Abstract [Dissertation Title] by [your official name] MA, [university], 20XX BS, [university], 20XX Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy [name of program] Walden University [last month of term you graduate] 20XX Abstract Insert abstract here; it should be no more than one page in length. Abstract text must be double-spaced with no paragraph indents or breaks. Describe the overall research problem being addressed in the first couple of sentences and indicate why it is important (e.g., who would care if the problem is solved). You can include a general introduction of the issue in the first sentence, but you need to move to a clear statement of the research problem being addressed. Identify the purpose and theoretical foundations, if appropriate, summarize the key research question(s), and briefly describe the overall research design, methods and data analytic procedures. Identify the key results, one or two conclusions, and recommendations that capture the heart of the research (for the final study; do not include results and conclusions in the proposal abstract). Conclude with a statement on the implications for positive social change. Here are some form and style tips: (a) limit the abstract to one typed page; (b) maintain the scholarly language used throughout the dissertation; (c) keep the abstract concise, accurate, and readable; (d) use correct English; (e) ensure each sentence adds value to the reader’s understanding of the research; and (f) use the full name of any acronym and include the acronym in parentheses. Do not include references or citations in the abstract. Per APA style, unless at the start of a sentence, use numerals in the abstract, not written out numbers. For more guidance on writing this paragraph, consult the abstract assistance materials on the Center for Research Quality website. [Dissertation Title] by [your official name] MA, [university], 20XX BS, [university], 20XX Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy [name of program] Walden University [last month of term you graduate] 20XX Dedication This is an optional page for a dedication. If you include a dedication, use regular paragraph formatting as shown here (not centered, italicized, or otherwise formatted). If you do not wish to include this page, delete the heading and the body text. Acknowledgments This is an optional page for acknowledgments. It is a nice place to thank the faculty, family members, and friends who have helped you reach this point in your academic career. If you do not wish to include this page, delete the heading and the body text, but leave the section break that you see below this text. No page number appears on any of the pages up to this point. Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures .................................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study (APA Level 0 Heading) ............................................1 APA Level 1 Heading ....................................................................................................1 APA Level 2 Heading ............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...............................................................................................3 First Heading ..................................................................................................................3 Chapter 3: Research Method ................................................................................................4 First Heading ..................................................................................................................4 Chapter 4: Results ................................................................................................................5 First Heading ..................................................................................................................5 Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations ..............................................7 First Heading ..................................................................................................................7 References ............................................................................................................................8 Appendix A: Title of Appendix .........................................................................................10 Use this table of contents (TOC) as an example of what one looks like. When it comes time for creating your own TOC, RIGHT CLICK anywhere in the Table of Contents, select UPDATE FIELD, then select UPDATE ENTIRE TABLE or UPDATE PAGE NUMBERS ONLY, and click OK. The table of contents will be generated using the style tags from the template; you will also be able to automatically update the TOC, both added headings and page numbers. i List of Tables Table 1. A Sample Table Showing Correct Formatting ..................................................... 5 Table 2. Another Sample Table .......................................................................................... 5 When you update the list of tables, the table number and title will come in without a period between them; you will need to manually add that period after all table numbers, as shown for Table 1. In addition, the title will retain the italics from the narrative when the List of Tables is updated. Once your list is finalized, select the entire list and change it to plain type. ii List of Figures Figure 1. Figure caption goes here .....................................................................................xx The List of Figures is not set up to automatically update. If you have figures in your document, type them in manually here, following the example above. Alternately, follow these instructions, which will allow automatic updating of the List of Figures. 1. Use the cursor to highlight the figure number and caption where they appear in the narrative chapters. (Figure 1. Figure caption.) 2. Press Shift + Alt + the letter o). In the Mark Table of Contents Entry that comes up, you will see the figure information that you highlighted in the Entry box. Put A in the Table Identifier box. Put 1 in the Level box. Do not close the Mark Table of Contents Entry box. Work can be done while it is open. 3. Continue to follow this protocol for all figures. You will see parenthetical entry field coding beside each figure caption when you have the formatting showing. 4. Close the Mark Table of Contents Entry box. 5. Place your cursor on the List of Figures page in the TOC. 6. Open the References tab. 7. Left click Insert Tables of Figures. 8. In the Table of Figures box that comes up, put a check in the “Show page numbers” and “Right align page numbers” boxes. Remove the check from the hyperlink box. Put dot leaders in the Tab leader box. Under General, format is “from template.” Caption label is “Figure.” Put a check in the “Include label and number” box. 9. Go to Options. Remove check from “style” box. Put a check in the “Table entry fields” box. Put A in the Table identifier box. Click OK. Click OK again on initial Table of Figures box. 10. The figures will appear on the List of Figures page. You may have to reformat the spacing and font. If the captions themselves change in the narrative, this whole process must be repeated. If only the page numbers change, do this: a. Left click to place the cursor anywhere on the figures mentioned on the List of Figures page. b. Right click “Update field.” c. Place bullet in circle for option to update page numbers only. d. Left click OK. e. The page numbers will update automatically. iii 1 Chapter 1: Introduction to the Study (APA Level 0 Heading) APA Level 1 Heading Begin text here. APA Level 2 Heading Place your text here; when placing your cursor on this text, you will see in the style menu that this paragraph is tagged “Body Text.” That means it will automatically appear double-spaced with the first line indented, per Walden style. The sixth edition of the APA manual advises two character spaces between sentences. Walden accepts either one or two spaces; either is acceptable, just be consistent. The text in this template has one character space between sentences. You can find the style menu in Microsoft Word 2007 or 2010 by clicking on the Home tab on the standard toolbar; Styles is one of the choices you will see. Click on the arrow icon on the right side of the Styles bar, and the drop-down menu of styles will appear. In Word 2003, look in the upper left corner of your screen, on the formatting toolbar, for the drop-down style menu. To apply this template’s formatting to the text of your paper, simply highlight the paragraph(s) or heading you want to format, and choose the appropriate tag from the style menu. The list of style tags includes all levels of headings, block quotes, table number and title, APA references, and body text. APA level 3 heading. Text begins here. APA level 4 heading. Text begins here. The following is an example of a block quote: 2 This is an example of a block quote. Note that there are no quotations marks around the quoted material because the block formatting indicates it is a direct quote. Use block formatting for all quotes of 40 or more words. Include the citation after the final punctuation for the quote, as shown. The author and year may precede the quote, with the page number(s) in parentheses after the final punctuation. There is no punctuation after the citation. (Author, date, p. #) If you make a mistake and something changes that you did not want to change, in Word 2007 or 2010, either type Ctrl (Control key) z or, on the Quick Access toolbar, next to Save, click on the arrow icon for Undo. In Word 2003, go to Edit, Undo Typing. As you continue to develop your proposal and dissertation in this template, use the instructions in Comments 9 to11 to add new headings and new text. For guidance on the content of sections of a proposal or dissertation, go to the Center for Research Quality website and look under the Dissertation Evaluation Tools documents, then choose the appropriate checklist, which outlines the contents of each chapter of the dissertation. For guidance on APA style rules, go to the Writing Center website, or consult the Form and Style sections of the Dissertation Guidebook. 3 Chapter 2: Literature Review First Heading Insert the text of your literature review here. Report the literature in past tense, as in Jones (2003) argued, not Jones (2003) argues. Refer to the appropriate dissertation checklist for guidance on the content of sections in this chapter. Form and style tip: Here are some examples of how to present information in a vertical list. 1. In the body of your paper, use this format when presenting information as a vertical list. 2. When the order of the items in the list is important, use a numbered list. Use a bulleted vertical list when you do not need to indicate a certain order or chronology. • This is an example of a bulleted list. • It follows the same format as for a numbered list, with the bullet point indented the same as a paragraph indent. 4 Chapter 3: Research Method First Heading Discuss your research method here. Refer to the appropriate dissertation checklist for guidance on the content of sections in this chapter. 5 Chapter 4: Results First Heading Present your results here. Refer to the appropriate dissertation checklist for guidance on the content of sections in this chapter. This is an example of a table in APA style (see Table 1). Table 1 A Sample Table Showing Correct Formatting Column A Column B Column C Column D Row 1 Row 2 Row 3 Row 4 Note. From “Attitudes Toward Dissertation Editors,” by W. Student, 2008, Journal of Academic Optimism, 98, p. 11. Reprinted with permission. Table 2 Another Sample Table Column A Row 1 Row 2 Column B Column C 6 This is an example of a figure labeled per APA style. Note that the label is placed under the figure itself. As with tables, refer to the figure by number in the narrative text preceding the placement of the figure (see Figure 1). [place figure here] Figure 1. This is a sample of a figure caption. Note that the figure number is set in italics and followed by a period. The figure caption follows on the same line and in sentence case, ending with a period. Follow these instructions to allow figure number and caption to update in the List of Figures. 1. Use the cursor to highlight the figure number and caption. (Figure 1. Text.) 2. Press Shift + Alt + the letter o). In the Mark Table of Contents Entry that comes up, you will see the figure information that you highlighted in the Entry box. Put A in the Table Identifier box. Put 1 in the Level box. Do not close the Mark Table of Contents Entry box. Work can be done while it is open. 3. Continue to follow this protocol for all figures. You will see parenthetical entry field coding beside each figure caption. 4. Close Mark Table of Contents Entry box. 5. Place your cursor on the List of Figures page in the TOC. 6. Open the References tab. 7. Left-click Insert Tables of Figures. 8. In the Table of Figures box that comes up, put a check in the “Show page numbers” and “Right align page numbers boxes.” Remove the check from the hyperlink box. Put dot leaders in the Tab leader box. Under General, format is “from template.” Caption label is “Figure.” Put a check in the “Include label and number” box. 9. Go to Options. Remove check from “style” box. Put a check in the “Table entry fields” box. Put A in the Table identifier box. Click OK. Click OK again on initial Table of Figures box. 10. The figures will appear on the List of Tables page. You may have to reformat the spacing and font. If the captions themselves change, this whole process must be repeated. If only the page numbers change, do this: a. Left click to place the cursor anywhere on the figures mentioned on the List of Figures page. b. Right click “Update field.” c. Place bullet in circle for option to update page numbers only. d. Left click OK. e. The page numbers will update automatically. 7 Chapter 5: Discussion, Conclusions, and Recommendations First Heading Insert summary, conclusions, and recommendations here. Refer to the appropriate dissertation checklist for guidance on the content of sections in this chapter. 8 References Insert References here. Examples of some common types of references follow; see APA 6.22 and Chapter 7 for more details. These sample entries are tagged with the “APA Reference” style tag, which means the line spacing and hanging indent are automatic. Apply the “APA Reference” style tag to your entries. Pay special attention to italics, capitalization, and punctuation. The style tag does not govern those aspects of the entry. Periodical (journal) Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx(x), xxx–xxx. Online periodical (journal) Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (1994). Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx(x), xxx–xxx. doi:xxxxxx Nonperiodical (book) Author, A. A. (1994). Title of work. City of Publication, ST: Publisher. Chapter in a book Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (1994). Title of chapter. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (pp. xxx–xxx). City, ST: Publisher. 9 The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition, Chapter 7, includes numerous examples of reference list entries. For more information on references or APA style, consult the APA website or the Walden Writing Center website. 10 Appendix A: Title of Appendix Insert appendix here. Appendices are ordered with letters rather than numbers. If there is but one appendix, label it Appendix, followed by the title, with no letter designation. The appendices must adhere to the same margin specifications as the body of the dissertation. Photocopied or previously printed material may have to be shifted on the page or reduced in size to fit within the area bounded by the margins. If the only thing in an appendix is a table, the table title serves as the title of the appendix; no label is needed for the table itself. If you have text in addition to a table or tables in an appendix, label the table with the letter of the appendix (e.g., Table A1, Table A2, Table B1, and so on). These tables would be listed in the List of Tables at the end of the Table of Contents. If you include in an appendix any prepublished materials that are not in the public domain, you must also include permission to do so. Template updated March 2017. 1 Premise Title Student Name Name of program – Name of specialization A00000000 2 Premise: Title Problem Statement Insert the text of your problem statement here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Premise guide for an example of this section. Approach for the Study Insert the text of your approach here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Premise guide for an example of this section. 3 References Insert your reference list here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Premise guide for an example of this section. 1 Prospectus Title Student Name Name of program – Name of specialization A00000000 2 Prospectus: Title Problem Statement Insert the text of your problem statement here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Purpose Insert the text of your purpose statement here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Significance Insert the text of the purpose and significance of your study here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Background Insert the text of the background of your study here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Framework Insert the text of the framework of your study here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Research Questions Insert your research questions here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Nature of the Study Insert the text of the nature of your study here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. 3 Possible Types and Sources of Data Insert the text of possible types and sources of data here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. 4 References Insert your reference list here. Refer to the sample in the Dissertation Prospectus guide for an example of this section. Walden University Dissertation Guidebook For internal use only. Walden University Academic Offices 100 Washington Avenue South, Suite 900 Minneapolis, MN 55401 1-800-WALDENU (1-800-925-3368) Walden University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, www.hlcommission.org. Walden University practices a policy of nondiscrimination in admission to, access to, and employment in its programs and activities. Walden does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, age, religion or creed, marital status, disability, national or ethnic origin, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, or other legally protected status. Walden is committed to providing barrier-free access to its educational services and makes appropriate and reasonable accommodations when necessary. Students requesting accommodations per the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) must contact the Office of Disability Services at disability@mail.waldenu.edu. Walden University publications, including the catalog and student handbook, represent current curricula, educational plans, offerings, requirements, tuition, and fees. These may be modified or discontinued from time to time in the university’s sole discretion to carry out the university’s purposes and objectives. Neither the provisions of this document nor the acceptance of students through registration and enrollment in the university constitutes a contract or an offer of a contract. Walden University is a registered trademark of Walden University, LLC. © 2018 Walden University, LLC. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page ii Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 The Walden University Dissertation Statement .......................................................................... 1 How This Guidebook Is Organized ............................................................................................. 3 Part 1. The Dissertation Process ..................................................................................................... 4 Process Overview ........................................................................................................................ 4 Beginning the Process ................................................................................................................. 7 Developing the Premise............................................................................................................... 7 Supervisory Committee ............................................................................................................... 8 Writing the Prospectus ................................................................................................................ 8 Registering for Credits ................................................................................................................ 9 Review Tools ............................................................................................................................. 10 Developing the Proposal............................................................................................................ 13 Gaining Committee Approval of the Proposal .......................................................................... 13 Gaining URR Approval of the Proposal.................................................................................... 14 Proposal Oral Presentation ........................................................................................................ 14 G.etting Approval for Research................................................................................................. 15 Completing the Dissertation ...................................................................................................... 16 Gaining URR Approval of the Dissertation .............................................................................. 21 Form and Style Review ............................................................................................................. 22 Oral Defense .............................................................................................................................. 23 Final Approval and Submission ................................................................................................ 24 Academic Integrity and Plagiarism ........................................................................................... 26 Part 2. Evaluation in MyDR .......................................................................................................... 27 Proposal ..................................................................................................................................... 27 Final Study................................................................................................................................. 28 Final Overall Quality ................................................................................................................. 29 Part 3. Style: APA and Walden University................................................................................... 33 Overall Structure ....................................................................................................................... 33 Abstract...................................................................................................................................... 34 Appendices ................................................................................................................................ 35 Definitions of Terms and Glossaries ......................................................................................... 36 Copyrights and Permission to Use ............................................................................................ 37 Crediting Sources ...................................................................................................................... 38 Footnotes ................................................................................................................................... 43 Point of View............................................................................................................................. 43 Verb Tense................................................................................................................................. 43 Inclusive Language.................................................................................................................... 44 Type ........................................................................................................................................... 45 Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page iii Line Spacing .............................................................................................................................. 45 Margins and Page Numbers....................................................................................................... 45 Headings .................................................................................................................................... 46 Lists: Seriation ........................................................................................................................... 47 Tables and Figures..................................................................................................................... 49 Numbers and Percentages.......................................................................................................... 51 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................ 51 Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation......................................................................................... 51 Capitalization............................................................................................................................. 53 Sample Pages ............................................................................................................................. 55 Part 4. Frequently Asked Questions.............................................................................................. 60 Questions About the Dissertation Process................................................................................. 60 Questions About Form and Style .............................................................................................. 61 Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page iv Introduction The final phase of study for Walden University doctoral students is completion of a dissertation, which begins with preparation of a dissertation premise and ends with approval of the final dissertation. Walden does not favor any particular research approach or methodology but does require that a dissertation reflect a high level of scholarly effort and be an original contribution to the knowledge that supports professional practice. Students should demonstrate knowledge of research design and execution as well as the ability to interpret research findings, both verbally and in writing. The final product should have the level of detail and sophistication expected of a doctoral-level scholar-practitioner in the discipline. The Walden University Dissertation Statement This statement is designed to provide a broad vision of the Walden University dissertation and an understanding of the university’s dissertation requirements: The Walden University dissertation embraces and reflects the core values and mission of the university. Walden strives to produce graduates who combine academic credentials with professional skills and whose actions are motivated by informed intellect and educated attitudes. As accomplished practitioners, Walden students bring a wealth of expertise to their studies. Walden’s curricula then provide the foundation upon which students build their competence and mold their interests, culminating in the dissertation learning experience. Through this process, Walden graduates are provided the learning necessary to set forth new ideas through enlightened insights and to effect change in individuals, organizations, and society. Because Walden students and their courses of study vary, the nature and purposes of Walden dissertations also vary. The university’s approach to scholarship is flexible. The dissertation can be built upon a foundation of basic or applied research, multid isciplinary perspectives on scholarship, improved teaching, or an appropriate and acceptable combination of different forms of rigorous scholarship. Each of these meets the Walden dissertation requirements insofar as it relates to the nature and purpose of the inquiry and demonstrates a literate grounding in the relevant fields in which it is written, while maintaining the fundamental elements of quality and integrity required of stewards of the discipline. The Walden dissertation demonstrates a commitment to improving the caliber of professional practice. It is an inquiry that addresses unanswered questions or issues lacking thorough study and envisions what could happen as a result of the research outcomes. It contributes to professional practice by offering new knowledge or new understanding of existing knowledge arrived at through rigorous application of appropriate research methodology and provides a basis for further research. Therefore, the results of a research study conducted for Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 1 a Walden dissertation are worthy of publication as a significant contribution to professional practice. The Walden dissertation demonstrates a commitment to addressing the phenomena of social change and, within that context, exhibits sensitivity to societal conditions and a consideration of social issues. The Walden dissertation confirms a student’s understanding of and commitment to academic honesty and scholarly integrity. Every dissertation is shaped by the university’s core values of integrity and quality as well as its mission: to provide a diverse community of career professionals with the opportunity to transform themselves as scholar-practitioners so that they can effect positive social change. The dissertation is the unifying culmination of a doctoral student’s academic experience at Walden. The most important outcome of all teaching and learning at Walden is to produce graduates with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to • • • • • • • • • • understand and continuously develop and change themselves, the organizations in which they work, and society at large; create new knowledge dedicated to the improvement of social conditions and to impact society positively by putting that knowledge into practice by both modeling their learning through action and by being civically engaged; continue learning across their lifetimes as practitioners, researchers, and scholars and continue to impact social change; achieve professional excellence as active and influential professionals by applying their learning to specific problems and challenges in their work settings and professional practice; be information literate, including knowing the literature of their professional fields and reading it critically; understand the design and methods of inquiry in their professional fields; practice in their professional fields legally and ethically; communicate effectively, particularly in communicating their learning and research to others; appreciate, respect, and advocate for diversity and multiculturalism within their professional fields; and function flexibly and effectively in a variety of educational environments, including online and distributed environments. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 2 How This Guidebook Is Organized The Dissertation Guidebook complements other important resources during this phase of the students’ graduate career, including their dissertation supervisory committee, their academic program leaders, the academic advisors and other university staff members, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA style manual), and the Walden Writing Center. The Dissertation Process. Part 1 of this guidebook describes the steps of the dissertation process, including the use of evaluative rubrics. Part 1 also explains the policies and procedures related to ethical standards and use of human subjects in research. The Committee Evaluation Process. The duties of the chair, second member, and university research reviewer at each stage of the document review process are described in Part 2 of this guidebook. Style: APA and Walden University. Form and style guidelines are provided in Part 3, as an introduction and a supplement to the APA style manual. The APA style manual is students’ main source of form and style information when writing their dissertation. References to APA style in this edition of the Dissertation Guidebook reflect the sixth edition of the APA style manual. When the university has style preferences for dissertations that supersede APA guidelines, those preferences are indicated in green boxes in this guidebook. Frequently Asked Questions. Part 4 of this guidebook includes a series of frequently asked questions regarding the dissertation process as well as form and style issues. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 3 Part 1. The Dissertation Process The processes for dissertations are continually evaluated and updated to make the experience easy for both faculty members and students. The steps are detailed in this guidebook. A shorter description of the dissertation process and relevant forms can be found on the Office of Student Research Administration (OSRA) section of the Walden University website. Process Overview If students wish to graduate in a specific term, they must plan their program carefully. They should begin planning for program completion at least 13 months in advance of their anticipated graduation date. The table below provides a quick summary of the steps involved in completing the dissertation. The following sections describe these steps in more detail. Step Description Premise The dissertation premise is a short document that identifies a preliminary topic for the dissertation and supports formation of the dissertation supervisory committee. The students’ primary goal for the premise is to narrow their dissertation topic to provide a general sense of the direction of their research. Committee Assignment At this time, students are assigned their dissertation supervisory committee, following the steps outlined for their program of study. The committee will consist of a committee chair and a second committee member who provide guidance related to the content and research methods appropriate to the study. After approval of the prospectus, students are assigned a third member serving in the role of the university research reviewer, URR (if not assigned at committee formation). Prospectus The dissertation prospectus builds on the premise by helping students organize, delineate, and make decisions regarding their dissertation and appropriate research style. The prospectus serves as an agreed-upon plan for developing the proposal and finalizes the structure of the dissertation supervisory committee. The supervisory committee uses the Dissertation Prospectus Rubric to give feedback on the prospectus. If the committee approves, the prospectus will then move to the program director for review. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 4 Step Description Proposal Development The first three chapters of a dissertation are known as the dissertation proposal. The proposal establishes the rationale for conducting the study, including a review and analysis of the relevant literature, and describes the design and methodology that will be used for the study. Students work with their supervisory committee to develop the proposal, consulting the specific university-approved dissertation checklist for specific guidance on the content and organization of the dissertation and the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric indicators that will be used to evaluate the dissertation. When ready, students complete a self-evaluation using the dissertation checklist and a Turnitin report and submit these documen ts with their proposal for committee review, via Taskstream, under Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis. (Note: The dissertation chair may complete a separate Turnitin report, which is submitted to the URR for review along with the dissertation checklist and proposal). Students’ committee members, including the URR, evaluate the proposal against the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric, referring to the annotated checklist that students provide for detailed guidance, when needed. The committee members also review the Turnitin report. Proposal University Research Review When the supervisory committee is satisfied that the proposal meets all the requirements specified in the minimum standards rubric, the chair reconciles the Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis as approved and uploads the clean proposal, checklist, and Turnitin report to the reconciliation. The URR reviews the proposal, again using the minimum standards rubric, including items relevant to content, methodology, form and style, and ethical procedures. The URR either approves the proposal, which enables the student to set up an oral conference, or returns the proposal with a set of suggested revisions. The URR enters his or her review under Proposal URR Rubric Analysis. Students work with their committee to make any requested revisions. Proposal Oral Presentation Following URR approval, students orally present the proposal to their committee via teleconference scheduled with OSRA. Requests must be made at least 1 week in advance of the meeting. This presentation is used to confirm students’ plans for their research, clarify any remaining questions that committee members may have regarding the study, and help ensure that students initiate their research from a sound foundation. After the proposal has been successfully defended, the chair enters the approval under Proposal Oral Presentation and uploads the clean approved proposal. Note: Walden provides a conference call service for the oral defense that is toll-free for most countries outside the United States. Students living in areas outside this coverage are responsible for toll charges associated with this call. IRB Approval Walden’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews each study conducted by Walden students to determine if the anticipated benefits of the study outweigh the risks associated with participation in it. While developing their proposal, students review the Research Ethics Planning Worksheet and take part in IRB Office Hours if any questions arise from the worksheet.. After the proposal has received final approval following the presentation, students receive a notice from OSRA to submit their formal application directly to the IRB. Note: No data may be collected until IRB approval is granted. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 5 Step Description Dissertation Completion Following IRB approval, students can collect and analyze their data and report their finding s, complete the remaining chapters of their dissertation, and prepare the abstract. They complete a self-evaluation of the remaining chapters in the dissertation checklist as well as make any needed updates to the proposal chapters so that dissertation reflects the most recent understanding of the information. Students also complete another Turnitin report. Students submit their clean dissertation, checklist, and Turnitin report under Final Study Committee Rubric Analysis for the committee review. Note: The dissertation chair may again complete a separate Turnitin report, which is submitted to the URR for review along with the dissertation. Dissertation University Research Review When the supervisory committee is satisfied that the full dissertation draft , including the abstract, meet all the requirements specified in the minimum standards rubric, the chair reconciles the Final Study Committee Rubric Analysis as approved and uploads the clean dissertation, checklist, and Turnitin report. The URR then reviews the dissertation and abstract, again using the minimum standards rubric, including items relevant to content, analyses, reporting and interpreting results, form and style, and ethical issues related to reporting results. The URR either approves the dissertation and abstract, which enables the student to continue to the Form and Style review, or returns the documents with a set of suggested revisions. The URR enters his or her review under Final Review – URR Rubric Analysis. Students work with their committee to make any requested revisions. Form and Style Review After URR approval of the dissertation and abstract, an editor conducts a Form and Style review. Students must address the editor’s revisions and suggestions. Oral Defense Teleconference After receipt of the Form and Style review, students present their dissertation via teleconference scheduled with OSRA. Requests must be made at least 1 week in advance of the meeting. This final oral defense is a formal discussion of the scholarly content of the dissertation, followed by an evaluation of the dissertation. At this point, students may need to revise the dissertation based on feedback during the teleconference as well as from the Form and Style review. When the call is completed, the chair enters his or her review of the call under Final Oral Presentation. Final Quality Committee Review After successful completion of the oral defense, students must submit their dissertation (with all changes made and no track changes showing) under Final Overall Quality Committee Rubric Analysis for the formal committee review. The committee members ensure that the Form and Style edits were completed and review the final abstract for compliance with university standards and quality. Committee members complete their reviews and, if the dissertation is ready to go to the URR, the chair must reconcile Final Overall Quality Committee Rubric Analysis as approved and upload the clean approved dissertation to the approved reconciliation. Final Quality University Research Review The URR ensures that the Form and Style edits were completed and reviews the final abstract for compliance with university standards and quality. The URR enters the review under Final Overall Quality URR Rubric Analysis. If approved, the URR uploads the clean approved dissertation. Chief Academic Officer Review After final URR approval, the abstract is sent to the university’s chief academic officer (CAO) or designee as a final endorsement of the study. Revisions may be required at this point, and these changes are facilitated through consultation with the chair and others. Upon CAO approval, the dissertation is officially completed. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 6 Step Description ProQuest Submission To graduate from Walden University, students must submit their dissertation to ProQuest for indexing. After this submission has been approved, students have completed all the graduation requirements for the dissertation and their degree can be validated. Beginning the Process Students begin the dissertation phase of their program by completing their premise and then prospectus; they receive the first two members of the dissertation committee: a chair and a second committee member. Students can find more guidance in the Starting the Dissertation Process document and in the Dissertation Premise Guide and Dissertation Prospectus Guide. More detailed information on the committee can be found in the Dissertation Committee Process document. These documents, forms, and additional supporting resources can be found on the OSRA section of Walden’s Center for Research Quality website. Developing the Premise Students’ first step to completing the dissertation is developing the dissertation premise. This document is used to identify a preliminary topic for the research and to help identify the faculty members who will guide development of the dissertation prospectus. Students can find more information in the Dissertation Premise Guide. The premise consists of four parts: title, problem statement, approach for the study, and references. An annotated outline and sample premise are included in the guide and can be used to help create the premise document. The primary goal of students for the premise is to narrow the dissertation topic to provide a general sense of the direction of the research. The foundation for quality in every dissertation is a research question that reflects a high level of conceptual manipulation and a significant and original contribution to knowledge or professional practice. A brief litmus test of a doctoral-level research problem can be found in the Dissertation Premise Guide as well as on the Research Resources page of Walden’s Center for Research Quality website. These basic indicators appear throughout the dissertation process. Every doctoral student’s journey is a little different, so it is difficult to say exactly when to start the premise. All students should check their program of study and consult with the Academic Advising Team. In general, however, because the premise is used to form their supervisory committee, students should plan to start the premise toward completion of their core research sequence and at least two quarters before beginning the dissertation prospectus, either in a companion or dissertation course or a research forum (e.g., SBSF 7100, EDUC 8800). In the quarter prior to starting their prospectus, students submit their premise to their faculty mentor or course instructor (some education students submit the premise to their specialization coordinator, so please check your program’s processes for specific instructions). Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 7 Note: The premise is used to help students form their dissertation supervisory committee, but students will confirm their committee structure and finalize their topic at the end of the prospectus development process. Supervisory Committee The dissertation supervisory committee is a unique feature of doctoral education. The primary goal of the committee is to provide students with the guidance and support that they need to conduct an independent research project of the highest quality and relevancy. Walden dissertation supervisory committees are generally composed of three members: a committee chair, a committee member, and a university research reviewer (URR). In some rare cases, a fourth, external (non-Walden) member may be added to the committee to provide special expertise. A few guidelines are used to shape committee formation. Between the chair and second member, someone must be designated as the context expert and someone as the methodologist; one person cannot be designated for both roles. The dissertation chair must be from the students’ program. As some academic programs have further requirements for chairing a dissertation committee, students should confirm with an advisor and/or the proposed chair that he or she is eligible to chair the committee. Students should also be mindful of any department-mandated core courses, pertinent residencies, and prerequisites that must be completed prior to committee formation. Committee Formation: Programs support you in the committee assignment process and ensure that you have committee members who match your research study content area and methods design. Programs have specific approaches for establishing committee assignments for students. Please contact your program director or program coordinator directly for any questions related to committee formation in your program. Note: An approved chair is effective at the start of the following quarter, whereas a committee member may become effective immediately, depending on when final approval is given to the committee. Writing the Prospectus The dissertation prospectus builds on the premise and provides more information about the dissertation research. Writing the prospectus helps students organize, delineate, and make decisions regarding their topic and appropriate research style. An approved prospectus serves as an agreed-upon plan for developing the proposal and finalizes the structure of the dissertation supervisory committee. The Dissertation Prospectus Guide provides more details on the document and process. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 8 The prospectus consists of several small sections, which are detailed in the annotated outline in the Dissertation Prospectus Guide. The goal for the prospectus is to create a plan for developing the dissertation proposal. Therefore, a student needs to have more information for the prospectus than for the premise but does not need to know all the specific details of the study that will ultimately be conducted. That remaining work will occur when the proposal is written. The final draft of the prospectus is assessed against the quality indicators in the Dissertation Prospectus Rubric. Depending on the academic program, some students work with their chair in a companion course that supports prospectus development. Students in Knowledge Area Module (KAM)-based programs work on their prospectus in a Research Forum (e.g., EDUC 8800, SBSF 7100) with their faculty mentor, who is now their committee chair. Other students may start their prospectus in a course led by a senior member of the faculty in their area before moving into a dissertation completion course with their chair. Yet other students may directly work with their chair in a dissertation course, during which they complete the prospectus. Students should check their program of study to know which path they will follow. Like the proposal and dissertation, for which students will receive feedback on working drafts, prospectus development is an iterative process. When the prospectus is completed, students should follow the submission guidelines for their program. Generally, students submit a final prospectus to their dissertation supervisory committee for review after completion of the core research sequence but before taking any advanced research courses, and • as required in the students’ dissertation course, if students are currently enrolled in this course; • toward the end of their time in a companion course, following the guidance of the chair; or • prior to beginning the dissertation proposal in a Research Forum (e.g., EDUC 8800, SBSF 7100), following the guidance of the chair. Registering for Credits Students enrolled in a KAM-based program (PhD in Education or Management) are automatically placed in a Research Forum (e.g., EDUC 8800, SBSF 7100) with the chair of their dissertation supervisory committee. Students cannot register for this course themselves; they are registered by their academic advisors after the appointment of their dissertation chair is confirmed. Students remain registered in the Research Forum until successful completion of the dissertation. The Office of the Registrar assigns all 20 dissertation credits when the final academic audit is complete. Students enrolled in a course-based program (PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision, Criminal Justice, Education, Health Education and Promotion, Health Services, Human and Social Services, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Management, Nursing, Psychology, Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 9 Public Health, Public Policy and Administration, or Social Work) must register for a total of 20 dissertation credits (exception: 12 credits for Counselor Education and Supervision). Registration for the dissertation course (specific course numbers are dependent on the program) takes place during the regular course registration period. Once registered for the first term, students are then registered automatically for the dissertation course until the dissertation is formally approved by the chief academic officer (CAO). Students enrolled in a mixed-model program (PhD in Education, Management, or Public Policy and Administration) must register for a total of 20 dissertation credits. Registration for the dissertation course (specific course numbers are dependent on the program) takes place during the regular course registration period. Once registered for the first term, students are then registered automatically for the dissertation course until the dissertation is formally approved by the CAO. Note: Students who have an approved dissertation supervisory committee may register for the dissertation course during any term in which they are working on the proposal and dissertation. Students who have only a committee chair may register for the dissertation course, but they will not be able to submit their proposal for review until they have an approved committee. All students should check the Walden University Catalog regarding their program’s prerequisites for enrolling in the dissertation course. Review Tools Checklists and Minimum Standards Rubric Walden’s dissertation checklists and rubrics are used to operationalize Walden’s Dissertation Statement. Each checklist is designed to assist students, dissertation supervisory committees, and the university’s academic leadership by providing specific guidance regarding the content and organization of the dissertation, while the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric is used to determine whether a dissertation meets Walden’s standards. Students should download the appropriate dissertation checklist when their committee and prospectus are approved. Walden’s evaluations for dissertations follow a university-approved process, as described below: • The purpose of the dissertation checklist is to guide students and dissertation supervisory committees as they work together to develop high-quality doctoral proposals and dissertations. The checklist should be shared with students early in their doctoral programs and frequently used in advisement and courses to reflect Walden’s expectations for highquality dissertations. The checklist is designed to help ensure a rigorous reporting across the common components that are used to build the dissertation. • Specific dissertation checklists have been developed for use with studies employing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-research designs. As students begin the process of Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 10 • • • • developing a proposal for the dissertation, the specific checklist that best reflects the design of the proposed dissertation study should be used. As the proposal is developed and submitted for review to the dissertation supervisory committee, each committee member should consult the most current version of the dissertation checklist for detailed guidance, and then use the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric to communicate his or her evaluations to the student, the chair, and any other members of the committee. This process of ongoing evaluation and communication continues throughout the development of the dissertation. Detailed content elements are specified in the checklist for each chapter of the dissertation. The subsections for each chapter include descriptions of substantive characteristics of the dissertation, specifically related to the scholarly quality and integrity of the document. Students annotate the page numbers where these substantive characteristics are found within the dissertation. This documentation serves three important functions: (1) It presents the general consensus of the Walden faculty regarding the specific content areas that should be addressed within each chapter of an acceptable Walden dissertation, (2) it assists students in reflecting on areas for improvement within the document, and (3) it helps guide the committee members’ review of the documents. A space for comments is provided for each chapter’s subgroup of substantive characteristics. Comments provided by the evaluator (committee member) should refer to praiseworthy aspects of the document and offer specific guidance for revision when needed. Comments should provide formative evaluation for that particular chapter and be useful to the student and other members of the dissertation supervisory committee. The spaces provided for comment are not to be used for communicating line-by-line editing of the manuscript. If the document is in need of editing, the committee member needs to comment to that effect but provide any extensive comments in a separate communication, such as comments in the document. The use of a dissertation checklist is intended to support ongoing reflection and formative feedback related to the specific subcomponents of the proposal and dissertation drafts as they are developed into a comprehensive document that is internally consistent and aligned to serve the purpose of the doctoral-level investigation. The Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric is applied by the members of the committee to verify that the substantive characteristics of the dissertation guided by the checklist have been adequately demonstrated to meet core quality standards. For the final copy of each document (either the proposal or the dissertation), there must be unanimous approval by the dissertation supervisory committee, including the URR, before the student proceeds to the oral defense (although revisions may be required following the oral defense). The checklist and minimum standards rubric aid students, along with their committee, in writing the proposal for the dissertation. All forms and rubrics can be downloaded from the Center for Research Quality website. Rubrics should be downloaded from the site for each study being evaluated to ensure the most recent version is employed in the review. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 11 Caution: It is advisable to clear temporary files from the Internet browser before downloading any official documents from the website. This will prevent reopening older versions of a document that still reside in temporary files on the computer. MyDR My Doctoral Research (MyDR), which includes the Taskstream application, is a tool that allows students to submit all research documents into a central online location for faculty review and feedback. MyDR gives students a visual roadmap of their progress throughout the review process. It is important to note the difference between the preliminary sections (Proposal Preliminary Development and Final Study Preliminary Development) and the formal committee review sections (Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis and Final Study Committee Rubric Analysis) in Taskstream. The preliminary sections are designed for the committee to provide feedback to students to help develop the final version of their proposal or dissertation for the formal committee review (i.e., the rubric analysis). Completing the preliminary sections does not count as the formal committee review and will not move students forward to the URR review. The preliminary sections are meant only to help students and committees communicate with each other to draft the proposal or dissertation. Students are not required to complete the preliminary sections; these sections are provided as a helpful tool only. The committee rubric analysis sections are where the formal committee reviews take place. Completing the rubric analysis sections will move students forward to the proposal or dissertation URR review. Throughout the dissertation process, the URR, Form and Style editors, and CAO or CAO’s designee generally have a 2-week time frame to complete their review. The return of dissertation drafts takes longer than other graded classroom assignments. If reviewers need a longer time to review the dissertation, they should inform the student and the committee chair should suggest activities the student can undertake during this time. Please note: Faculty members are not expected to review research drafts between terms, outside of what is required for end-of-term grading. Any research draft submitted within 5 days of the final day of the term may not receive detailed feedback until approximately 10 days into the subsequent term. If the review takes place during any of the official Walden holidays (New Year’s Day; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day; Memorial Day; Independence Day; Labor Day; Thanksgiving Day; day after Thanksgiving; or Christmas Day), the holiday will not count in the review cycle. It is important to note that MyDR, which includes a general 14-day review timeline, does not adjust for holidays and end-of-terms, so any late notices received from the workflow as a result of a holiday are not an accurate reflection of the review time frame. More detailed information on MyDR can be found on the research center’s website. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 12 Developing the Proposal The proposal consists of the first three chapters of the dissertation document and an APA-style reference list. The proposal presents a detailed plan of the proposed research for the dissertation and describes a specific idea, the related literature, and the intended research methodology. Students should consult with their committee chair early and frequently when developing the proposal. With guidance from their supervisory committee, students conceptualize a topic, organize and synthesize the literature, and determine a research methodology appropriate to the subject matter. Additional details and information on developing and writing the proposal and dissertation are found within this guidebook, on the OSRA website, and on the Walden Writing Center’s Doctoral Capstone Form and Style site, which includes helpful templates. Gaining Committee Approval of the Proposal To help clarify the research framework for the project, a student’s committee chair reviews drafts of the proposal, along with a completed Research Ethics Planning Worksheet. When satisfied that the proposal meets the university criteria outlined in the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric, the chair authorizes the student to submit the proposal and Research Ethics Planning Worksheet to the other committee member for review. After the chair has deemed that the proposal is ready, he or she will submit it for Turnitin review. At the same time, the student completes and submits a Turnitin self-evaluation to the chair, with a plan for revisions if warranted. After the chair has determined Turnitin compliance and believes the proposal is ready, the chair authorizes the student to submit the document for the formal committee review. Students must submit their proposal (after making all required changes), dissertation checklist, and Turnitin report under Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis in Taskstream. The committee members generally have 2 weeks (14 calendar days, not including holidays) to review the proposal draft and Research Ethics Planning Worksheet. Guided by the student’s annotated checklist, the second committee member uses the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric to evaluate the proposal and shares evaluations with the chair. The committee member may assist the chair in providing feedback to the student on revisions requested; committee members generally have an additional 2-week time frame within which to review each subsequent round of revisions. After both members of a student’s committee complete a minimum standards rubric reflecting that no further changes are necessary, the proposal is ready for review by the committee URR. The chair must reconcile the Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis as having “Met” the requirements and upload the approved review documents (clean proposal, checklist, and Turnitin Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 13 report) to the approved reconciliation. Then the MyDR system moves the student forward to the URR review. Gaining URR Approval of the Proposal The URR must enter his or her review under Proposal URR Rubric Analysis. Informed by the student’s annotated dissertation checklist, the URR completes an initial review of the proposal using the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric, including items relevant to content, methodology, form and style, and ethical procedures. At this stage, if needed, the URR can refer the student for mandatory consultation with the IRB office or the Writing Center to address ethical or writing concerns, respectively. The URR is obligated to make these referrals should he or she note significant ethical or writing concerns. If the URR returns the proposal for revisions, the MyDR system will move the student back to Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis. The committee works with the student to make the requested revisions. When the chair believes that the URR revisions have been made, the student must submit the revised work under Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis. That stage must be completed again before a new URR review can take place. The URR then reviews the revised materials. This process continues until the URR approves the proposal as meeting university criteria outlined in the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric. After URR approval under Proposal URR Rubric Analysis, the student can commence with the oral defense. Proposal Oral Presentation After the URR enters his or her approval under Proposal URR Rubric Analysis, the MyDR system notifies the student, committee, and OSRA about that approval to move forward in the process. After everyone is notified, the proposal oral presentation may commence. The student presents the proposal via teleconference with the committee members. The URR does not participate in the proposal oral presentation unless there are compelling reasons that necessitate the URR’s attendance. The oral presentation is a formal discussion of the proposal to identify any concerns to be addressed in the final version of the proposal or issues that may arise as the student moves forward with the dissertation. The teleconference is led by the committee chair. Note: Walden provides a conference call service for the oral defense that is toll-free for most countries outside the United States. Students living in areas outside this coverage are responsible for toll charges associated with this call. The proposal oral presentation must be recorded. Instructions are provided to the committee chair for starting and terminating the recording. Teleconferences are made public within the Walden University community; the e-mailed reservation includes instructions regarding a privacy option. Upon request, the research service specialist can e-mail a link to the recording of the conference within 72 hours of holding the call. Recordings of teleconference calls are archived for 30 days. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 14 Scheduling the Teleconference To schedule the teleconference, students should identify several commonly available dates and times among those participating in the teleconference (i.e., student and committee members). That information should be forwarded to the committee chair who will then use the Conference Call Reservation form (located on the Walden website) to submit the request to OSRA to reserve the date and time that is convenient for the participants. Note: Reservation forms must be submitted at least 1 week prior to the teleconference date requested. A confirmation of the request is sent to all participants with instructions for calling in at the appointed date and time. Before the call, students should ask the chair to clarify any expectations of the content of the conference call, if necessary. The call information is found on the student MyDR web landing page. Oral Presentation Outcome If the committee believes that the student did not pass the proposal oral presentation, the chair must enter “Not Met” under Proposal Oral Presentation. The MyDR system will then notify OSRA about the outcome, prompting OSRA to clear the Proposal Oral Presentation section and advise the student and committee to schedule a second proposal oral presentation. The student does not have to submit the updated proposal in MyDR if the committee determines that the student did not successfully complete the oral defense. If the committee believes that the student did pass the proposal oral presentation, the chair must enter “Met” under Proposal Oral Presentation and upload the clean approved proposal. Once the approval has been entered, the MyDR system will process the approval overnight. Getting Approval for Research Approval from Walden’s IRB prior to beginning any research is required of all students, faculty members, and staff members who undertake research studies, including a dissertation, that grow out of their affiliation with the university or that involve interviewing, surveying, testing, treating, and/or experimentally manipulating human participants or archival data on human subjects. All researchers, including students, can download the current version of the IRB application and instructions from the Research Ethics and Compliance section of Walden’s Center for Research Quality website. The IRB reviews all students’ applications and determines if their proposed research complies with accepted ethical standards. Walden does not accept responsibility or liability for research conducted without the IRB’s approval, and the university will not accept or grant credit for student work where the student has failed to comply with its policies and procedures related to ethical standards in research. Note: A repeat of the proposal URR process can be required by the Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 15 committee, the IRB, or the CAO at any time if ethical or pragmatic concerns necessitate substantial revisions to a URR-approved proposal. The Purpose of the IRB The IRB is primarily concerned with ensuring ethical practice and protection of participants in all studies, particularly those involving • protected classes (e.g., children, elderly, prisoners, or cognitively and/or mentally impaired individuals); • potential challenges identifying subjects or obtaining informed consent; • deception of subjects; • potential coercion; or • sensitive data collection topics or methods that require extra privacy protections. The IRB’s purpose is to evaluate proposed data collection procedures to ensure that the risk to subjects is minimized or eliminated and that the study complies with commonly accepted ethical principles for human subject research. The IRB’s authority is consultative to the CAO, or designee, with regard to the approval of proposed research studies. IRB Application Process Students may not initiate data collection until they receive written (e-mail) notification from the IRB of approval to conduct research. This prohibition includes all aspects of data collection, including recruitment of subjects; advertising; mailing or distributing consent forms; interviewing; surveying; data gathering; and so on. After their proposal has received final approval, students receive a notice from OSRA to submit the formal IRB application that is posted on the IRB website. The IRB works with students to ascertain that all necessary materials and partner site approvals have been submitted. The IRB has the authority to require revision of students’ requests, to ensure compliance with the university’s policy on ethical standards in research. Note: Data collected without IRB review and approval cannot be included in the dissertation. Prohibited activities conducted prior to IRB approval do not fall under the legal protection of the university. Completing the Dissertation After the IRB application has been approved, students can conduct their research, collect and analyze the data, report their findings, and draw their conclusions. With the guidance of their Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 16 committee, students write Chapters 4 and 5 of the dissertation as well as the dissertation abstract. At this time, students should also make any needed updates to the proposal chapters so that dissertation reflects the most recent understanding of the information. Required Data Storage Students are required to maintain all raw data—interview tapes, spreadsheets, questionnaire results, and so forth—for no less than 5 years upon completion of their dissertation. For safekeeping, students should store copies of data in two different locations. Reporting the Findings Committee guidance and requirements can vary as to the best way to report findings. For example, some committees ask students to place lengthy portions of interviews—raw data—in Chapter 4 of the dissertation. Other committees request that interview transcripts appear in an appendix; still others do not require raw data to be included in the dissertation at all but ask that interview notes and tapes be kept in a secure location for later review, if necessary. Students should follow their committee members’ suggestions and requirements in presenting and analyzing the data. As is often the case in scholarship—and most forms of writing, students must first weigh the needs of the audience and publisher with their own, because no two situations are alike. Thus, when reporting their research, students should be concerned less with prescribed rules and more with (a) accuracy and integrity, (b) protection of confidential sources, and (c) ease of reading; however, students will need to adhere to rules related to APA formatting. Several common issues related to confidentiality, interviews, and participant and/or observer notes bear mentioning. Confidentiality of Sources Research participants to protect the privacy identity is not always research sites that all are never identified in a dissertation and site identities are typically masked of individuals who provided data (though completely masking the site’s possible). Students are obligated to inform participants and managers of Walden dissertations enter the public arena. How students refer to anonymized locales and participants can vary. The reader should know the part of the world (i.e., region) where the research took place but naming the city is not typical. Students should introduce the pseudonym for an organization with a sentence such as the following: To ensure confidentiality, the facility will be referred to as XYZ Medical Clinic throughout this dissertation. Students may refer to participants as Participant 1 or P1, by any other logical abbreviation, or by a pseudonym. Students should inform their readers in the narrative if pseudonyms will be used throughout. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 17 For more information about maintaining confidentiality, students should contact the IRB office at irb@mail.waldenu.edu. Integrity and Accuracy A predetermined bias by some writers leads almost invariably to selective use of quotations to support their position. However, as a scholarly researcher, students are obligated to report findings as completely, accurately, and objectively as possible, lest the integrity of the narrative be compromised. The reader expects that the speaker’s actual words are reported and portrayed in an honest context, including judicious use of blatant grammatical errors and vulgar language. Students should be prepared to negotiate with the committee and the study participants and stakeholders what the word judicious implies. Use an ellipsis to show that some words have been deleted or brackets to indicate that words have been changed or added. If a substantial portion of an interview is deleted or changed, paraphrase that section of the interview. Students should refer to the APA style manual for more details about maintaining the accuracy of quotations. Formatting Interview Transcripts In many qualitative dissertations, portions of interview transcripts appear in the narrative, particularly in Chapter 4. Although students should follow their committee members’ guidance regarding reporting and analysis of data, students should remember that an important goal is to help the reader navigate the text. As such, writers must be consistent and try to format the text with the reader in mind. APA’s 40-word rule for quotations may be helpful here: If an interview excerpt is 40 words or longer, the transcript should be set off in block form. (The Crediting Sources section provides more detail on formatting quotations.) Establishing a consistent pattern whereby all transcript segments are set off in block form may be helpful. The committee may require a listing of all interview dates. Here too, students have choices, depending on how the integrity of the transcriptions is established, while also aiding the reader during what can become a tedious journey. Citing specific dates for each interview may seem obtrusive. Some writers offer in the narrative a summary statement of this sort: Unless otherwise noted, all interviews took place between May 1, 2015, and May 21, 2015. If complete transcripts are in an appendix, students could list the actual dates of the interviews. The following narrative represents one way to handle these tasks: Ms. T., a 30-year-old woman who said she needed “welfare” because of an “emergency,” described the atmosphere in the food stamp office as “cold, dreary, and uninviting.” When pressed, Ms. T.’s face became red, revealing the anger that Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 18 underscored her words: I do not see why I should be treated like a criminal when I seek assistance in a time of need. Them workers act like they are doing you a big . . . favor by pulling up your case file. Lord knows that food stamp office is the last place I want to be, waiting 4 hours to talk to my caseworker and then just hearing all that [nonsense]. The segment included information about the source of the quotation, placed unobtrusively in the writer’s introductory paragraph, which led into a smooth transition to the interview excerpt. In some instances, it may be effective to include several excerpts from an interview transcript. This should be done with purpose, when it is necessary to present elements of a discussion; for example, a back-and-forth exchange between participants in a focus group or the researcher and a participant (as opposed to a quotation from a single participant). When including an excerpt from a transcript, again only when necessary, format the excerpt by indenting the first line of text 0.5 in., but use a hanging indent for the second line of text from each speaker. This will help the reader track the different speakers. For example: Focus group participants were divided in their responses to RQ4 and openly disagreed with one another. This transcript excerpt is one example of several instances where participants presented contradictory information, even regarding experiences with the same managers: Interviewer: So, what you’re saying is that your managers do not enforce the policy? Participant 1: No, my manager does not. She has instructed us to go with our Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 19 gut on some of these issues and doesn't want to follow any formal rules. Each situation may be different. Participant 2: I would actually say the opposite. My manager does not want us to take any actions that are not supported by the written rules of the policy. We need to be able to defend our actions, and we need the policy to back that up. Participant 3: That’s funny [Participant 2], because I have the same manager, and I actually had him tell me the opposite once. He asked me to do something that was against policy but to keep it quiet. Participant and/or Observer Field Notes First-person point of view may be used as appropriate, as guided by APA and as discussed on the Writing Center website. Committee Review The committee chair reviews preliminary drafts of the complete dissertation manuscript. When satisfied that the manuscript sufficiently meets university criteria, the chair authorizes the student to submit the document through MyDR for review. After the chair has deemed that the dissertation is ready, he or she may submit it for Turnitin review. At the same time, the student must complete and submit a Turnitin self-evaluation to the chair, with a plan for revisions if warranted. After the chair has determined Turnitin compliance and believes the dissertation is ready, the chair authorizes the student to continue the process through MyDR. Students must submit their clean dissertation, dissertation checklist, and Turnitin report under Final Review Committee Rubric Analysis for the formal committee review. Committee members generally have 2 weeks (not including holidays) to evaluate the dissertation. If committee members need a longer time to review the dissertation, they should inform the student and suggest activities the student can undertake during this time. Guided by the student’s annotated dissertation checklist, the second committee member uses the Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 20 Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric to share evaluations with the committee chair. The second member may assist the chair in providing feedback to the student on further revisions requested; an additional 14 calendar days are allotted to committee members for each subsequent round of revisions. After the chair and committee member have entered their individual reviews, the chair must reconcile the Final Review Committee Rubric Analysis as “Met” and upload the approved review documents (clean dissertation, checklist, and Turnitin report) to the approved reconciliation. Then the system moves the dissertation forward to the URR review. Gaining URR Approval of the Dissertation The URR must enter his or her review under Final Review URR Rubric Analysis. Informed by the student’s annotated checklist, the URR reviews the full dissertation (primarily focusing on Chapters 4 and 5) and the abstract, using the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric, including items relevant to content, analyses, reporting and interpreting results, form and style, and ethical issues related to reporting results. (Again, the URR can refer students for mandatory consultation with the IRB office or the Writing Center to address ethical or writing concerns, respectively.) If the URR returns the dissertation for revisions, the MyDR system moves the student back to Final Study Committee Rubric Analysis. When the chair believes that the URR revisions have been made, the student must submit the revised work under Final Study Committee Rubric Analysis. That review stage must be completed again before a new URR review can take place. This process continues until the URR approves the dissertation to move forward. After the URR provides approval, the dissertation moves forward to the Form and Style review. Optional Pre-Oral Teleconference At the request of the URR or committee chair, an optional pre-oral conference can be scheduled to discuss recommendations of the URR and reach agreement about changes that are necessary before the oral defense of the dissertation. It is recommended that the pre-oral conference be held if the URR has raised serious concerns and/or if the committee requests the opportunity for discussion and clarification. The purpose of the pre-oral conference is to prevent multiple submissions and reviews of the dissertation and thus facilitate the process of completion. Note: A pre-oral conference will not be recorded. Scheduling the Optional Pre-Oral Teleconference Once the URR enters his or her approval under Final Study URR Rubric Analysis, the MyDR system notifies the student, committee, and OSRA about that approval. Once everyone is notified, the pre-oral conference may commence. To schedule the teleconference, students should identify several commonly available dates and times among those participating in the teleconference. That information should be forwarded to the committee chair who will then use the Conference Call Reservation form (which is located on the Walden site) to submit the Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 21 request to OSRA to reserve the date and time that is convenient for the participants. Note: Reservation forms must be submitted at least 1 week prior to the teleconference date requested. A confirmation of the request will be sent to all participants with instructions for calling in at the appointed date and time. Before the call, students should ask the chair to clarify any expectations of the content of the conference call, if necessary. Form and Style Review A dissertation goes to Form and Style review before the final oral presentation. The editor generally has up to 2 weeks to review the document: The review cycle begins the day after submission. Manuscripts are reviewed in the order in which they are received, and turnaround varies by the volume of submitted dissertations, which increases at commencement deadlines. Submissions that are missing any basic required component (e.g., abstract, reference list) or that still contain editing marks from previous reviewers may be returned by the editor as incomplete and not ready for review until the appropriate items are included and comments or edits from previous reviewers have been addressed and no tracked changes are present. In these cases, the manuscript is returned for additional work, and the student and committee are notified as to next steps. The 14 calendar days afforded the editor for the review does not begin until the editor receives a complete and clean document. Note: Dissertation documents must be submitted for the Form and Style review as a single Microsoft Word document. Form and style guidelines are found in Part 3 of this guidebook. Outcome of the Form and Style Review After the dissertation has been submitted for the Form and Style review, students may work with their chair to schedule their oral defense. Students may collect convenient dates and times for their dissertation teleconference while their paper is being reviewed; however, the teleconference may not be scheduled or held until after the paper has been received back from the Form and Style review. Therefore, students should not attempt to schedule an oral defense within the 2week time frame afforded the editor to complete the review. The oral conference should be scheduled to take place no sooner than the day following the due date of the Form and Style review. Upon receipt of the completed Form and Style review and in consultation with the committee chair, students must address the Form and Style editor’s revisions and suggestions. If questions concerning academic integrity arise as a result of the review, the Form and Style editor contacts the committee chair, URR, and program director with his or her concerns. Refer to the guidelines in the Walden University Student Handbook concerning academic integrity. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 22 Oral Defense The oral defense is a formal discussion of the scholarly content of the dissertation and an evaluation of the paper. Students present their full dissertation via a required teleconference with their committee members. The teleconference is led by the committee chair. All committee members except the URR are required to participate in the oral defense. Walden provides a conference call service for the oral defense that is toll-free for most countries outside the United States. Students living in areas outside this coverage are responsible for toll charges associated with this call. The oral defense may commence only after the committee members have reviewed the current draft of the student’s dissertation and have reached consensus as to its level of development by using the guidelines of the Dissertation Minimum Standards Rubric. The teleconference may not be held until after the student’s paper has been received back from the Form and Style review; however, edits suggested during the Form and Style review do not have to be made before the teleconference. Note: Walden asks that both committee members receive a copy of the most recent version of the dissertation at least 3 days before the teleconference takes place. The oral defense of the dissertation must be recorded. Instructions are provided to the committee chair for starting and terminating the recording. Teleconferences are made public within the Walden community; the e-mailed reservation includes instructions regarding a privacy option. Upon request, the research service specialist can e-mail a link to the recording of the conference within 72 hours of holding the call. Scheduling the Teleconference Students should identify several commonly available dates and times among those participating in the teleconference (i.e., the committee members). That information should be forwarded to the committee chair, who will then use the Conference Call Reservation form (which is located on the Walden site) to submit the request to OSRA to reserve the date and time that is convenient for the participants. Note: Reservation forms must be submitted at least 1 week prior to the teleconference date requested. A confirmation of the request will be sent to all participants from the MyDR system with instructions for calling in at the appointed date and time. Prior to the call, students should ask the chair to clarify any expectations of the content of the conference call, if necessary. Oral Defense Outcome If the committee thinks that the student did not pass the final oral presentation, the chair must enter “Not Met” under Final Oral Presentation. The MyDR system then notifies OSRA about Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 23 the outcome, prompting OSRA to clear the Final Oral Presentation section and advise the student and committee to schedule a second final oral presentation. The student does not have to submit the updated dissertation in MyDR if the committee determines that the student did not successfully complete the oral defense. If the committee thinks that the student did pass the final oral presentation, the chair must enter “Met” under Final Oral Presentation and upload the clean approved dissertation. Once the approval has been entered, the MyDR system will process the approval overnight, and OSRA will send an e-mail confirming the approval and saying that the student can move forward to the final committee review under Final Overall Quality Committee Rubric Analysis. Final Approval and Submission After students receive approval of their final oral presentation, they must submit the clean dissertation under Final Overall Quality Committee Rubric Analysis. The chair and committee member must enter their individual reviews. The committee members ensure that the Form and Style edits were completed and review the final abstract for compliance with university standards and quality. If the committee believes that the dissertation is ready to go to the URR, the chair must reconcile the Final Overall Quality Committee Rubric Analysis as “Met” and upload the clean dissertation to the approved reconciliation. At this time, the URR conducts a final review to make sure all methodological, content, and writing issues have been addressed. In addition, the URR reviews the abstract to make sure it meets university guidelines. The URR conducts any additional reviews that are necessary until the final copy, including abstract, meets full approval. The URR must enter his or her review under Final Overall Quality URR Rubric Analysis. If the URR approves the documents to move forward to the CAO review, the URR must upload the clean, approved dissertation and abstract. The CAO review generally takes place within a 2-week time frame. If changes are necessary and a resubmission to the CAO is required for approval, an additional 2-week time frame is generally allotted to the CAO for each subsequent review. When the CAO grants approval, the MyDR system generates an e-mail confirming the approval and providing instructions on how to submit the dissertation to ProQuest (see next section). OSRA sends the approval page in a separate e-mail when notified about the CAO approval. ProQuest After approval from the CAO has been communicated, students receive instructions for online submission of their dissertation to ProQuest. ProQuest produces microfilms or indexed database of dissertations and publishes the abstracts online and in its monthly publication, Dissertation Abstracts International. To be validated for graduation from Walden University, students must submit and have their dissertation approved to be included in ProQuest. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 24 The research service specialist completes one last Form and Style check on the submitted document to ensure that it conforms to APA formatting. The dissertation may be sent back to students for requested revisions if errors are found. Here are some aspects of the ProQuest process that students should keep in mind: • Students may opt to have ProQuest file an application for copyright on their behalf. If students choose this option, they must note it when completing the electronic submission form. • There is no fee for inclusion of the dissertation in ProQuest if the “Traditional Publishing” option is chosen. Students are responsible for any fees related to copyright or any other services provided by ProQuest. For questions related to publishing the dissertation, students should contact ProQuest at 1-877408-5027 or visit its website. Students are notified when OSRA formally accepts their submission to ProQuest. Degree Validation After the ProQuest submission is accepted, an automated request is sent to the Office of the Registrar (graduation@mail.waldenu.edu) to complete the students’ final audits and validate their degrees. Students will know the audit is complete when they receive their final bill from the bursar’s office. Students’ tuition charges stop as of the date they receive CAO approval of their dissertation. If students receive CAO approval within the first 7 days of a term, they are not charged tuition for that term. If students receive approval later in the term, they will be charged prorated tuition. Students who want to participate in the summer commencement ceremony must have their dissertation approved no later than the last business day of the spring term. Students who want to participate in the winter commencement ceremony must have their dissertation approved no later than the last business day of the fall term. Note: Students are not automatically registered for commencement. If students want to attend a commencement ceremony, they must register. Survey of Earned Doctorates Upon acceptance of the ProQuest submission, the OSRA sends students the Survey of Earned Doctorates. They should complete this survey from the link provided in the e-mail. The National Science Foundation and four other agencies sponsor the Survey of Earned Doctorates. The purpose of this survey is to evaluate graduate education programs at the federal, state, and university levels. By submitting the completed survey to Walden, students add to the Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 25 university’s visibility among national graduate institutions. Completion of the survey is not required, but it is strongly encouraged. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Walden University regards academic honesty to be essential to the entire academic enterprise and treats academic integrity violations very seriously. No student shall claim credit for another’s work or accomplishments or use another’s ideas in a written paper or presentation without appropriate attribution through proper documentation. The consequences of plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to providing false information or altering documents submitted to the university, are discussed in the Walden University Student Handbook. (Select the handbook from the drop-down menu, then select “Section 3. Student Expectations and Responsibilities,” followed by “Student Conduct and Responsibilities” and “Code of Conduct.”) The Crediting Sources section of this guidebook provides more information regarding plagiarism. For a detailed discussion of the ethics of scholarly writing, Chapter 1 of the APA style manual is another resource. Walden uses a service provided by Turnitin.com to check manuscripts for plagiarism. Any content that may not have been cited or appropriately paraphrased and synthesized will be further examined, which may slow completion of the dissertation process. A Turnitin and Academic Integrity Online Tutorial on the Academic Skills Center website provides instructions on how to identify and avoid plagiarism. Walden understands that progression through the dissertation process can be a demanding endeavor and that students can find themselves feeling stressed or frustrated. Nonetheless, the university expects that students will continue to maintain a high level of professionalism when communicating with their committee, academic leadership, and staff. Behavior that is not consistent with the university’s expectations may result in a Code of Conduct referral. Students are encouraged to respond appropriately to constructive feedback and follow up unresolved concerns by seeking assistance from their academic leadership. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Page 26 Part 2. Evaluation in MyDR The following three tables present all the dissertation supervisory committee members’ duties at each evaluation stage of the document, using the MyDR process. Proposal Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis and Proposal URR Rubric Analysis Chair Evaluati on Upon student submission, the chair evaluates the proposal under Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis. If scored as requirements “Not Met,” the chair returns the proposal to the student without input from the second committee member. Second Member Evaluati on Upon the chair’s evaluation of “Met,” the second member completes an evaluation under Proposal Committee Rubric Analysis. If scored as requirements “Met,” the proposal is evaluated by the second committee member. Dissertation Guidebook (January 2018) Chair Reconciliation Following the second member’s evaluation, the chair reconciles the committee evaluati...
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