wales@valeria.cs.ucla.edu (Rich Wales) (03/20/91)
I would like to hear from people at universities around the net regard-
ing what their institutions require/permit/forbid in the way of thesis
and dissertation format or layout.
The reason I am asking this is that I would like to gather information
that I can use to help persuade UCLA to relax its current dissertation
format requirements on a couple of points.
Specifically, I am looking for info on three issues:
(1) Does your university permit "single spacing" or "one-and-a-half
spacing" of the body of a dissertation or thesis?
I personally believe that "one-and-a-half" spacing (about 4.5 lines
per inch) is a reasonable compromise between readability and paper
conservation. However, UCLA's official regulations demand "double"
spacing (3 lines/inch) -- though it appears that they are accepting
"one-and-a-half" spacing on a limited, unofficial basis for laser
printer output from some departments.
UMI (University Microfilms International, the people who microfilm
dissertations) has told me they have no objections to single-spaced
manuscripts, as long as they are neat and legible. UMI =does= pre-
fer that the =abstract= be double-spaced, since the abstract needs
to be transcribed by hand into their database system.
(2) Does your university permit (or, perhaps, require) the phrase "All
Rights Reserved" in the copyright notice of a dissertation/thesis?
UCLA currently =forbids= the inclusion of "All Rights Reserved" in
their official copyright notice specs. Although this phrase is not
required in order to have a valid copyright under US law, there are
apparently still a handful of South American countries which are
signatories =only= to the old Pan American Copyright Convention --
and in those countries, I'm told that a standard copyright notice
(C-in-a-circle, year, author) has =no= legal standing unless the
phrase "All Rights Reserved" (or the equivalent in Spanish) is also
included.
This may mean, for instance, that UCLA students from countries which
honor only the Pan American convention are being denied the chance
to copyright their dissertations in a form that will be acceptable
back home. I would like to see this changed.
(3) On the title page of a dissertation/thesis at your university, does
the description of the degree include the word "of" before the name
of the degree?
More specifically: Does the title page include a phrase such as
"the degree of Doctor of Philosophy", or "the degree of Master of
Science"?
UCLA demands that the title page must =not= include the word "of"
before the name of the degree. Thus, for instance, a dissertation
in CS must include the following phrase on the title page:
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy
in Computer Science
I contend that "the degree Doctor of Philosophy" is not proper
English (any more than "the State California" would be correct) --
but apparently someone at UCLA decided that "the degree =of= Doctor
of Philosophy" doesn't convey the intended meaning. They are very
sticky on this point and will =not= accept a dissertation with the
extraneous "of" in the title page.
Please send me any responses by e-mail. If possible, also send me the
address and/or phone number of your university's dissertation office, so
that I can try and get official written confirmation to show the folks
at UCLA.
Thanks!
--
Rich Wales <wales@CS.UCLA.EDU> // UCLA Computer Science Department
3531 Boelter Hall // Los Angeles, CA 90024-1596 // +1 (213) 825-5683