dissertation cover page university of leeds

Dissertations and Projects

Your dissertation or research project is the culmination of your course, it is an important piece of work which allows you to focus your area of interest. This page will guide you through that process as well as signposting you to the resources and documents you will need.

If you need help choosing a topic, critical thinking or structuring your work, you can use Skills@Library's online resource Dissertations: The Final Chapter , which also includes best practice student case studies.

Write and submit

If you are unsure on how to format and present your Dissertation or Project our Dissertation format regulations will help.

You can also download your Dissertation Coversheet from Forms and Guidance.

For a step by step guide on how to submit your dissertation visit our submitting assignments page.

Exceptional circumstances

If you experience significantly disruptive or unexpected events which are beyond your control and affect your ability to work on your dissertation – please contact the Student Support Team.

More information on what to do if you are experiencing personal difficulties, can be found on our Student Support pages.

Information for Taught Postgraduates

Absenses during dissertation period, attending meetings.

Taught Postgraduate students should attend all arranged Dissertation Supervision meetings. Students should make contact with their supervisor at least once every three weeks.

These meetings will take place face to face by default. A maximum of two meetings can take place online if it is agreed between the supervisor and the student.

Absence from meetings

Supervisors record your attendance at Dissertation Supervision meetings. If you miss a meeting the LUBS Attendance Team will contact you to request an explanation. If you need further support the Team can offer this as required.

Repeated failure to attend supervision meetings could have implications for Student Visa holders.

Recording an absence

If you are unable to attend a supervision meeting, you should take the following actions:

1. Submit an absence request in Minerva using the normal process

2. Inform your Dissertation Supervisor that you cannot attend the meeting.

More information about absence from the University can be found on our Attendance pages .

Risk Assessment for Fieldwork and Research away from Leeds

Off-campus fieldwork.

All students should remain in Leeds to complete their dissertation.

Before conducting any off-campus fieldwork you must first complete this health and safety questionnaire . 

Risk ratings

The University’s Health and Safety Team will review your answers and assign a risk of low, medium or high.

Low risk - you will be informed by email that no further action is required, and you will be able to conduct your fieldwork as planned.

Medium or high risk - together with your Dissertation Supervisor will be asked by the Health and Safety Team to provide some additional information about the fieldwork. You may be required to complete a Fieldwork Risk Assessment, with guidance from the Health and Safety Team

Please note that a fieldwork questionnaire and/or risk assessment only approve a student to be away from Leeds for the sole purpose of fieldwork and for the specific time period required to conduct it.

Change of Location

By registering on a Masters programme, students agree to remain in Leeds for the full 12-months .

Under exceptional circumstances it may be possible to leave Leeds early. If this applies to you, please contact the Attendance Team at [email protected] for advice. You will be required to complete a change of location form , which must be signed and approved by your Dissertation Supervisor and the LUBS Student Education Service

Forms are only accepted after 11 August - please do not submit a form before this date

International Students

By leaving Leeds early, international students may have their sponsorship withdrawn. Please contact the International Student Advice Team for further information before completing the change of location form.

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All PGRs are required to upload their final, examined thesis to our eTheses repository, White Rose eTheses Online (WREO), as a single PDF file. 

There are several benefits of publishing your thesis in the White Rose repository :  

• your thesis is more likely to be widely read  
• theses are immediately available and readily searchable  
• the worldwide visibility of UK higher education research is increased  
• underused primary research is made available  
• your profile as a researcher, and the profile of your institution and individual schools may be raised  

eThesis submissions can help you meet the requirements of your funding body (for example, research councils). For more information, please see the Guide to the thesis examination process on the Research students guidance page of the For Students website .  

Any additional content that is examined (for example video files, web pages) should also be uploaded to WREO. This must be the version that has been approved by the internal examiner, and have any corrections or editorial amendments incorporated within it.  If an embargo period is to be applied, it must be agreed with your supervisor and in line with any maximum embargo lengths specified by your funder.  

You can find more information about how to upload your thesis to WREO on the Library website .  

Research integrity considerations for eThesis 

Before you begin, remember that your thesis must be in a format suitable for electronic publication.   

Below is a short checklist based on scenarios that have arisen since the eThesis approach was brought into the University: 

• Consider copyright from the beginning of your research.  
• Keep records of any materials you may want to use as you find them, including images and information found online. Also include where and when you found them.  
• Investigate how copyright might affect how you structure your thesis, for example, will redacting (removing or obscuring) copyright material impact on how it is understood?  
• Seek permission from the copyright holder early on to include copyright material in the electronic version of your thesis.  

Permissions  

What material might you use? You might include diagrams or charts created by other scholars to visualise ideas. You might analyse data sets produced by other researchers. You may critique artwork or photographs created by others.

You will need to contact the copyright holder and request permission to include the material in your eThesis. But in some cases, it may not be possible to gain permission. This could be because permission is declined, you do not receive a response, or because there is an expensive fee to use copyright material.  

This means that you may not be able to make the full text of your awarded eThesis available online and you may need to submit a redacted eThesis.

Futher support and training 

Visit the Library website copyright pages for information on:  

• when you need to seek permission from the copyright holder  
• how you can use third party content in your thesis  
• information about copyright relating to publishing material from your thesis  
• licensing your thesis for others to use and protecting your rights as the author  
• letter templates for requesting permission from the copyright holder.  

If you have any queries during the upload process, or need advice on file types, please email [email protected]   

Further information on thesis submission can also be found on the Submitting your final eThesis page of the For Students website .   

If your thesis is eligible for submission under the protocol which allows for published material to be submitted alongside a written commentary, please refer to the Faculty Protocols for the format and presentation of an alternative style of doctoral thesis including published material for further guidance.   

If your thesis is to be considered for the practice-led route (specific to the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Cultures), then please refer to the guidance and be aware that discussions need to start from the outset of your studies.  

Any queries can be directed to [email protected]  

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Submit your eThesis

You must upload your final successful PhD thesis to  White Rose eTheses Online (WREO) .

Submitting an eThesis is a great way to raise your research profile, increase the impact of your work, preserve your work for the future, and fulfil any funder open access requirements.

You should only upload your eThesis after your internal examiner has approved any editorial and presentational corrections or minor deficiencies identified at your examination.

You  must  also discuss the retention of thesis arrangements with your supervisor(s) so that, if necessary, an embargo period can be agreed. You must ensure you are uploading the correct version that has been approved by your internal examiner.

Please note that any changes after deposit are only agreed in exceptional circumstances and need to be requested by emailing [email protected]

How to upload your thesis

Follow our step-by-step guide to uploading your thesis below.

You can also find further advice and guidance on the  Student Education Service eThesis page .

Step 1: Create an account on WREO

• Go to  White Rose eTheses Online (WREO) .
• Select “Create Account” from the Deposit box.
• Enter your name. This must be your  full legal name  as held in the University's registration records, including forename and all middle names.
• Select your institution.
• Enter your student ID number.
• Use a  long-term email address,  not your University of Leeds student email address. You may need to be contacted about your eThesis after your student email address has expired. Choose a memorable username and password.
• Enter the words displayed when prompted.
• Click “register”.
• Activate your account from the confirmation email
• Enter your username and password.

Step 2: Add the details of your thesis

• Select “Your thesis”.
• Click on “Create thesis (start here)”.
• Follow the steps on each screen, completing all of the required fields (those with a star symbol).
• Ensure that you add a long-term email address.
• Ensure that you  add the names of your supervisor(s) and their email address(es) . This is important so that your supervisors receive a copy of the email notification confirming the upload of the eThesis and the embargo information selected.
• Check that the abstract displays as intended. Some fonts, scientific symbols and complicated formatting may display incorrectly.

Step 3: Upload the file

To upload a file:

• Browse to the file on your computer and upload it.
• Select the correct file type.
• Select the correct content type.
• Choose the agreed  Creative Commons licence type .
• You can add multiple files if required.

You must  upload the final, examined and corrected version of your thesis as a single PDF file .

In all cases, one complete eThesis file is required. However, in some cases it may also be necessary to provide a redacted version of your eThesis. Further advice on when a redacted eThesis might be required, and the process to be followed, is given on the  Student Education Service eThesis page.

You should give your eThesis a standard filename that follows the format: Surname and initials, school, degree, year of submission. For example: Smith_ABC_Chemistry_PhD_2015.PDF

Step 4: Add your embargo period (if applicable)

You are expected to make your e-thesis open access immediately in WREO unless there are exceptional circumstances. For example, you may need to apply a temporary embargo if you are planning to publish part of your thesis or if there are issues of confidentiality. Any embargo should be discussed with your supervisor. To add an embargo period:

• Choose the appropriate embargo period from the drop down menu.
• Specify the reason for the embargo.

Step 5: Deposit item

• Add or amend any of the details if prompted.
• Check that you are happy with the Thesis preview.
• Click Deposit now, or you can choose to save for later.

Once the upload process is complete you will receive confirmation via email. A confirmation email will also be sent to your supervisor(s) and to PGR and Operations staff.

If you need to make any changes to your deposit, do not create a new thesis record as this will create a duplicate record. You can edit items in your work area.

There will be a delay between the thesis being deposited and it going live. Final checks have to take place, and the pass list on which the thesis appears must be authorised before the eThesis will appear in WREO.