Thesis Guidelines

Additional Time Required to Book Oral Defences

To assist with GPS’s new administrative load associated with hosting and managing remote oral defences, all oral defences must now be scheduled on the GPS online oral defence calendar by administrative staff after the committee has selected a date and time. This may require a rescheduling on the part of the committee, if the selected date and time are not available by GPS. As such, longer than normal time delays should be expected and students are advised to start planning for their oral defence well in advance.  

ECP Resources

Please review the Thesis Submission FAQ (PDF) for all frequently asked questions related to the steps and processes for submitting your thesis. Guidelines, resources and deadlines are indicated below.

*PLEASE NOTE: Theses may require corrections prior to the Chair signing the Nomination of Examiners and Thesis Submission Forms. Students will be required to resubmit as soon as possible for a second review, once the corrections have been made. This should be done promptly in order to obtain the Chair’s signature and meet GPS submission deadlines.

GPS
Guidelines & Resources

On the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Thesis page you will find:

  • General requirements
  • Guide for preparing a thesis
  • Instructions for initial thesis submission
  • Information about thesis examinations
  • Information about Doctoral oral defences
  • Instructions for final thesis submissions
  • Thesis FAQ

For general thesis guidelines, please visit the GPS website.

myThesis Submission Step by Step Timeline

All Master's & PhD students must use the myThesis platform to submit their thesis.

The GPS Website has additional Master's Submission Guidelines & Doctoral Submission Guidelines for Students, Supervisors, and GPDs.
*Chairs are set up as back-up for GPD in cases where GPD is also the Supervisor 

  1. Student submits “Intent to Submit” form 2 months before the expected thesis submission date and Supervisor receives auto email notification 
  2. Support Staff perform degree audit and include note in myProgress indicating that all degree requirements have been met.

  3. Supervisor contacts preferred internal and external examiners to see if they are willing/able to participate prior to inputting names in myThesis. This is recommended by GPS and is not considered a Conflict of Interest prior to adding the name to myThesis as long as the discussion regards availability only.  

    *Please remember to ensure there is no Conflict of Interest with the proposed examiner(s).* 

  4. Student fills out Nomination of Examiners (MA= Min 2/Max 4; PhD= 2 Internal Examiners and 2-4 External Examiners). This can be done at any point after Intent to Submit – deadline is shown when selecting a date for Estimated Submission Date. 

  5. Auto email notification sent to Supervisor re: submission of Nomination of Examiners.  Supervisor reviews form for completion and validates Conflict of Interest (if they haven’t already) then approves or requests change. 

  6. Auto email notification sent to GPD when Supervisor has approved Nomination of Examiners list. As GPD, you must check that the nominee(s) are appropriate. Importantly, please ensure that there is no conflict of interest (Search in scholar.google.com for conflict of interest between Supervisor and External Examiner.  If they’ve published anything together in the last 5 years, it’s a COI.).   

    NOTE: If the GPD is unable to do this step (i.e., because they are also the supervisor or one of the examiners, etc.), they must notify the Chair to log in and complete it. The Chair does not get automatic notification.   

  7. Once GPD/Chair approves, they click on the envelope icon to send an email notification to Examiner(s).  The examiner(s) can accept or decline. Auto email notification sent to GPD, Supervisor and Student when Examiner accepts/declines.  If declines, GPD selects another examiner choice that was given by Student.  

  8. Thesis Submission: Part 1Student submits their thesis only after Examiners accept. Part 2. Student must upload the GPS Initial Thesis Submission checklist as a Supplementary Document Part 3. PhD Students must also complete the ECP Dissertation Submission Approval Form and upload it as a Supplementary Document. Supervisors and GPDs are not to approve the thesis submission if these 2 Supplementary documents are missing. Note: Student can submit their thesis any time prior to the Expected Submission Date.  They can change the expected submission date prior to Examiners being notified, but it is discouraged to change the date after the Examiners have accepted.  

  9. Supervisor will get email notification once student submits thesis. Supervisor reviews and approves in myThesis. Note: If there is a co-supervisor, they will have to email GPS (thesis.gps [at] mcgill.ca) directly with their approval of the submission after reviewing.

  10.  GPD will get email notification of submission - review to ensure proper formatting (see thesis components here: https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis/thesis-guidelines/preparation). GPD approves submission.

    NOTE: If the GPD is unable to do this step (i.e., because they are also the supervisor or one of the examiners, etc.), they must notify the Chair to log in and complete it. The Chair does not get automatic notification.

  11. Once Supervisor and GPD have approved the submission, email notification goes to GPS for their final submission decision. GPS then sends the thesis to the Examiner. 

GPS Deadlines

Deadlines to submit to Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies can be found in the GPS Thesis Deadlines page.

 

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