FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON THESIS SUBMISSION
GENERAL GUIDANCE: In general, when writing your thesis, unless otherwise stated here and in
the research handbook, please follow the TQA guidelines:
http://admin.exeter.ac.uk/academic/tls/tqa/Part%207/7Jpgthesis.pdf
Section 6.4.4 of the online research handbook gives more specific guidance on formatting:
http://cedar.exeter.ac.uk/handbook/research/specific_guidelines_and_marking/thesis/.
The FAQ document provides answers to frequently asked questions about thesis formatting, which
also includes one way in which the course requirements deviate from TQA guidelines (e.g., sequence
of thesis contents does not follow the TQA guidelines).
WORD COUNT: The word count for the empirical project write-up is 8,000 words and includes
tables, figures and captions for tables and figures but DOES NOT include the abstract, table of
contents, list of tables, list of figures, appendices, footnotes, and references. Use Appendices
sparingly. The word count for the literature review write-up is 4,000 words and DOES NOT include
the abstract, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, tables, figures and captions for tables and
figures, appendices, footnotes, and references. Use Appendices sparingly.
“JOINT RESEARCH”: Note that the TQA guidelines (Section 5.7) require you to include an
author’s declaration after the main title page when the work is partly based on joint research. “Joint
research” would normally be understood to include: sharing recruitment with another
trainee/UG/MSc/PhD student or researcher (e.g., someone else recruits some of your participants,
including use of control group data that were collected by a previous researcher), shared testing (if
someone other than yourself tested/interviewed any of your participants), and any analysis that was
performed by anyone else. If relevant to your research, you should include an author’s declaration in
the form of a short paragraph describing the extent to which you and other people contributed to each
phase of the research project (this does not include standard guidance from your supervisor(s)).
SUBMISSION FORM: You need to complete one submission form that accompanies but is not
bound in to your thesis (this can be downloaded from
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/students/administration/examsandassessment/pgr/submissionofthesisdissertat
ion/).
SEQUENCE OF SECTIONS IN THESIS (see attached template)
1. Main title page
2. Author’s declaration (if joint research)
3. Combined table of contents for both
sections
4. Combined list of tables for both
sections
5. Combined list of figures for both
sections
6. Title page for Literature Review
(including: title, supervisors, word
count, target journal)
7. Abstract for Literature Review
8. Literature Review main body
9. References for Literature Review
10. Appendices for Literature Review (if
necessary)
11. Title page of Empirical Paper
(including: title, supervisors, word
count, target journal)
12. Abstract for Empirical Paper
13. Empirical Paper main body
14. References for Empirical Paper
15. Appendices for Empirical Paper
(including: Evidence of ethical/R&D
approvals, Dissemination statement)
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON THESIS FORMAT
Q: Is the submission form bound within the thesis?
A: The submission form is not bound into the thesis but is submitted with it.
Q: Where should we put supervisor names, word count, target journal?
A: These should be on the title page for each component (lit review, empirical paper).
Q: Do I number the tables/figures consecutively throughout the whole submission, or start
again for the empirical project write up?
A: You would start again at Table/Figure 1 in the empirical paper write up. Therefore in the list of
tables/figures at the beginning you just need to include subheadings of ‘Literature review’ (under
which Table, 1, 2, 3…) and ‘Empirical project’ (under which Table, 1, 2, 3…).
Q: If the target journal specifies a specific style or format should we use this for the entire document?
A: No. Follow APA style for text, formatting, citations and referencing but use the structure that is
laid out in the template. Note that you should use Arial font size 12 as dictated by the TQA guidelines.
Q: Must tables and figures go at the end of the paper (as APA style suggests)?
A: No, include the tables and figures in the relevant places in the text, rather than at the end
(here you should deviate from APA format to make your submission more readable).
Q: Is the bibliography mentioned in the TQA guidelines the same as the reference section?
A: Yes. Note that you need one reference list for the literature review and one for the empirical paper.
Q: Do we state the target journal for both the literature review and the empirical paper?
A: Yes, state the target journal for the literature review and empirical paper on the title page
of each of these components (even if they are the same).
Q: Does the thesis really need to be in Arial font size 12? What about Tables?
A: Yes, the main text should be in Arial font size 12 including tables (following TQA
guidelines). If there is a large Table that would be unwieldy with font size 12, you may
reduce the font size slightly but be mindful of the need to keep the thesis legible.
Q: Do we have to have appendices for the literature review?
A: No, in many cases it will not be necessary.
Q: Is there a word limit for appendices?
A: There is no word limit for appendices, but they should be used sparingly.
Q: What is included in the word count?
A: It depends on the component. For the empirical project write-up, the word count includes Tables,
Figures and related captions but DOES NOT include the abstract, table of contents, list of tables, list
of figures, appendices, footnotes, and references. For the literature review, the word count DOES
NOT include the abstract, table of contents, list of tables, list of figures, Tables and related captions,
Figures and related captions, appendices, footnotes, and references.
Q: Do we need to include the ethics application risk matrix in the appendices?
A: It is not necessary to add the risk matrix unless you think ethical considerations were critically
important in the design of your research and would like to include it for completion.
Q: Should the final thesis be printed double- or single-sided?
A: Double-sided (Section 5.5 of TQA manual).
Q: I/my supervisors will be requesting an embargo on my thesis being made
universally accessible on ORE/library for a period to allow to publication of papers.
Does this mean I omit the following statement from the title page: “This thesis is available for
Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the
thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement”?
A: No, this statement should be included. The embargo will still be respected. It is generally
advisable to request an embargo on your work so that you will be able to publish papers
without breaching journal regulations – please ask your supervisor for further guidance.
Q: I would like to include an A3 image in my submission, is this possible?
A: Yes, see TQA manual (section 5.1) for instructions on binding larger pages within the thesis.
Q: Is there specific guidance about what needs to be included in the author's declaration in the thesis?
When would we need to include an author’s declaration?
A: The author’s declaration (if applicable) appears on the second page of the thesis (see template) and
should be included when you have undertaken ‘joint research’ including: sharing recruitment with
another trainee/UG/MSc/PhD student or researcher (e.g., someone else recruits some of your
participants, including control group data that were collected by a previous researcher), shared testing
(if someone other than yourself tested/interviewed any of the participants), and any analysis that was
performed by anyone else. If relevant, you should use the author’s declaration to spell out the extent
to which other people contributed to each phase of the research project (this does not include standard
guidance from your supervisors). There is no specific guidance on how to write this, but this should
be a short paragraph describing your contribution if there was any joint contribution to the research.