UK catalog, InfoKat.