A Master’s student may present a practicum only in regular style format.

All Ph.D. candidates and Master’s students in a thesis stream may present a thesis in one of two acceptable formats:

• Regular style
• Manuscript/grouped manuscript style

The type of thesis/practicum must be approved by the advisory committee and comply with all regulations of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and any supplementary regulations of the department/unit.

Contribution of Authors

A thesis is a single-authored work; however, research is often done in collaboration with others. Students must articulate the unique role they have producing the research that is included in their thesis.

When that type of collaborative research is published in non-thesis formats, it is expected that non-thesis publications will appropriately identify all authors who contributed to the research. Therefore, a thesis that includes research conducted by multiple people must also acknowledge collaborators who have made research contributions by articulating what role each collaborator had in the research process in relation to the unique work of the student. Authorship for all “manuscript”/ “grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” papers must be acknowledged. In the case of multi-authored papers, the nature and extent of the student’s contribution, and those of the other authors, must be explicitly specified in a section of the thesis entitled "Contributions of Authors".

Regular Style

Prefatory Pages

Title Page

The title page must contain the following information:

• the title of the thesis/practicum
• the name of the university
• the degree for which the thesis/practicum is submitted
• the name of the department/unit
• the full name of the author
• the copyright notation ©

The title must be a meaningful description of the content of the research. The author’s name should be in full, identical to the name under which they are registered and be consistent on all other documents. A sample title page can be found on this link.

Abstract

The abstract is expected to provide a concise, accurate account of the thesis/practicum. Recommended length is 350 words. An abstract should contain a statement of the problem, methods, results, and conclusions.

Acknowledgements

The content of this single page is left to the discretion of the author. For example, the page may make reference to the student/candidate’s advisor/co-advisor and advisory committee, to other individuals who have provided invaluable assistance to the development of the thesis/practicum, and to sources of financial assistance or other support.

Dedication

A single page pertaining to a dedication is allowed.

Table of Contents

This must list and provide page references to all elements of the thesis/practicum. The numbering and formatting must be identical to the way the material appears in the text. Page numbers should be right justified. A sample table of contents can be found at this link.

List of Tables

This should immediately follow the Table of Contents and be of the same format. The list must include the number, name and page number of each table.

List of Figures

This should immediately follow the List of Tables and be of the same format as the Table of Contents. The list must include the number, name and page number of each figure.

List of Copyrighted Material

On occasion, students/candidates include images, figures, photos and other materials from copyrighted sources. Students must ensure that they have authorization to use copyright protected materials in their thesis under a Copyright Act exemption or with direct permission from the copyright holder. A list of Copyrighted Material should follow the List of Figures and follow the same format as the Table of Contents. For further information on copyright please refer to the following link.

Format

Styles

The thesis/practicum should be written in a standard style manual that has been recommended by the department/unit. Manuals recommended by the Faculty of Graduate Studies include but are not limited to:

• American Psychological Association, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
• Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations
• The Modern Language Association of America, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
• University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style

Students should always use the latest edition available. If there is a conflict between the instructions in this guide and the style manual chosen, the former should be followed.

Spelling

Canadian, British or American spelling is acceptable, and one style must be used consistently throughout the document.

Format

The entire thesis/practicum must be in the same text font, style, and size. 

Margins

The margins must be consistent throughout the thesis/practicum (including appendices, diagrams, maps, photographs, charts, tables, etc.).

Page Numbers

Each page of the thesis/practicum (including illustrative pages and appendices) must be numbered consecutively.

Footnotes, References and Appendices

Instructions in the style manual recommended by the department/unit should be followed. Regardless of which style manual is used, format selected must be consistent throughout the document.

Figures, Illustrations, Photographs and Design Drawings

Illustrative Material

All illustrative material must be consistent throughout the thesis/practicum. All figures, illustrations, photographs and drawings must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals and accompanied with a title. The material should appear as soon as possible after as it is mentioned in the text. All original materials should be of high quality, with sharp and clear images and copyright secured if from another source.

Layout of Tables and Figures

Each table and figure must have a number and title. The number and title should appear at the top or bottom of the table or figure as per style. The title of the table or figure should be as short as possible and indicate the major focus of the material within the table or figure.

Additional Materials

Consent and Access to Information Forms

Sample copies of consent forms that were used to obtain consent from participants to take part in the information gathering procedures for the thesis/practicum must be included in an Appendix. Any personal information including signatures, personal phone number and email addresses must be omitted from the submitted form to meet F.I.P.P.A. regulations.

In some cases, approval from an agency, institution or corporation may have been required before the information gathering procedures could proceed. The original approval form for access should be retained by the student with a copy provided to the Faculty of Graduate Studies upon completion of the thesis/practicum.

Use of Copyrighted Material

If the thesis/practicum includes copyrighted material (such as images, figures or more than an insubstantial amount of another person’s work pursuant to the Copyright Act), students must determine whether there is authorization for reuse of material under the Copyright Act or if permission must be obtained from the copyright holder. A Sample Permission Letter is available on the Copyright Office website. In some cases, copyright holders prefer to use their own permission forms and/or will provide their permission electronically.

Note that obtaining permission may take a considerable amount of time and this must be taken into consideration when meeting a thesis/practicum submission deadline. A reference to written permission having been obtained should be included under the image or text. The original form(s) signed by the copyright holders should be retained by the student as they made need to refer to it from time to time in future. These forms do not need to be provided to the University of Manitoba and should not be included within the student’s thesis/practicum.

In some cases where permission is required the copyright holder cannot be located or the cost is prohibitive to use the text or image. In these situations, the text or image may have to be omitted from the thesis/practicum.

Subsequently, information on where the reader can locate the image or text should be included, such as the URL, title of book/journal, volume and issue number, page number, publisher, and date of publication. A description of the purpose or significance of the text or image should be provided.

For further information on copyright, see https://umanitoba.ca/copyright/

Manuscript/Grouped Manuscript/Sandwich Style Thesis

In some disciplines, thesis advisory committees recommend that students write a “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” style thesis that will include research the student has already completed and is already published or planned to be published in the future. These styles of thesis are allowed; however, there are important copyright and authorship factors that must be considered when developing a “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” style thesis. For example, it is likely that the authors of a journal article entered into a contractual agreement to license or assign some or all of their rights to the publisher and, therefore, may have placed restrictions on whether or not the student(s) may include that journal article as part of a thesis that will be openly accessible in a university library database/institutional repository. That aspect of the copyright license with the journal may prevent the published research from being included in a thesis. It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that they are aware of and follow copyright restrictions for the research that is included in the thesis.  This caution is being articulated so students are aware that it is important to understand what contractual agreements they are entering when they publish their work in any format, and to consider publication options that do not conflict with the requirement to deposit their thesis in MSpace. If a student is not sure whether they hold the copyright to publications that are to be contained in the thesis, they should reach out to the Copyright Strategy Manager or Research Services Librarian for the UM.

A thesis/practicum may comprise a paper or collection of papers/projects, which are suitable for submission for publication. The number of papers that comprise this style of thesis/projects will be determined between the student and the advisory committee. The formatting of the thesis/practicum must be consistent throughout the thesis and the thesis cannot merely consist of several papers or articles contained within the one document.

The only exception to the above requirement for the formatting to be consistent throughout the thesis is in the case where the thesis is to include a chapter that describes research that has already been published and the authors of that published research have assigned some or all of their rights to the publisher of the journal (i.e.; the publisher holds exclusive rights to that research article). In this case, the student will write unique text to describe the chapter content and include a link to the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the published research. This approach will enable the student to reference the published work so the research article can be read.

Publication, or acceptance for publication, of research results prior to the presentation of the thesis does not supersede the evaluation of the work by the examination committee (i.e. does not guarantee that the thesis will be found acceptable). Advisors and examiners may specify revisions regardless of the publication status.

A “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” style thesis must follow the same prefatory information; spelling, formatting, margin requirements, page numbering; footnotes and appendices; figures, illustrations photographs and drawings; copyright and any additional material described as thesis requirements above.

All “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” style papers included in the thesis must contribute toward the overall theme that represents the thesis work and must be smoothly integrated into the flow of the thesis to produce a unified document. This may require changes or additions to, and (when copyright permits) re-writing of, any work that has been previously published.

There must be an introductory chapter to the entire thesis that precedes any of the “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” papers. The introductory chapter must explain the connection between the different chapters. This provides a logical link of the integration of the information between the “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” papers (chapters). This approach is required to facilitate the ability of the thesis examiners to evaluate the thesis.

The thesis must contain a concluding chapter that includes a discussion on how the entirety of the thesis, with its findings, provides a distinct contribution to knowledge in the research area. Again, this approach is required to facilitate the ability of the thesis examiners to evaluate the thesis. It is also intended to be a demonstration of the student’s ability to synthesize and articulate information about how the research has contributed/supported/added to knowledge in the field. The thesis is a single-authored work, which is why such an approach is necessary to enable the thesis examiners to assess the student’s independent work.

All of these “manuscript”/“grouped manuscript”/“sandwich” requirements will be evaluated by the thesis examiners and will be used to inform their assessment of the thesis. Failure to include this information may delay graduation.