Review Procedures
College of Sciences Guidelines for Submitting a Thesis/Dissertation for Review
Graduate students are required to submit their dissertations/theses for review by the Associate Dean's office. The manuscript must conform to the university requirements before it will receive approval by the Associate Dean.
It is the responsibility of the student, and the thesis/dissertation director, and the Graduate Program Director to ensure that the manuscript is submitted in a timely fashion and conforms to the requirements found in the ODU Thesis Prep Guide and any style manual/guide used in the student's program.
Review Package Submission
A complete thesis or dissertation review package must be submitted to cosdeansoffice@odu.edu at least three weeks prior to the ProQuest deadline from Registrar's office for the expected graduation semester. A complete review package must contain:
- a complete, clean PDF copy of the dissertation or thesis.
- a complete College of Sciences Check-In Sheet and College of Sciences Checklist.
- a PDF copy of Graduate Form M2 (Result of Master's Degree Examination or Requirement) or a PDF copy of Graduate Form D3 (Result of Ph.D. Examination or Requirement);
- a PDF copy reprint from the Model Journal;
- a PDF copy of Graduate Form M3 (Master's Thesis Acceptance and Processing), or a PDF copy of Graduate Form D5 (Doctoral Dissertation Acceptance and Processing). The copies must be complete except for the Associate Dean's signature.
Manuscript Requirements
The Dean's Office will check the thesis/dissertation for conformity to the ODU Thesis & Dissertation Prep Guide. The last numbered page of the guide lists the items that will be checked in the Dean's Office.
Students should not use old theses and dissertations as guides; if there are questions that are not addressed in the thesis/dissertation guide, students should first contact their advisor, second, their GPD and lastly, the Associate Dean's office.
Note: If there are updates made to the Guide for Preparation of Theses and Dissertations, students must follow the copy of the ODU guide that is in effect on the first day of their graduation semester. For students in the College of Sciences, changes made to the guide during a semester will not become effective until the start of the next academic semester.
Dissertation & Thesis Templates (Version 1)
COS Graduate Students:
We are rolling out version 1 of the dissertation and thesis templates in LaTeX and MS Word. Please be aware that these versions are high quality drafts and not perfect yet. Be mindful of how you use them and double check all your input.
References are in Nature format. But we use all authors and the full name of the journals. You are also required to review the University Thesis and Preparation Guide.
Please let Reeta Heard and I know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Lesley Greene, PhD
Associate Dean of Graduate Studies
College of Sciences
ODU College of Sciences LaTeX ETD Template
Welcome to the LaTeX Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) template for the College of Sciences at Old Dominion University. This template is designed to assist students in formatting their theses and dissertations according to the guidelines provided by the university. Those using this template must still abide by the guidelines and formatting requirements found in the ODU Guide for Preparation of Theses and Dissertations, last updated March 2024.
Note that using this template removes the requirement that you submit a "journal model" with your thesis or dissertation, as noted on the College of Sciences Check-in Sheet. You just need to check the box on the form that you have used the LaTeX template.
Review Process
The student will receive written feedback in the form of a review email from the COS reviewer, and copies will be sent to the student's advisor and Graduate Program Director. After the initial email, the student will send the reviewer a corrected electronic copy of their thesis/dissertation.
A final electronic copy will be checked to ensure that all requested corrections have been made. The student will then receive an email that they have successfully completed their review and that the Associate Dean will sign the original Graduate Form M3/D5.
If during the initial review significant errors or a large number of small errors are found in the manuscript, the reviewer will email the student that the thesis has too many errors for the review to continue. The student will then resubmit the review package and the process will begin again. In such a case, the student's graduation date could be delayed.