submitting your thesis university of birmingham

Tracing Theses

Introduction to theses, finding university of birmingham theses, finding uk theses, finding theses from other countries.

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A thesis is a published piece of written work embodying the results of original research for the award of a higher degree from an academic institution. 

Reasons for consulting a thesis include:

• For use as an information resource relevant to your research topic, i.e. you may like to refer to and cite a thesis;
• To ensure that your proposed topic of research has not already been substantially covered by somebody else;
• To become acquainted with recent trends, methodologies and approaches in your subject;
• To gain understanding about what is expected of you if you are undertaking a research degree, and to gain ideas for structure, tone, language, layout etc.

Theses for the higher research degrees (PhD, M Litt,  M Phil or MRes) of the University of Birmingham are deposited with Library Services. Since 2009, University of Birmingham research theses have been deposited in electronic format in the University of Birmingham eTheses Repository .

University of Birmingham theses are indexed and discoverable on FindIt@Bham . Carry out a search on FindIt@Bham using your topic, or search for your school or department directly (for best results, use the dropdown menu in the FindIt@Bham search bar to switch the scope of the search from an "Everything" search to a "UoB Research & Publications" search). Once you have generated some results, use the "Resource Type" filters in the “Tweak my results” menu on right-hand side of the page and select "Dissertations" (you may need to click "Show more" to get this option).

Theses listed in the  eTheses Repository will be available electronically, unless embargoes are in place. Click on “View Online…” to access the full text. 

To access the older, printed theses, click "Check for current availability at Research Reserve..." and then click “Request this item from the Research Reserve…”. Complete the form, selecting your delivery site. You will receive an email notification when the thesis is ready for collection. 

Please note the following:

• Theses may not be removed from the Library;
• You must sign the copyright declaration in each thesis used;
• Since theses are under copyright, you must consult Library Services staff if you wish to photocopy more than a short extract;
• Occasionally an author may place an embargo on a thesis if any of its content is commercially valuable or confidential.

To search for research theses across the UK, the British Library's  EThOS  service is highly recommended. EThOS is the British Library’s e-theses service and provides access to over 500,000 doctoral theses.  Many are available for immediate download (registration is required, but this is free and straightforward to do), and for others you can request that the printed version be digitised. If you are requesting digitisation of a thesis, a scan fee may apply depending on whether the institution is a participating Higher Education Institution (HEI) – see the list of Participating Institutions  for details of members.

To search widely across theses from many countries, the  ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global  database is highly recommended (theses from the UK and Ireland are included here too). It includes millions of searchable citations to theses from 1861 to the present day, together with over a million full-text theses that are available for PDF download. The database offers full text for most of the theses added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. Each thesis published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637. 24-page previews of theses are provided where possible.

Another option when searching for theses globally is to consult e-theses repositories available from other countries. The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations  contains a breakdown of e-theses repositories by country.

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• URL: https://libguides.bham.ac.uk/rst/theses

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University of Birmingham eTheses Repository

Recent changes.

We have recently introduced some changes to Library thesis deposit, in summary:

• You are no longer required to submit a hard bound copy of your thesis to the Library, an electronic version is still required
• If your thesis should not be made immediately publicly accessible, you must upload a signed and approved restricted access form alongside your thesis deposit

To upload a research output to the repository, select the type of output from the dropdown menu and choose ‘Deposit’

It may take us up to 5 working days to confirm receipt of Theses deposits. If you require urgent acknowledgment that we have received your deposit, please Email Us once you have completed your deposit.

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What to expect next

Once you’ve submitted your application, we’ll send you details on how to access your applicant portal. You’ll be able to track the progress of your application, update your personal information, view decisions and accept offers.

Good to know

• Your application will be ‘pending’ on your portal while we check your application.
• You can add or edit some details or documents within your application after it’s been submitted through your applicant portal. For more guidance and advice you can take a look at our PG Admissions portal.

• Help & FAQ

Find Student theses

Filters for student theses.

• Award date (ascending)

Search results

• About the eTheses Repository
• Browse Repository
• Search Repository

eTheses Repository supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/cgi/oai2 . Policies can be viewed on our Policies page.

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Presenting your thesis

This document is also available in a downloadable, printable format (Word - 78KB) .

Introduction

This is a guide to the presentation of a thesis required for the award of a research degree at the University of Birmingham.  It deals only with the practicalities of producing your thesis in a format that is acceptable for examination and deposit in the Library.  It supplements Regulation 7.4.1 which covers thesis requirements and Regulation 7.4.2 which contains key information about language and word count.  See the  regulations relevant to your cohort .

If your thesis will be presented as a series of published or publishable papers, please refer to the Alternative Format Thesis guidelines (Word - 24KB)  in addition to this document.

For aspects of thesis presentation not mentioned in the regulations or in this document, discuss with your supervisor what might be appropriate for your discipline.

Legal considerations

Whilst there may be valid reasons to restrict access to your thesis temporarily, an electronic copy of your thesis will become publicly available immediately or within a few years of your graduation.  Just as would be required with a formal publication, it is your responsibility to ensure your thesis can be legally shared with a broad audience.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you comply with copyright legislation when including third-party material (e.g. quotations, images).  See  copyright for researchers .

Data Protection

Unless you have explicit permission, your thesis must not include commercially sensitive data or sensitive personal data relating to your research participants.  Where it is essential to include such data, you should ensure it is fully anonymised.  See  Anonymisation: managing data protection risk code of practice from the Information Commissioner's Office (PDF - 1.84MB) .

Accessibility

There is a legal requirement to make theses available to those who would benefit from an accessible document, including those using screen-reading software.  For more information, see LinkedIn Learning .

Elements of the thesis

A thesis normally consists of the following elements, in the order presented here:

• Dedication (optional)

Acknowledgements

Table of contents.

• List of illustrations (if appropriate)
• List of tables (if appropriate)
• List of definitions/abbreviations (if appropriate)

Main body text

References/bibliography, preliminaries.

The preliminary pages should not be included in the table of contents or the word count for the thesis.  They should be numbered separately from the main body of the thesis, or left unnumbered. 

The title page gives the title, author, statement of the degree for which the thesis is submitted, department/school, university and month of submission.  Give your full name on the title page to ensure it matches that on your student record.

For a thesis being deposited after minor or major corrections have been made and approved, the date on the title page should be the original date of submission.  For a resubmitted thesis, the date should be the month of resubmission.

If your thesis consists of more than one volume, a title page should be included in each volume.  In this case, the title page should additionally include the number of the particular volume and the total number of volumes of the thesis.

It should be laid out as in the following example:

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF SELECTION WITHIN AN INBREEDING PROGRAMME IN SUNFLOWERS

MARTIN TREVOR SMITH

A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of  DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Institute of Local Government Studies School of Government and Society College of Social Sciences University of Birmingham October 2020

The abstract should immediately follow the title page, and be no longer than 2 pages.  The abstract will be used when the thesis is indexed in EThOS, Index to Theses and elsewhere.

You must include acknowledgement of any funding you have received. 

Where a third-party editor has been used you must also acknowledge the contribution they have made, by stating for example “this thesis was copy edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by [name of editor/editing company]”.  See the  full statement on editorial help (PDF - 190KB) .

Inclusion of further acknowledgements is a matter for your own discretion, and they may be omitted if the above do not apply to you.

Contents listings

The table of contents should show chapter and section titles, demonstrating the relationship of the parts to each other by indentation and numbering.  Chapters and sections should be referenced to their page numbers.

If your thesis consists of more than one volume, each volume should have its own table of contents as well as a complete table of contents. 

Other preliminary listings

You may also choose to include lists of illustrations, tables, definitions and/or abbreviations.

If your list of illustrations includes different types of illustrations, it can be subdivided into headed sections (e.g. figures, plates, maps, charts).  The title of each illustration should be referenced to its page number.  If illustrations have been inserted without page numbers then the terms “Facing page” (for one illustration) or “Following page” (series of illustrations) should precede the appropriate page number.

Lists of definitions and/or abbreviations act as an aid to the reader, and do not replace full explanations in the main text when an abbreviation, symbol or new term is used for the first time.

The main body of the text follows the preliminaries and the sequence of page numbers begins here.  This section must be included in your word count (less any exemptions such as footnotes, tables, diagrams and figures – see regulation 7.4.2). 

A referencing style appropriate to your discipline should be used consistently throughout your thesis.  See the  iCite referencing guide .

A list of references must contain all of the sources which you have mentioned in the text, according to your chosen referencing style.  This can be headed either “List of References” or “Bibliography” as appropriate to your discipline. 

Additionally, you may include a bibliography of sources which you have not cited in the text itself, but which you think readers might wish to go on to consult.  This may be sub-divided into sections if that is likely to prove helpful.

Appendices contain information which is supportive but not critical for understanding of the main text.  Copyright and appropriate handling of sensitive information also apply to the appendices as in the main text, and it is your responsibility to ensure that you comply. 

Where more than one appendix is included, assign each one a number.

Typesetting and word processing

The thesis must be clearly set out and easy to read. 

Page layout

The margin on the binding edge must be at least 3 cm.  It is desirable to have margins of 3 cm at the top and bottom of the page and 2 cm at the outer edge.

Document layout

It is recommended that you use the heading styles within your word processing software properly.  This will facilitate creation of a table of contents, simplify navigation of your document, and increase the accessibility of your thesis to screen readers.

New chapters should always commence on a fresh page.  Titles should be in capitals and centred.  Sub-headings within chapters should be left justified.

Quotations not integrated in the text should be clearly distinguished from the main text. 

Equations and formulae should be indented from the margin and separated from the surrounding text by an extra space.  They may be numbered.

Illustrations and tables should be positioned near the first reference made to them in the text, and a fully descriptive caption provided.  Avoid using colour to convey meaning.

• See guidance on Canvas for using Microsoft Word to manage long documents . 

Recommended fonts include Arial, but any clear, standard sans serif typeface may be used.  Font colour should be black, and font size 12 is recommended for general use. 

Use double line spacing throughout the body of your text.  Single spacing is acceptable for quotations, footnotes, captions, and the bibliography.  Layout should be reasonably uniform regarding the length of lines and the number of lines per page.

Printing and binding for examination

You are not required to submit printed copies of your thesis in the first instance. However, if your examiners specifically request a printed copy, Research Student Administration will contact you and you will then be required to submit a printed copy. These guidelines should be followed in this case.

You should use white A4 paper, of good quality (minimum 80gsm if single-sided or minimum 100gsm if double-sided).  We encourage printing on both sides of the paper, provided the paper doesn’t allow printing to show through and affect legibility.

It is normal practice for copies of your thesis submitted for examination to be bound in a glued soft binding.  This binding must be sufficiently secure to ensure that pages do not fall out during the examination process. 

Library deposit copy

After your work has been examined, your corrections (if applicable) have been approved, and you have received your letter of award, you must upload an electronic copy for permanent deposit in the eTheses Repository . See more information on depositing your thesis in the UBIRA eTheses repository . 

If your thesis has any supplementary media, this should be provided electronically.  Contact Scholarly Communications Services  in Library Services for advice.

Further reading

Allison, B. & Race, P. (2004).  The student’s guide to preparing dissertations and theses .  2 nd ed.  London; New York: RoutledgeFalmer.  eBook via FindIt@Bham .

International Organization for Standardization (1986).  ISO 7144: Documentation – presentation of theses and similar documents .   FindIt@Bham .

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