Overview

See the Graduate School's information on Dissertations.

Deadlines

A candidate for the Ph.D. degree is expected to complete the dissertation requirement within two years after admission to candidacy. If the student has not completed their dissertation within two years of admission to candidacy, the Graduate School will ask the GSC whether to extend the student’s candidacy. The GSC may recommend that the student's candidacy be extended for one year or that the candidacy be terminated for lack of satisfactory academic progress. Recommendations are forwarded to the Graduate Dean for approval.

Dissertation Format Options

EDP students may submit their dissertation in one of 2 forms:

1. Traditional format: follows the traditional dissertation style, with a single study or set of studies presented. EDP students are strongly encouraged to submit the dissertation to a journal or to a publisher as a book manuscript following the defense.  
    
2. Article format: Students may write the final version of the dissertation (i.e., the document written for the final orals), with a single study or set of studies presented, in a format suitable for submission to a journal as a regular length article or a set of regular length articles, not brief report(s). The student should identify a likely target journal and write the final version according to that journal’s guidelines (i.e., page length, formatting, etc.). Students using the Article format should consider the following: 
   1. The proposal document should be comparable to the proposal document required for the traditional format with respect to the literature review and proposed methods.
   2. For the final dissertation document, the student should work with their dissertation supervisor (and possibly the rest of the committee) to decide which elements of the students’ work to include in the manuscript, and which elements to include  as appendices. For example, elements of the literature review, methods section, results and discussion may not be appropriate for a manuscript submission, and could need to be included for the committee’s review as an appendix. 

Students and dissertation supervisors are required to communicate with their committee about which format will be used, and clarify expectations regarding the format chosen. After the dissertation proposal, changing from one format to the other requires the consent of the full dissertation committee.

Dissertation Proposal and Proposal Meeting

Students complete their dissertation proposal under the supervision of their dissertation supervisor. The dissertation proposal meeting is an examination of the proposal and proposed study by the committee as a whole.  It is also a collaborative work session in which potential problems in the proposal can be faced and addressed. Occasionally, the dissertation committee will view the revisions necessary to the proposal to be substantial, and the members will request a second dissertation proposal meeting.  More commonly, the outcome of this meeting will be approval of the dissertation proposal with revisions that should be documented by the student and the supervisor.

Please note that decisions made at the dissertation proposal meeting are obligatory.  To change decisions determined at this meeting (e.g., sample size, measurement devices), it is appropriate to communicate with all committee members and obtain their consent. 

Dissertation Proposal Contents

Generally, the dissertation proposal consists of the first three chapters of the dissertation: Introduction, Literature Review, and Method. Dissertations in the Department of Educational Psychology are written in accordance with APA style. A source for the dissertation process is Dissertations and Theses from Start to Finish, by Cone and Foster (1996), available at www.apa.org. This book guide students through selecting a topic, choosing committee members, writing a proposal, and making it though the dissertation defense. 

Introduction – The first chapter should explain why your study is necessary, and should be about 10 pages. 

Literature Review – When working on this chapter (20-40 pages). 

Method – This section is 10-20 pages and presents your methodology.

Scheduling the Proposal Meeting

When the dissertation supervisor and committee agree that the proposal is close to completion, the student should schedule the dissertation proposal meeting and send a copy of the proposal to the members at least two weeks prior to the meeting date.

It is extremely important for all committee members to be present at the proposal meeting as that is where agreements are made for finalizing your dissertation.  If a member cannot participate, then it's the responsibility of the student and supervisor to ensure that the missing member has all the information from the meeting, and that the missing member's feedback is incorporated as you move forward. 

TIP:  Be sure to start early in scheduling the dissertation proposal meeting.  Once your committee members agree on a time, you may schedule a room for your dissertation proposal meeting through EDP (but never on Friday afternoons without prior approval of the EDP Department Chair). 

Proposal Meeting Results

The day of your Proposal Meeting, submit the Dissertation Proposal Meeting Report via Docusign. Your dissertation supervisor and co-supervisor will use this form to report the results of your Proposal Meeting to the department. Once the form is complete, you will receive a copy - students should save a copy for their records as well. The report will include feedback and next-steps for your dissertation.

Dissertation Enrollment

Once you are admitted to candidacy, the Graduate School requires you continuously register for the dissertation course (EDP 399W, 699W, or 999W) in each long semester (Spring/Fall) until you graduate. Summer registration in dissertation is required if your faculty adviser believes it necessary, if you will hold your proposal meeting in the Summer, or if you will graduate during the summer. 

Use of Human Subjects and the Institutional Review Board

After approval from your committee at the Dissertation Proposal meeting, you are ready to carry through with original data collection and analyses for your dissertation. It is expected that you will continue to do so under the close supervision of your dissertation supervisor.  Under most circumstances, students are not allowed to begin original data collection in connection with their dissertation until they have conducted a successful dissertation proposal meeting.

If you are using existing data for which you have IRB approval, you are welcome to conduct preliminary data analysis on your expected topic of research prior to holding your proposal meeting. Indeed, such familiarity with your data should allow you to discuss your dissertation plans more completely and confidently. Examples of acceptable preliminary data analyses include, but are not necessarily limited to, descriptive statistics (e.g., means, standard deviations, ranges, graphical displays, correlations), outlier diagnostics, missing data diagnostics, and assumption checking. Students should not test proposed hypotheses prior to the proposal meeting. Additionally, students should be prepared to modify their data analysis work should weaknesses be found during the proposal meeting.

Researchers should become familiar with the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Policies and Procedures Manual and complete the online training.

All dissertations that involve data from human participants require filing an application with The University’s IRB, so you should discuss this with your dissertation supervisor early. If you are using existing data, you may contact the IRB directly to find out how to proceed. Approval to be excluded from the application process is done on a case-by-case basis only by the IRB. Note that a faculty member must be designated as the PI of the IRB proposal. This is likely your dissertation supervisor. This faculty member may designate you as a PI proxy by following the instructions provided by UT Research Management Suite.

All research projects will fall into one of three categories: 

• Exempt (Minimal Risk – subject to expedited IRB review procedures)
• Expedited (Minimal Risk – subject to expedited IRB review procedures)
• Full Board (More than Minimal Risk – subject to Full Board review and limited meetings)

Tips for completing the application are available to help you complete the application.

If your project must receive Full Board review, other deadlines apply. The University’s IRB meets monthly for Full Board reviews, and the deadline for submission of materials is very strict and well in advance of the meeting. If revisions are necessary, a second IRB review will take place, according to a set meeting schedule. For questions about deadlines, email the Office of Research Support and Compliance.

Departmental Subject Pool

In conducting original research and/or completing the dissertation, student researchers may request the use of the department’s Subject Pool.