mit published thesis

Formatting, Specifications, Copyright and Submission

Thesis checklist.

• Department Checklist for Thesis Submittal

Required Signature Form

     Fill in your name & signature, then send to your advisor(s) to fill in their name & signature, which acts as their approval of your thesis. Signature form must be submitted along with your completed thesis document to the department by the department due date. 

• Signature Form

Thesis Committee

• Thesis Committee Guidelines
• Title page, abstract and committee page templates

Writing and Communications Center

The WCC at MIT ( Writing and Communication Center ) offers free one-on-one professional advice from communication experts. The WCC is staffed completely by MIT lecturers. All have advanced degrees. All are experienced college classroom teachers of communication. All are published scholars and writers. Not counting the WCC’s director’s years (he started the WCC in 1982), the WCC lecturers have a combined 133 years’ worth of teaching here at MIT (ranging from 4 to 24 years).

The WCC works with students (undergraduate and graduate), post-docs, faculty, and staff — the WCC no longer meets with alumni or spouses/partners.). The WCC helps you strategize about all types of academic and professional writing as well as about all aspects of oral presentations (including practicing classroom presentations & conference talks as well as designing slides).

No matter what department or discipline you are in , the WCC helps you think your way more deeply into your topic, helps you see new implications in your data, research, and ideas. The WCC also helps with all English as Second Language issues, from writing and grammar to pronunciation and conversation practice.

Writing and Communication Center offers a number of programs to the wide community of MIT undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and staff, which include:

• Individual Consultations on oral, visual, and written projects
• Workshops on various aspects of academic writing
• Writing Together Online program

Departmental Writing Support

We also have in house writing support for you, to help you with thesis writing support.  Marilyn Levine , our  Writing Consultant is available by appointment. She is an incredible department resource for everyone, and is available for workshops, advice, one on one student meetings, and more. Her contact info is [email protected] .

Formatting and Specifications

• Implementing the formatting and specifications saves a lot of time while your final thesis submission is being reviewed. The majority of students go through an average of 3-4 formatting revisions before their thesis book is approved as archive ready, and received by the department for final submission to the library.
• A thesis is a research paper , and must reflect the formatting specifications as such. Creative and stylistic formatting have their limits; all published theses must ultimately hold to the formatting requirements in order to ensure the document is accessible to all readers (observing ADA compliance regulations.)

Notes: While submissions must be a single, continuous page, you may switch between portrait and landscape orientation.

There is no institute-wide style guideline, as different disciplines adhere to their own. MIT Architecture does not prescribe a specific documentation style but recommends you confer with your thesis advisor in addition to adhering to the institute-wide specifications for each style: https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/thesis-specs/

1. Thesis Checklist

Download the Department’s Thesis Checklist to review your final document for archival acceptability. Take note that there is one addition to the checklist required by the Department ; page 2 (placed between the title and the abstract pages) must list your thesis/dissertation committee . It should have the academic titles of your advisors and readers as they are listed in the MIT Bulletin — see TEMPLATE .

2. Committee Chair Information for Title Page

• Leslie K. Norford Professor of Building Technology Chair of Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
• Leslie K. Norford Professor of Building Technology Chair of the Department Committee on Graduate Students

3. MIT Libraries Specifications for Thesis Preparation

• Specifications
• Review for information on obtaining correct research permissions, copyright, supplemental material and research data, accessibility features, holds, and more.
• MIT Thesis FAQ

4. Pay special attention to:

• General Policies
• Copyrighting your thesis
• Statement required on all title pages: 
• “ The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.”
• Using previously published materials
• Thesis title — Make sure your final thesis title matches the Institute record by checking in  WebSIS  under “Online Degree Application”.
• Proper wording on title, abstract and committee pages — see  TEMPLATES  (includes templates by degree, template for joint theses and template for dual degree theses).
• Pagination  — The title page is always considered to be page 1, and every page must be included in the count regardless of whether a number is physically printed on a page.  Make sure the page numbers in your Table of Contents are accurate  (see tip in “Check Table of Contents Links” below)..
• Typeface & Size  —  Main body of text , including appendices and front matter should be no smaller than 11-point and not be script or italic (although italics may be used for short quotations or to highlight variables in equations).
• Image captions, endnotes, footnotes, sidenotes, table text, page numbers  can be no smaller than 10-point — this includes text  inside  images. This is important for accessibility reasons  (an option for text that is too small inside an image is to  supply an alt tag  (this assumes program of thesis creation to be Microsoft Word; other programs likely provide this option).
• It is easy to overlook the font size of text  within  images. This text can be no smaller than 10-point (per bullet above, see  supply an alt tag )..
• Check Table of Contents Links — Make sure you have links in your table of contents that go to the correct location in your document. It is easy to make structural changes to your document and forget to revisit your Table of Contents links for accuracy. Microsoft Word has a  Table of Contents tool  that allows you to link TOC entries directly to the appropriate content in the document; it is a great tool to use as if your content moves during the editing of your document, Word automatically updates your links in your TOC). 

Copyright and Thesis

Scholarly publishing’s  theses and copyright  page.

This page covers the following:

• Fair use and your thesis
• Copyright term and the public domain
• MIT license agreements
• Copyright for images and figures

MIT libraries’  Using Copyrighted Content  page.

• Fair use for your thesis: Two questions to determine fair use
• MIT license agreements that may allow reuse
• Copyright Clearance Center
• Obtaining permission for use

FINAL Thesis Submission

→ Signatures are not required on the title page. They ARE required on the  SEPARATE SIGNATURE FORM .

On or before department thesis deadlines:

• Upload the final document to the Department’s  Thesis Submission Tool  for a  final formatting review  (choose “Single Sign On” and login with your MIT email address).
• If final formatting revisions are not complete by the Institute Deadline for Thesis submission,  you will be removed from the degree list.

This is for the purpose of making certain the document is in compliance with MIT archive requirements. You will be contacted quickly if adjustments are needed and when the document has been approved. Before submitting your document ensure that:

• you make a final pass through your thesis document based on the  formatting/specifications  information;
• your advisor has seen and approved your final version that you are uploading to the Department’s  Thesis Submission website . No further changes can be accommodated;
• you don’t forget the additional  committee page  required by the Department of Architecture which is placed between your title and abstract pages (this page is not necessary if you only have a thesis advisor and no readers). Consult the Department’s  Faculty page  in the MIT catalog for proper academic titles for MIT instructors.

After submitting your document, ensure that you have  submitted your Thesis Information to the Library . There you must complete the the online form (Ensure that your thesis title is an exact match with what is listed on your  (approved!) title page  (click on “Online Degree Application”).

• Please complete the full form, including copyright info, thesis supervisor, and more.
• Dual degree students: list your PRIMARY department in the main fields of the form, and include the information for the secondary department and thesis supervisor in the NOTES section of this form.
• All grad students may also choose to OPT-IN to send your thesis to Pro-Quest.
• The Library WILL NOT publish theses that are formatted incorrectly, have incorrect copyright statements, or missing or incorrect table of content information. We don’t go through this process because we want to, it’s in order to ensure your thesis is publishable per Library standards. 

A note from an alum: While there are multiple reasons to write your thesis in a word document (including making citations easier, table of contents easier, and more), many of you will choose to format it in InDesign instead. If you do, please ensure you  package  your InDesign file before you graduate. If you are using a student Adobe license, when you graduate your student license will be revoked. An unpackaged InDesign file will mean your entire thesis document will become a jumble of words and images. Should you want to access your thesis again in the future (maybe to print? maybe because the Library has noticed an error and requires you to correct it before publishing your thesis to D-Space), you will have to reformat the entire document again.  

MIT Thesis FAQ: New Degree Candidates

• New Degree Candidates
• Thesis Checklist
• Creating an Accessible Thesis
• Saving Your Thesis as a PDF/A-1
• Student Frequently Asked Questions
• Access and Availability Questions

Instructions

Reminder: students - submit your thesis electronically to your department or program..

Please pay close attention to the following sections of the Specifications for Thesis Preparation :

• Joint Thesis
• Copyright (and review the copyright and licensing section below)
• Permission to Reuse or Republish a Thesis
• Changes to a Thesis After Submission

Here are some sample title pages to assist you with formatting:

• PhD thesis with a CC license
• Multiple authors thesis
• Dual degree with extra committee members

You can also use the official MIT Thesis Template in Overleaf , which is already formatted for the Thesis Specifications.

What to submit to your Department/Program

Submit the following:

• A PDF/A-1 of your final thesis document ( without signatures )
• Signature page (if required by your department; your department will provide specific guidance)
• Source files (not required)

File naming

Files must be named according to this scheme: authorLastName-kerberos ID-degree-dept-year-type_other.ext

• Thesis PDF: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2024-thesis.pdf
• Signature Page: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2024-sig.pdf

Temporary Holds

Please review the Holds section of the Thesis Specifications . The Office of Graduate Education oversees the policies and procedures for requesting a temporary publication hold of your thesis. They offer a publication request form .

Note: Request for temporary holds must be submitted prior to graduation . To contact OGE and the Vice Chancellor's office, email [email protected] To contact the Technology and Licensing Office, email [email protected]

What to submit to the Libraries

The Libraries' Thesis Form must be completed by the day of graduation.

The information you provide must match the title page and abstract of your thesis. You will be asked to confirm or provide:

• Your name as it appears on your thesis (Family Name, Given Name Middle Name)
• Thesis title
• Department or Program
• Supervisor(s)
• Copyright (see the Copyright and Licensing section below)
• ProQuest opt-in (for Graduate and Doctoral candidates only)

Copyright and Licensing

You may, optionally , choose to apply a Creative Commons License to your thesis. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. For more information about CC, see Creative Commons About page.

Before you apply a CC license or CC0 (public domain), to your work, please note that the licenses cannot be revoked. This means, once you apply a CC license to your material, anyone who receives it may rely on that license for as long as the material is protected by copyright, even if you later stop distributing it.

• To determine which CC license is right for you, use the CC license chooser
• Note: You do not need to apply a CC license to your work. If you choose not to have a CC license, you should write "All rights reserved." next to your copyright.

Formatting Your Copyright Statement

• Following the instructions in the thesis specifications under How To Copyright your Thesis .
• If using a CC license, replace "All Rights Reserved" with your chosen CC license (CC-BY-NC 4.0).
• Remember to also include the following statement below your (c): "The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license."

What Copyright information to submit to the Libraries

• I hold copyright (if you choose this option you will have the option of also choosing a CC license)
• I hold copyright and give it up to the public domain (this means that your thesis will be released openly under CC0 "No Rights Reserved" and opts out of copyright and database protection. This may not be revoked.)
• This is a work of the US government
• Another person or organization owns copyright

For more information Review the Copyright section of the Thesis Specifications .

ORCID: Open Researcher & Contributor ID

What is ORCID?

ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-based effort to provide a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a method of linking research-related items, such as articles as datasets, to these identifiers.

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. The goal is to support the creation of a permanent, clear, and unambiguous record of scholarly communication by enabling reliable attribution of authors and contributors.

Register for an ORCID ID.

This process also associates your ORCID with your MIT profile. Once you have the ID you also have the option to build your profile through the "import works" button, associating your papers, data sets, and other research output with your ID. You can then include the ID as a link on your CV or web page. You can also create an ORCID account without linking it to your MIT profile.

See our ORCID FAQ for more information.

ProQuest Opt-in

What is the ProQuest Opt-in?

When submitting the Libraries' Thesis Form , you may choose to opt in to the pilot program to provide additional open access to MIT theses through ProQuest Dissertation Theses Global (PQDT). The aim is to make theses more visible and discoverable. By opting in, you consent to your full thesis being available in ProQuest's database. If you are a Bachelor's candidate or do not opt in, ProQuest will only access your abstract.

There is no cost to you and your thesis will not be sent to ProQuest until it is published by MIT. See the Thesis Specifications and Author Dissertations FAQs for more information about participating.

Quick links

• Thesis Specifications
• Distinctive Collections
• Scholarly Publishing@MIT
• About DSpace@MIT
• Dissertation/Theses
• Official Overleaf Thesis Template

Have questions?

Contact us at [email protected] .

• Next: Thesis Checklist >>
• Last Updated: Jun 27, 2024 3:59 PM
• URL: https://libguides.mit.edu/mit-thesis-faq

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The MIT Open Access Articles collection consists of scholarly articles written by MIT-affiliated authors that are made available through DSpace@MIT under the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy, or under related publisher agreements. Articles in this collection generally reflect changes made during peer-review.

Version details are supplied for each paper in the collection:

• Original manuscript: author's manuscript prior to formal peer review
• Author's final manuscript: final author's manuscript post peer review, without publisher's formatting or copy editing
• Final published version: final published article, as it appeared in a journal, conference proceedings, or other formally published context (this version appears here only if allowable under publisher's policy)

Some peer-reviewed scholarly articles are available through other DSpace@MIT collections, such as those for departments, labs, and centers.

If you are an MIT community member who wants to deposit an article into the this collection, you will need to log in to do so. If you don't have an account, please contact us.

More information:

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• FAQ about the policy

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Holds and restrictions on thesis publication

Thesis research should be undertaken in light of MIT’s policy of open research and the free interchange of information. Openness requires that, as a general policy, thesis research should not be undertaken on campus when the results may not be published. From time to time, there may be good reason for delaying the distribution of a thesis to obtain patent protection, or for reasons of privacy or security. To assure that only those theses that meet certain criteria are withheld from distribution, and that they are withheld for the minimum period, the Institute has established specific review procedures.

Written notification of patent holds and other restrictions must reach the Institute Archives before the thesis in question is received, as under normal circumstances, all theses are open and available for public inspection once they have been received by the Institute Archives.

For initial thesis hold requests, students should follow these processes:

• Thesis hold requests should be directed to the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) when related to MIT-initiated patent applications (MIT holds intellectual property rights; patent application process via TLO)
• Student-initiated patents [up to 90-day hold]
• Pursuit of business opportunities [up to 90-day hold]
• Government restrictions [up to 90-day hold]
• Privacy and security [up to 90-day hold]
• Scholarly journal articles pending publication [up to 90-day hold]
• Book publication [up to 24-month hold]

In some circumstances a student may want to request a hold beyond the initial period. Requests for extended thesis holds longer than the initial hold period require the approval of the Vice President for Research . Such requests will be granted given reasonable justifications. Requests should include the appropriate hold time and made for well-justified reasons, including but not limited to the student’s patent applications or other pertinent business opportunities; government restrictions; privacy and security concerns; peer-reviewed publication, and book manuscripts. Students should include a letter of support from their advisor(s) or department head to provide additional context for the request. The Vice President for Research may consult with other entities to determine the advisability and appropriate length of the follow-on hold. The number of such requests and approvals will be provided annually to the Faculty Policy Committee.

Thesis holds related to MIT-initiated patent application

In many circumstances, thesis work may result in  intellectual property  that a student and faculty advisor wish to patent. Thesis research that was supported by Institute funds and/or the use of Institute facilities is, by default, the property of MIT. In this case, technology should be disclosed to MIT’s TLO who will then review the patentability of the work, and file for a US patent if appropriate.  A brief thesis hold allows the student to delay public access to research findings and to prevent premature public disclosures of the work.  Request for a thesis hold must be made jointly by the student and advisor directly to the  MIT Technology Licensing Office  as part of the technology disclosure process.

Specifically, a student who would like to withhold their  thesis from immediate publication while disclosure is being reviewed should refer to the thesis while answering question 6 on the Disclosure Form: “Dates of conception and public disclosure.” The Technology Licensing Office may, if necessary, request a delay in publishing by notifying the Institute Archives, and the thesis will be withheld from distribution for up to one year. If an extension to this original period is required, a request must be made to the  Vice President for Research . If approved, the Vice President for Research will inform the Institute Archives in writing of the extension. The Technology Licensing Office will inform the Institute Archives as soon as the thesis can be released. Additional relevant technology licensing information for students may be found  here .

Thesis holds related to student-initiated patent applications

If it has been determined by MIT’s Technology Licensing Office that a student holds the rights to the  intellectual property  contained in their own thesis, and if the student wishes to pursue other business opportunities related to this work, such as a startup company, a request must be submitted to the Vice Chancellor for permission to withhold the thesis from publication.  If granted, the Vice Chancellor’s office will inform the Institute Archives, and the thesis will be withheld from circulation for a period of up to 90 days. If an extension to this original period is required, a request must be made to the  Vice President for Research .

Thesis holds related to other business opportunities

Occasionally a student who holds the rights to the  intellectual property  contained in their own thesis may wish to pursue a business opportunity after graduation, unrelated to any intellectual property that is patentable by MIT. In this case the student may submit a thesis hold request to the Vice Chancellor.

Thesis holds related to government restrictions

The Committee on Graduate Programs recognizes that certain government agencies that sponsor research may require that theses be submitted for security review before they can be placed in the MIT Libraries or published. In the event that the agency does not permit immediate public disclosure of a thesis, this does not preclude its acceptance, but the Vice Chancellor will consider a thesis hold request of up to 90 days. If a longer agency review period is required, the student may ask the  Vice President for Research  for an extension of the hold. A student should not embark on such a thesis without prior approval from the funding agency that the work may be published upon thesis completion.

Thesis holds related to privacy and security

Occasionally, on completing a thesis, a student may feel that its distribution will jeopardize the privacy or safety of the author or other individuals. If the thesis cannot be rewritten to remove the problematic material, the author and advisor should submit the thesis to the director of their graduate program who will prepare a recommendation to the Vice Chancellor in consultation with the Vice President for Research. The Vice Chancellor will advise the Institute Archives in writing of the restricted period. In all cases the restricted period will be kept to a minimum.

Restricted access related to book publication

Any MIT doctoral degree recipient who is attempting to publish a book based wholly or in part on his/her dissertation may request a temporary removal of the thesis from public access on DSpace@MIT for a period of no longer than two years (24 months).

Such a request must be accompanied by documentation that demonstrates that the author’s manuscript cannot be published due to the availability of the related thesis online. The request will be reviewed by the Vice Chancellor. If approved, online access to view and download the thesis will be limited to those with MIT certificate permission.

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