Preparation and deposition of theses

How to choose examiners for your thesis

The student together with his/her supervisor should complete the "Nomination of Examiners" form, which is to be submitted by the student with the thesis to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office. The Graduate Program Office must agree on the names of Internal and External Examiners and must sign off on it. Completed addresses (no P.O. Box numbers), units* (McGill address, if applicable), phone and fax numbers, email addresses and full names (not just initials) for all examiners (including supervisor and Internal Examiners) are required.

Please consult Thesis Examination for detailed information on choosing Thesis Examiners.

Final deposition of a thesis

Once all corrections have been made, in keeping with the comments of the examiners' reports and the oral committee (doctoral candidates), the supervisor and the student must complete and sign the "Certification of Acceptability of Thesis" form (sent with the copies of the examiners' reports to the supervisor). A date is given on the form for the submission of the final copies (usually the date that final copies must be submitted for the next graduation).

Students must keep in mind that there is a final deadline posted on the web to meet graduation dates, which can be found on GPS's site under Thesis deadlines.

Thesis submission forms

1. Nomination of Examiners Form (to be submitted at the time of thesis submission)
2. Thesis Submission Form
3. National, UMI and McGill Library Waiver forms (include copyright waivers, if applicable)
4. Thesis Submission Checklist

All these forms may be found in the Forms related to thesis submission page of GPO's web site.

Candidates must deposit the following documents at the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office (James Administration Building, Room 400):

1. Two final Acco-Press-bound copies of the thesis, marked 1 and 2. Only clean copies may be accepted (i.e., no handwritten corrections and/or comments in the thesis).
2. Copy 1 must be single-sided and black and white throughout as required by the National Library of Canada.
3. The theses must be properly labelled on the front covers and on the side of the thesis as outlined in the "Guidelines for Thesis Preparation."
4. . The "Certification of Acceptability of Thesis" form completed and signed by the supervisor and the student.
5. Copyright waiver forms, if not submitted previously.If all other requirements of the program have been met (including course grades, language requirements), the candidate is then eligible to be placed on the next Degree List.

Alternatively, students can submit the final copy of their thesis electronically.

e-Thesis

e-Thesis submission is available to students in Doctoral and Masters thesis programs for electronic submission of the final corrected thesis copy and for electronic approval of the final corrected thesis copy by their supervisors.

Following a request from Library and Archives Canada, effective immediately, copyright waivers, co-author permissions and research compliance certificates permissions and certificates must be attached to the library waivers submitted at initial submission. If they are not available at initial submission, then they must be submitted with the final corrected copy.

Students who e-submit can now upload these permissions and certificates as a second .pdf file in Minerva. Students who still opt to submit their final corrected copies in paper format should include two (2) copies of the permissions and certificates with their submission.

NB: This change in the Guidelines only affects those students who have not yet submitted their final corrected copy.

The updated Guidelines can be viewed as follows:

1. Thesis Preparation (GPS site)
2. Thesis Submission (GPS site)
3. For more information, explore Thesis Guidelines (GPS site)
4. The Thesis Submission checklist [.pdf] has been updated accordingly (GPS site).

Advantages of e-Thesis submission:

• can be submitted by students and approved by supervisors from anywhere in the world with high-speed internet access
• immediate searchability
• saves paper since there is no need to print final copies
• use of colour – in type, diagrams, photos, graphs, etc.

Previously submitted e-theses can be viewed on the Libraries eScholarships@McGill digital repository which stores and showcases the publications and theses of McGill University faculty and students. More information is found via the eScholarship web site.