Students in the doctoral program are required to complete thesis and dissertation research projects prior to obtaining the Ph.D. Each of these projects requires empirical research that is approved and overseen by a committee of faculty members selected by the student in accord with the guidelines provided below. The thesis research is conducted under the supervision of the thesis committee chair; the dissertation is developed and conducted more independently by the student with assistance and oversight provided by the dissertation committee chair.
Normally, students can expect faculty members to return feedback on thesis and dissertation documents within two weeks.
In addition to the information below, students also should refer to their Training Area’s Supplement to the Handbook for additional regulations and guidelines, and to the WVU Graduate/Professional Catalog
IV.A. Forming a Committee
IV.A.1. Master’s Thesis Chair
Prior to selecting a thesis committee chair, the student often holds informal discussions with relevant faculty members about a research idea. Ideally, the agreed-upon research project will be in an area of interest to both the student and the faculty member. The chair may suggest the research area and problem, but allow the student flexibility in articulating the specific problem and developing the design of the experiment. Per University regulations, only “regular” members of the Graduate Faculty may be thesis committee chairs. Information regarding Graduate Faculty status of faculty members is available from the Office of Graduate Education and Life website. The chair of the thesis committee is not necessarily the student’s academic adviser.
IV.A.2. Master’s Thesis Committee
The thesis committee is composed of at least two other members in addition to the chair. Committee members should be selected by the student in consultation with the thesis committee chair. The majority of the committee members (including the chair) must be “regular” members of the Graduate Faculty. Information regarding Graduate Faculty status of faculty members is available from the Office of Graduate Education and Life website. At least one committee member must be from outside the student’s program area and can be from outside the Department of Psychology (in the case of Clinical and Clinical Child students at least one committee member must come from outside these two program areas). Questions about whether or not an individual qualifies as being outside the student’s specialization area should be directed to the Department Chair.
IV.A.3. Dissertation Committee Chair
A student can form their dissertation committee only after being admitted to doctoral candidacy. Prior to selecting a dissertation committee chair, the student should hold informal discussions with relevant faculty members about a research idea. Ideally, the agreed-upon research project will be in an area of interest to both the student and the faculty member. However, the student is expected to take leadership in both suggesting the research problem and designing the experiment under the guidance of the chair. Only “regular” members of the Graduate Faculty may be dissertation committee chairs. Information regarding Graduate Faculty status of faculty members is available from the Office of Graduate Education and Life website. The chair of the dissertation committee is not necessarily the student’s academic adviser.
IV.A.4. The Dissertation Committee
The dissertation committee is composed of at least four faculty members (including the chair), unless otherwise specified in the student’s Program Area Supplement. One of the dissertation committee members serves as the dissertation committee chair. Committee members should be selected by the student in consultation with the dissertation committee chair. The majority of the committee members (including the chair) must be “regular” members of the Graduate Faculty. Information regarding Graduate Faculty status of faculty members is available from the Office of Graduate Education and Life website. At least one member must be from outside the Department of Psychology and at least one other member must be from outside the student’s program area (in the case of Clinical and Clinical Child students at least one committee member must come from outside these two program areas). Questions about whether or not an individual qualifies as being outside the student’s specialization area should be directed to the Department Chair.
IV.A.5. Approval of the Committee
Faculty who agree to serve on a thesis or dissertation committee, including the chair of the committee, indicate their willingness to serve by signing the Master’s Thesis or Dissertation Committee Request Form. The student submits it to the committee members and to the committee chair for their signatures. Next, the student submits the Committee Request Form to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training. In the case of dissertation committees, the Assistant Director of Graduate Training confirms that the student has been advanced to doctoral candidacy. The Assistant Director of Graduate Training then submits the form to the Department Chair for approval. Approval of the committee depends on whether the requirements for committee composition outlined above have been met. If the Department Chair approves the committee, then the Chair informs the student and sends the committee information to the College using the Eberly Candidacy Form. If the Department Chair does not approve the committee, then the Chair sends feedback to the student and the student modifies the committee and restarts the committee-formation process. Full approval of the committee must be completed before the proposal meeting.
IV.A.6. Substituting Committee Members
Substitution is appropriate only if a faculty member resigns, is or will be on leave at the time the committee meetings are scheduled, or is unable to be present at the prospectus meeting or final defense. Faculty members who resign from the university but are willing to complete their committee service may do so.
The student and the committee chair first must discuss potential substitutions. The student, chair, and substitutes complete the “Change of Committee Chair or Member Form,” which the student submits to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training, who forwards it to the Department Chair for written approval. Once signed by the Department Chair, the Change of Committee Chair Form is returned to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training, who notifies the student of approval and who documents approval of the change in the student’s departmental file. This process must be completed prior to the proposal or defense meeting. If any changes in committee membership beyond the substitution of one committee member are necessary, a new committee must be formed using the same procedures as the initial committee formation.
IV.B. Proposal Meeting
IV.B.1. Proposal Preparation
The student must prepare a formal proposal of the research. This proposal is prepared in consultation with the committee chair before the committee is convened for its proposal meeting. The student should check the Program Area Supplements for any special Program Area requirements for the proposal. See also the general guidance on theses and dissertations provided below.
IV.B.2. Proposal Meeting Arrangements
The proposal meeting can be scheduled only after formal approval of the committee by the Department Chair.
After the proposal is approved by the committee chair, the student provides an electronic and paper copy of the document to each of the other committee members, unless only an electronic copy is requested. The student schedules a meeting of the committee. Each member of the committee must receive the document and agree to the time and place of the meeting at least 10 working days (i.e., Monday through Friday, excluding university holidays) before the date of this meeting.
The usual time allotted for a proposal meeting is two hours. The student is responsible for scheduling a room and making the necessary arrangements for audio-visual equipment needed for the proposal meeting. Departmental policy precludes students from providing food or beverages at the proposal meeting.
Committee meetings may only be scheduled on days when the Department of Psychology is open for business (i.e., meetings may not take place on weekends or University holidays). Because most faculty in the Department of Psychology are appointed on contracts that require service from August 16 to May 15 of the year, committee meetings are normally held between August 30 through May 15 to account for the 10-working-day period between distribution of the document and the meeting. No constraints are placed on the time of day for a meeting, but all committee members must agree to both the date and time of the meeting.
IV.B.3. The Proposal Meeting
The student and all members of the committee must be present at the proposal meeting, either in person or through videoconferencing software. The meeting must be adjourned if any member is absent. Proposal meetings are closed to those not on the committee. The proposal meeting may be postponed or cancelled prior to the meeting if the majority of the committee agrees that the proposal is insufficiently developed for the proposal meeting to take place.
The proposal meeting consists of a brief presentation by the student followed by discussion of the proposal by the committee and the student. The student should assume that the committee members have read the written proposal document, and therefore the presentation should be approximately 10 minutes long, and devoted primarily to method. The rest of the meeting should be devoted to discussion and questions. The proposal meeting must include discussion and committee approval of the planned data collection procedures, including who will actually collect the data and when the data will be collected. The student is asked to leave the room at the end of the meeting, at which point the committee members decide the outcome of the proposal meeting.
IV.B.4. Outcome of the Proposal Meeting
The outcome of the proposal meeting can be approval, disapproval, approval with changes, or approval withheld pending review of changes.
If the proposal is approved, each committee member should endorse the approval (i.e., by signing the cover page labeled as “approved” or by sending an email to the chair from their professional email address noting approval with no changes). The chair should compile these approvals, along with the approved proposal document, into a PDF and send that PDF as an email to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training within 24 hours of the proposal meeting. The Assistant Director of Graduate Training files the PDF in the student’s department file and .
If the proposal is not approved, the student may revise the proposal and hold another proposal meeting.
If the proposal is approved with changes, the student must make a list of the changes and submit the list by e-mail to the committee chair and to all committee members within one week of the proposal meeting. Each committee member should send an email to the chair from their professional email address noting approval of the changes. The chair should compile these emails, along with the approved proposal document and the list of changes, into a PDF and send that PDF as an email to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training within 24 hours of receipt of the final approval. The Assistant Director of Graduate Training files the PDF in the student’s department file.
If the proposal is not approved at the meeting, the student must take the corrective actions prescribed by the committee, which may include sending an updated version of the document, a list of the changes, preliminary data, or other measures to the committee members within one week of the proposal meeting. Each committee member should then send an email to the chair from their professional email address noting approval of the changes or other measures, or suggesting further corrective action. Once approval is granted, the chair should compile the approval emails, along with the approved proposal document and any documents related to the corrective action, into a PDF and send that PDF as an email to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training within 24 hours of receipt of the final approval. The Assistant Director of Graduate Training files the PDF in the student’s department file.
The proposal is considered approved when the approval emails and approved document are placed in the student’s file.
IV.B.5. External Approval of Research
Any research conducted by WVU faculty, staff, and students must be approved by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRB) or the Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) prior to the beginning of data collection. Note that Departmental approval is also needed if participants are to be recruited from psychology classes (see Policy on Research Studies Using Undergraduate Subjects). Students are responsible for ensuring that their research has been approved by the IRB or ACUC even if they do not write the IRB/ACUC proposal.
IV.C. Final Examination (Defense Meeting)
The final examination for the Master’s degree is an oral defense of the thesis. For the Doctoral degree, the final examination is an oral defense of the dissertation.
IV.C.1. Declaration of Defense Date
No less than two weeks prior to the final examination date, the student must submit an “ Eberly College Thesis and Dissertation Defense Date Declaration form.” This form is signed by the committee chair, each member of the committee, and the Department Chair and approved by the College. When the student receives notification of approval from the College, they forward the notification to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training who enters the information into DegreeWorks. The Thesis and Dissertation Defense Date Declaration Form sets up the final examination date and signifies that the student’s committee members agree to be present on the scheduled date.
IV.C.2. The Document
Before the committee can meet for the final examination, the student must prepare the written thesis or doctoral dissertation document. The student should check the Program Area Supplements for any special Program Area requirements and should refer to The West Virginia University Guide to the Preparation of Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.
After the draft is approved by the committee chair, the student delivers an electronic and paper copy of the document to committee members, unless only an electronic copy is requested. The student schedules a meeting of the committee. Each member of the committee must receive the document at least 10 working days before the date of this final examination meeting.
IV.C.3. Other Final Examination Meeting Arrangements
The usual time allotted for a final examination is two hours. The student is responsible for adding the event to the university calendar, scheduling a room, and making the necessary arrangements for any audio-visual equipment needed. Departmental policy precludes students from providing food or beverages at the examination. Defense meetings are open to the public and all members of the University community (i.e., faculty, staff, and students).
Committee meetings may only be scheduled on days when the Department of Psychology is open for business (i.e., meetings may not take place on weekends or University holidays). Because most faculty in the Department of Psychology are appointed on contracts that require service from August 16 to May 15 of the year, committee meetings are normally held between August 30 through May 15 to account for the 10-working-day period between distribution of the document and the meeting. No constraints are placed on the time of day for a meeting, but all committee members must agree to both the date and time of the meeting.
IV.C.4. Final Examination Meeting (The Defense)
Two documents are required for the final examination meeting: the Eberly Thesis and Dissertation Oral Defense Form and an Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Submission Signature Form. Each document serves a distinct purpose. The committee uses the Oral Defense Form to record the outcome of the final oral examination. The committee uses the ETD Submission Signature Form to record the committee’s approval of the written document.
The student and all members of the student’s committee must be present at the examination; the meeting must be adjourned if any member is absent. See the Substituting Committee Members section if a substitution is necessary.
The final examination meeting may be postponed or cancelled before the start of the meeting if the majority of the committee agrees that the document is insufficiently developed for the meeting to take place.
The final meeting presentation should be on the order of a research presentation at a conference symposium, that is, no more than 20 minutes to cover rationale, methods, results, and discussion. As with the proposal meeting, the remaining time should be devoted to discussion and questions. Upon completion of the discussion and questioning, everyone except the committee members must leave the room so the committee can deliberate and make a decision about passing or failing the student on the oral defense.
IV.C.5. Outcome of the Final Examination Meeting
At the conclusion of the oral defense, each committee member (including the chair) signs the Oral Defense Form and records their vote as to whether the oral defense is passed or failed. Information regarding the conditions that constitute failure of the defense by the Committee as a whole are explained in the WVU Graduate/Professional Catalog in the section on degree regulations.
Immediately following the meeting, the signed Oral Defense Form is returned to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training (either on paper or digitally). The Assistant Director of Graduate Training places a copy of the student’s file and then sends the original (if a paper form) to the College Graduate Records Office in Woodburn Hall. The Assistant Director of Graduate Training must return the Oral Defense Form to the Graduate Records Office no later than 4pm the day following the defense meeting (or next business day).
If the committee decides that the student has failed the oral defense, the committee may decide whether or not to schedule a reexamination (which must be approved by the College Dean). If the committee decides not to allow a reexamination, the committee is disbanded and the student’s future in the program (which could include dismissal or beginning a new thesis or dissertation with a new committee) will be determined by their Program Area Training Committee.
If the written thesis or dissertation document is approved at the meeting by the committee without changes, each member must sign the ETD Submission Signature Form. If corrections or changes are required, committee members have the right to see the fully revised document before signing the ETD Submission Signature Form. The chair of the committee should not sign the ETD Submission Signature Form until all corrections and changes to the document have been made.
The final approved version of the thesis or dissertation document must be submitted electronically to the WVU Library. After the document is accepted, the student must forward the notice of acceptance of the document to the Assistant Director of Graduate Training who enters the date of approval into DegreeWorks. Students are not expected to provide a final paper copy of the document to the chair and other members of the committee, unless requested to do so.
IV.D. General Information and Guidelines on Completing Thesis and Dissertation Research
IV.D.1. Departmental and Other Support of Thesis and Dissertation Research Costs
Funds to cover certain expenses associated with the conduct of thesis and dissertation research may be available through both the Department of Psychology and the University.
IV.D.2. Student Responsibilities
The student writes the proposal and final document for the thesis and dissertation. Any assistance with data collection and analysis from individuals other than Department faculty members or committee members must be specified at the proposal meeting and approved by the committee. Deviations from the proposed methods and analysis must be approved by the committee.
IV.D.3. Institutional Review Board and Animal Care and Use Committee Approval
The Institutional Review Board and the Animal Care and Use Committee are extra-Departmental committees, the purpose of which is to ensure the safety and protection of, respectively, human and animal participants in research projects. Students should familiarize themselves with the IRB or ACUC guidelines for research with humans or animals, as is appropriate to their research. Before any research (including collection of pilot data) with humans or animals is initiated, the research must have official written approval from the IRB or ACUC. Ordinarily this approval involves submitting a protocol describing the research; however, students should consult with their research supervisor before seeking IRB or ACUC approval to ensure that the supervisor does not already have approval from the appropriate committee to conduct the research project. In cases where students conduct research under a previously approved IRB or ACUC protocol, the student is responsible for obtaining, reading, and adhering to the procedures described in the approved protocol. Students are advised that approval of research by either the IRB or the ACUC entails review at several levels and protocols should be submitted well in advance of the anticipated starting date of a research project.
The IRB and ACUC guidelines include procedures for submitting a protocol. A copy of the Guidelines, together with relevant forms, may be obtained from university IRB and ACUC offices at the Office of Sponsored Programs and are available electronically.
Research that involves recruiting participants from psychology classes must also be approved by the Department. See Policy on Research Studies Using Undergraduate Subjects for guidelines.
IV.D.4. Guidelines for Thesis and Dissertations Proposals (see also Program Supplements)
Students should discuss appropriate topics and methods with their committee chairs. Dissertations are expected to be an original contribution to knowledge.
The proposal should describe the research problem in sufficient depth and breadth that the rationale for the study is clear to the committee members and the procedures could be replicated on the basis of the proposal alone. In most cases, the proposal document will be no more than 25 pages of text, excluding cover page, references, and supporting materials. The student should check with the chair and committee, along with the Program Area Supplement, to determine if they prefer a brief introduction in the proposal that will be expanded for the final document, or if they prefer a complete introduction in the proposal that will require minimal modifications for the final document. The proposal, along with the list of changes requested by the committee at the proposal meeting, is a formal agreement between the student and the committee as to what will constitute the thesis or dissertation project. However, students are also encouraged to pursue additional logical analyses or research questions that arise in the course of conducting the proposed research.
Generally, proposals will include introduction, method, data analysis, and reference sections, along with relevant appendices.
- Introduction – The introduction should include a relevant and concise literature review based on a thorough search of appropriate computerized databases and relevant books and journals. The student is responsible for knowing that the problem to be investigated has not been studied previously in the proposed way.
- Method – The method section should be as complete as possible. Ideally, the method section in the final thesis or dissertation will be virtually identical to this section of the proposal, but with the past tense instead of the future tense. It may be modified if changes in the method were approved by the committee. This section must include information about the design, selection of research participants, tests, manipulations, instructions, and so forth. Also, attention should be given to issues such as the feasibility, reliability, and validity of the independent and dependent variables. The proposed method must be sufficient to answer the research questions. Doing so may require only citation of previous research in which the procedures were used, or it may require pilot work.
- Data Analysis – The section on data analysis should indicate how conclusions will be drawn from the data. This section should include information on how the dependent variables are measured and any manipulation or cleaning of the data. This section should also indicate what inferential statistics or other analytic strategies will be used.
- References – The reference section must be complete and use accurate APA style.
- Appendices – Copies of instruments and forms to be used in the research should be provided in appendices. Copyrighted materials must not be photocopied, but rather should be described and properly referenced in earlier sections. Original copies of copyrighted instruments may be provided with the proposal or loaned to committee members for reference during the proposal or final examination meeting. Unless appropriate approvals are granted by copyright holders, copyrighted materials should not be included in the appendices of the final document to be submitted to the ETD website.
IV.D.5. Timely Completion of Theses and Dissertations (Milestones)
Students are expected to complete their theses and dissertations in a timely manner, but students sometimes encounter impediments to this process. The purpose of this section is to provide guidance and advice to students to help them complete their theses and dissertations in an appropriate amount of time.
Students should be aware of probation and funding termination dates for thesis and dissertation proposal completion and thesis completion. However, milestones for the thesis proposal and thesis completion are one semester earlier than the probation dates. Thus, students who are required to complete a Master’s thesis should plan to have their thesis proposal approved by the end of the Spring semester in their first year and to complete their thesis by the end of the Spring semester in their second year. The milestones for dissertation proposal completion varies according to program and whether or not a student is required to complete a thesis (see Program Area Supplements).
The following sample timeline illustrates how a thesis or dissertation can be completed according to the milestones (assuming a student entered with a Bachelor’s degree). Variations from this timeline may occur with different types of studies (large vs. small literature to review, more or less difficult and time-consuming data collection, complex vs. straightforward analyses, etc).
!!!!------- PG 37 TABLE HERE ------!!!!!!!
Suggestions on Completing Theses and Dissertations in a Timely Manner
- Get started early. Begin discussing (and reading about) ideas for the thesis with potential committee chairs soon after beginning the program. Begin thinking about (and reading about) ideas for the dissertation while completing the thesis. Allow extra time for obtaining some needed articles and books through interlibrary loan.
- Select a reasonable project. Read only the directly relevant literature initially; the rest can be read later. Pick a subject population that will be reasonably easy to obtain. Do not plan a study that requires a huge sample size (unless you are certain you can obtain the subjects). If necessary, conduct pilot work to determine the feasibility of obtaining subjects and of the experimental procedure. Make a reasonable estimate of the amount of time data collection will require by getting advice from others who have conducted similar studies.
- Meet regularly with the committee chair. Commit to completing a specific task before each meeting.
- Assume that there will be many revisions of both the proposal and the final document. Discuss with your chair whether the document should be submitted in sections or as a whole. If submitted in sections, work on other sections while waiting for feedback. Develop intermediate target dates and a plan for getting feedback on drafts.
- Overlap tasks. Enter and code data and assess the analysis plan while collecting data when it is appropriate to do so. Run analyses on partial data to debug your analyses. Expand the introduction and rewrite the method section while collecting data.
- Devote consistent amounts of time to the project.
- Break the project into small, manageable tasks. Do not try to write the entire document or do all of the analyses at once.
IV.D.6. Formatting Theses and Dissertations
Follow the most recent edition of the APA Publication Manual on all matters of style not covered in this section. Format requirements for theses and dissertations described in the WVU Guide. Stylistic suggestions given in the WVU Guide should be followed unless they are in conflict with either the APA Publication Manual or with instructions given in this Handbook (including the Program Area Supplements). References may be single spaced with a double space separating each reference rather than completely double spaced. They should appear in a hanging-indentation format.