Thesis

Thesis

The thesis comprises an original investigation, including a written document on a subject approved by a departmental or interdepartmental graduate committee prior to the beginning of the research. Thesis credit cannot be granted for work done prior to registration as a graduate student at the Institute nor for work initiated without prior approval by the department of registration. The thesis must be completed while in residence, except as noted below.

A thesis may not be presented on research work done at the Institute while on academic, administrative, research staff appointment, or hourly payroll at MIT (including Lincoln Laboratory), the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, or other affiliated research entities. Supervision by a faculty member of the Institute or a staff member approved by the department is a fixed requirement for doctoral, engineer’s, and master’s theses. Preliminary plans for pursuing an approved thesis may be required by thesis supervisors according to the requirements and time schedules of the departments. A thesis supervisor may, at his or her discretion, require progress reports in oral or written form as deemed necessary. Before the final written document is submitted, a draft may be required for editorial comment. An oral examination of the doctoral thesis will be held after the thesis has been submitted. The thesis process is not complete until the thesis document is signed, and therefore accepted formally, by the department.

Joint theses

Each thesis should contain the original contributions of a single student. In certain circumstances, collaborative research leading to a joint thesis may be advantageous in a master’s degree program. Such collaborative research must have the approval of both the departmental graduate committee or committees involved and the Dean for Graduate Education. It is expected that each individual submitting a joint thesis will receive a single degree.

Restrictions on thesis publication

Thesis research should be undertaken in light of MIT’s policy of open research and the free interchange of information. Openness requires that, as a general policy, thesis research should not be undertaken on campus when the results may not be published. From time to time, there may be good reason for delaying the distribution of a thesis to obtain patent protection, or for reasons of privacy or security. To assure that only those theses that meet certain criteria are withheld from distribution, and that they are withheld for the minimum period, the Dean for Graduate Education has established specific review procedures (see Thesis hold below).

Written notification of patent holds and other restrictions must reach the Institute Archives before the thesis in question; as under normal circumstances, all theses are open and available for public inspection once they have been received by the Institute Archives.

Patent protection

When MIT holds the rights to any intellectual property contained in a thesis, students and their advisors must work with the MIT Technology Licensing Office to determine if a patent application is to be filed. If so, the Technology Licensing Office will on rare occasions request a delay in publishing by notifying the Institute Archives, and the thesis will be withheld from distribution for up to one year. If an extension to this original period is required, application must be made to the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost. If approved, the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost will inform the Institute Archives in writing of the extension. The Technology Licensing Office will inform the Institute Archives as soon as the thesis can be released.

When a student holds the rights to the intellectual property contained in his or her own thesis, application must be made to the Dean for Graduate Education for permission to withhold a thesis. If granted, the Dean will inform the Institute Archives, and the thesis will be withheld from circulation for a period of three months. If an extension to this original period is required, application must be made to the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost.

Government restrictions

The Committee on Graduate Programs recognizes that certain government agencies which sponsor research may require that theses be submitted for security review before they can be placed in the MIT Libraries or published. In the event that the agency does not permit immediate public disclosure of a thesis, this does not preclude its acceptance, but the Dean for Graduate Education will appoint a special subcommittee of the Committee on Graduate Programs to determine what steps can be taken to ensure eventual publication. A student should not embark on such a thesis without prior approval.

Privacy and security

Occasionally, on completing a thesis, a student may feel that its distribution will jeopardize the privacy or safety of the author, other individuals, or companies. If the thesis cannot be rewritten to remove the problematic material, the author and supervisor should submit the thesis to the director of their graduate program who will prepare a recommendation to the Dean for Graduate Education in consultation with the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost. The Dean will advise the Institute Archives in writing of the restricted period. In all cases the restricted period will be kept to a minimum.

Thesis research in absentia

Thesis research is ordinarily done in residence at the Institute. However, on some occasions and in some fields, work such as the gathering of data away from the Institute may be essential or desirable. Approval for thesis research to be done in absentia is given in writing by the departmental graduate officer, after establishing that there are compelling educational reasons to approve thesis research in absentia. A copy of that approval must be filed in the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education.

Such approval must be requested before leaving the Institute, with ample time for full consideration by the department and/or notification of the Office of the Dean for Graduate Education.

Students must register and pay full tuition while pursuing thesis research in absentia. In unusual circumstances, the Dean may set a special tuition rate for such students.

In consultation with the Dean, departments may establish certain programs and/or locations as exempt from the individual approval procedures noted above.

The following requirements must also be met:

The opportunity for the continuing intellectual growth of the student must be clearly evident.
The thesis must continue to be supervised by an Institute faculty member, or by a senior staff member approved by the department.
The student must be registered as a full time resident during the final term.
A doctoral student must normally have completed the general examination requirement for the degree, and devote full time to thesis research in absentia.

Nonresident doctoral thesis research status

Nonresident status is intended for doctoral students who have completed all requirements other than the thesis. Thesis research is ordinarily carried out while the student is in residence at the Institute. However, on some occasions, it may be essential or desirable that the student be absent from the campus during a portion of his or her thesis research or writing. Permission to become a nonresident doctoral candidate must be obtained from the Dean for Graduate Education at least one month prior to Registration Day of the term during which the student wishes to register in this category (a fee will be assessed for late requests).

A student who is permitted to undertake nonresident thesis research must register as a nonresident doctoral candidate and pay a substantially reduced tuition. For the first three regular academic terms, tuition is approximately 5 percent of regular full tuition. Thereafter, it is charged at approximately 15 percent. The Schedule of Fees sets forth the specific tuition charges.

Nonresident students have limited access to the facilities and academic life of the Institute. However, they are permitted access to the libraries and athletic facilities and have the same student health privileges and options as resident students upon payment of the appropriate fees. For the first three semesters of nonresident status, a student may receive fellowship support from MIT for an amount up to 5 percent of tuition per semester. After the third semester, nonresident students can no longer receive fellowship support from MIT. Eligibility for federal loans and sponsored billing remain unaffected for the length of nonresident tenure.

Prior to submission, the request form must be approved by the student’s thesis supervisor and by the departmental graduate officer from the student’s department of registration. Justification for the nonresident status must be set forth in the proposal. This may include: field work or data collection; use of special or unique facilities at other laboratories; the need to accompany a thesis supervisor who transfers to another institution prior to completion of thesis research; simultaneous employment unrelated to the Institute and also unrelated to the thesis research. Arrangements must be described through which the thesis research will be supervised by a member of the faculty or a senior staff member approved by the department.

Prior to seeking approval, the student must have completed the general qualifying examinations and must have been in residence as a regular graduate student for a period of at least four regular terms (periods of residence at other educational institutions, as a special student or during the summer session at MIT may not be counted in meeting this requirement). The student must also have submitted a thesis proposal that indicates approval by the supervisor and the appropriate departmental committee. A summary of the proposal must be included with the request for nonresident status submitted to the Dean for Graduate Education.

Nonresident doctoral candidates are not eligible to reside in student housing or to be graduate resident tutors. Upon approval for nonresident status, students must terminate their current license agreements (with adherence to current poilicies) and forfeit their continuing housing status, if applicable. Students granted this status may subsequently request to be put on a waiting list and, when space is available, may be assigned housing on a semester-by-semester basis.

Should space become available after all other fully registered students have requested and have been granted an assignment on campus, Housing will then offer the nonresident candidate an available space. Students on the waiting list will be offered a space in the order of date applied. Housing will try to allow students already in graduate housing who move to nonresident status and who receive an offer from the waiting list to stay in their current location, but this is not guaranteed.

Students cannot accept employment as academic, administrative, or research staff, or as hourly employees at MIT, Lincoln Laboratory, or the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory while registered as nonresident graduate students. Initial approval for nonresident status is granted for two successive regular terms in the same academic year. Registration as a nonresident doctoral candidate is not required during the summer session unless the student is returning to resident status to complete degree requirements and submit a thesis. Continuation for two additional periods of two regular terms each may be granted by the Dean for Graduate Education if the student’s progress is satisfactory and if the thesis supervisor and the department so recommend. Generally, a maximum of six regular terms in nonresident status will be permitted. Longer periods will need written endorsement from the department of registration. Following completion of the nonresident period, the student must return to resident status for completion and presentation of the doctoral thesis. If the thesis is completed during the first term of resident status (including summer session), tuition will be prorated on a weekly basis subject to a minimum charge of one half the tuition for a regular term.

Registration must be continuous. If a student is withdrawn and then readmitted to resident status to submit a thesis and receive the doctoral degree that same term, tuition will be 1.5 times the full tuition for a regular term.

Special action by the Dean for Graduate Education is not required for thesis research in the cooperative, internship, and practice school programs in several departments of the School of Engineering. The tuition charges for these programs are set forth in the Schedule of Fees.

Preparation of graduate theses

Prior to inclusion on a degree list, copies of each accepted thesis shall be delivered to the headquarters of the department or program in which the candidate is registered. The academic department delivers the required number of copies no later than one month following the degree date to the MIT Libraries, which preserves and makes available the original andcopies of the thesis. The Institute is committed to the preservation of the student’s thesis because it is both a requirement for the MIT degree and a record of original research that contains information of continuing value. Guidance on the physical preparation of theses is described in the Specifications for Thesis Preparation, a manual published annually by the Director of Libraries as prescribed by the Committee on Graduate Programs for graduate theses. The manual specifies the number of copies to be submitted and explains the policies concerning copyright, temporary restrictions, and substitution of pages.

The technical requirements for the thesis are also explained. Specifications is available from the department offices or the Institute Archives. Each thesis submitted for an advanced MIT degree must conform to these specifications. Individual departments may dictate more stringent requirements. Individual departments, not the MIT Libraries, are responsible for the quality of the copies provided to the Institute Archives. Additional advice and assistance in thesis preparation are available from the Institute Archives.

Master’s and doctoral theses may also be submitted electronically, but the electronic version is not considered to be the official copy. Thus, a printed copy of the thesis must also be submitted. The process for electronic thesis submission is available on the website for the MIT Libraries.

Abstracts of all doctoral theses (PhD and ScD) will be submitted to University Microfilms Inc. (UMI) for inclusion in their publication Dissertation Abstracts International. A thesis processing fee is charged. Each doctoral candidate must complete the UMI form included in theSpecifications for Thesis Preparation and submit it with the archival copy of his or her thesis with an extra copy of the title page and abstract stapled to the form.

In order to permit evaluation and grading of theses, due dates for their receipt in department headquarters are published each term by the Registrar. Departmental graduate officers are responsible for ensuring that each candidate for an advanced degree has submitted an acceptable thesis document to his or her department before the final degree list is reviewed and approved by the Committee on Graduate Programs at its end-of-term meeting.

Copyright

The Institute’s policy concerning ownership of copyrights in theses is covered in Faculty Regulation 2.71. “The Institute will retain ownership of the copyrights to theses only if the thesis research is performed in whole or in part by the student with financial support in the form of wages, salary, stipend, or grant from funds administered by the Institute, and/or if the thesis research is performed in whole or in part utilizing equipment or facilities provided to the Institute under conditions that impose copyright restrictions. In all other cases, ownership of a copyright shall reside with the student.”

Students may request a waiver of the Institute’s copyrights by written application to the Institute’s Technology Licensing Office (NE25-230).

Where copyright ownership is retained by the student, the student must, as condition of a degree award, grant royalty-free permission to the Institute to reproduce and publicly distribute copies of the thesis, and must place the following legend on the thesis title page or page immediately following: “The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part.”

Where copyright is retained by the Institute, any further publication in whole or in part shall be made only with the authorization of the Technology Licensing Office, in consultation with the head of the department or program in which the student was registered when the thesis was accepted. Guidance on current copyright procedures is included in the Specifications for Thesis Preparation published each year by the MIT Libraries.

Intellectual property policy

The Institute reserves the sole right to determine the disposition of inventions and other developments by faculty, staff, students, or others, developed wholly or in part under a sponsored research or other agreement or with the significant use of Institute facilities or funds administered by the Institute. In certain circumstances, the Institute may grant these rights to a student in accordance with the provisions of the Guide to the Ownership, Distribution and Commercial Development of MIT Technology. This disposition will be in a manner which, in its opinion, and subject to restriction imposed by any contract with a sponsoring agency, will be in the best interest of the Institute, the public, and the inventors. The Institute requires all individuals who receive MIT administered funds or who are in a position to invent or develop technology using significant funds or facilities to enter into formal agreements to assign intellectual property to the Institute for ultimate disposition of rights.

For further information, a student should refer to the Office of the General Counsel, Research and Intellectual Property.

Thesis hold

In many circumstances, thesis work may offer potentially attractive business opportunities to the graduate student. A brief thesis hold allows the student to delay public access to research findings in order to pursue patent applications or explore other business opportunities associated with the work.

A request for a thesis hold must be made jointly by the student and advisor and directly to the Dean for Graduate Education via the request form. The Dean acts with power in approving thesis holds and requesting that the MIT Archives hold a thesis from public access for up to three months.

The Dean for Graduate Education will not approve a petition for thesis hold beyond three months. A request for a longer period must be reviewed and approved by the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost.

Graduate Policies & Procedures