Dissertation Requirements

General Dissertation Information

Doctoral Student Forms

Doctoral Student Forms are submitted electronically through DocuSign unless otherwise noted.

1. To begin a new form simply click the link, follow the instructions on the Powerform Signer to enter names and NON-ALIAS email address for your advisor/committee chair, committee members and graduate program director, depending on the requirements of the form.
2. Enter your NinerNet credentials when prompted and then follow the instructions for data entry, etc. on the form.
3. You can track your form within DocuSign by logging into docusign.charlotte.edu using your non-alias @charlotte.edu email address and NinerNet credentials and follow the instructions for managing envelopes.
4. If you have questions or need to make a change after submitting, please contact your college liaison.
5. For more information about DocuSign you may find the FAQ helpful.

Form Name	Description
Appointment of Doctoral Dissertation or Scholarly Project Committee Form	For submitting information on committee members selected for your dissertation. **You must complete this Exceptions Form if the individual you are requesting to serve on a Doctoral committee does not possess the terminal degree for your program**
Proposal Defense Report for Dissertation	For reporting the outcome of a proposed doctoral dissertation or scholarly project.
Final Defense Report for Dissertation or Scholarly Project	For reporting the final outcome of a doctoral dissertation defense or scholarly project.
Doctoral Dissertation Submission and ETD Form	This form should be submitted to the Graduate School when the student submits his/her dissertation to ProQuest.  **Payment for the Submission Fee and optional Copyright must be made through the online Payment Portal.**
Doctoral Dissertation Embargo Request Form	This form must be submitted and approved in order to withhold public release of a dissertation.  Students may request an embargo or delayed submission of their thesis or dissertation when a patent is pending or when submission of the work could jeopardize intellectual property.  Future publication is not an acceptable reason for an embargo, with rare exceptions.

Beginning your dissertation

Research Projects Involving Human Subjects (IRB)

Guidelines and forms to assist graduate students and faculty in IRB review/approval process for research projects involving human subjects are available on the Human Subjects in Research website.

Choosing a Faculty Representative

Programs and students may elect to appoint co-chairs for the committee provided both faculty chairs hold a graduate faculty appointment. One chair must hold regular graduate faculty membership. A check-box to specify the co-chair will appear on the form next to the second member listed after all of the name fields have been filled. The co-chair should also be listed in the program.  If a Graduate Faculty Representative has been chosen, please be sure to add their name to the appropriate field. Otherwise, the Graduate School will appoint a Graduate Faculty Representative.

Appointment of Doctoral Dissertation or Scholarly Project Committee Form 

**The Appointment Form must be submitted to and approved by the Graduate School well in advance of the proposal defense being scheduled**

Please enter the data on the form, print and sign.  You can scan the document and forward as a pdf and subsequent approvers can add their signatures using Adobe.  At present, this is not an online form, nor formatted for Docusign.  

Note: You must complete this Exceptions Form if the individual you are requesting to serve on a Doctoral committee does not possess the terminal degree for your program.   

Applying for graduation

In the semester you intend to complete your dissertation, you should apply for graduation. All students (doctoral, master’s, certificate) must apply for graduation by the published deadline in the final term. Check your DegreeWorks audit if you’re not sure if you applied to graduate. Students who fail to apply for graduation by the published deadline will not be evaluated for graduation and will be ineligible to participate in the commencement ceremony. Students who apply to graduate but fail to finish will need to update their application to graduate to a future term. (There is no penalty for failing to finish after applying to graduate.) Instructions to apply for graduation can be found on the Niner Central site.

A few reminders for the final semester:

1. In order to graduate, students must submit their dissertation or thesis to ProQuest, a digital repository of scholarly works.
   Theses and dissertations will also appear in Niner Commons, UNC Charlotte’s own institutional repository. All theses and dissertations must be formatted according to the Graduate School’s standards, and all milestones must be met in order to graduate.
2. Please familiarize yourself with the General Formatting Requirements and make use of these helpful Sample Pages that are referenced in the manual.
3. For those composing an article-style dissertation, the Three Article Dissertation Guidelines should be consulted in conjunction with the traditional Manual.
4. Please read about ETD preparation prior to submitting your work to ProQuest.

Defending your Final Dissertation

Doctoral Defense

All doctoral students must hold a final defense by the deadline published here and on the Registrar’s calendar. The dissertation or scholarly project should be submitted to the committee for final review at least two (2) weeks prior to the date of the final defense. Along with the dissertation, students must share their iThenticate similarity report with the committee. (It is highly recommended that students upload their work to iThenticate well in advance. More information on how to access and use iThenticate can be found on the Graduate School’s website)

Dissertation Final Defense Announcements

Dissertation and Scholarly Project defenses must be announced online at least two weeks prior to the defense date.

After your defense

Final Defense Documents:

 The Final Defense Report for Dissertation or Scholarly Project must be signed by your committee on the day of the final defense. The Final Defense Report is submitted to the Graduate School within ONE business day of your final defense. Scanned copies of the signed Dissertation Title Page and the IRB/IACUC/IBC approval memo if applicable, should be forwarded to your college liaison within one business day of the final defense. Please specify Doctoral Documents in the subject line.

Submission

The following items are required for submitting your dissertation:

1. Doctoral Dissertation Submission & ETD Form
2. Signed Dissertation Title Page and the IRB/IACUC/IBC approval memo, if applicable.
3. Remit the $45 submission fee and the optional and additional copyright registration fee ($75).
4. Survey of Earned Doctorates: required for Ph.D students (Ed.D., DNP, DBA and Master’s students are exempt). The Certificate of Completion will be forwarded automatically to the Graduate School. Complete this by the final submission deadline.
5. Create a ProQuest account and submit your dissertation to ProQuest by the final submission deadline.

Additional Resources

Graduate School Dissertation Website

Need additional information? Please visit the Graduate School’s website on Doctoral Dissertations