Thesis

Purpose

The Thesis must make a significant, original contribution to the body of knowledge in a given discipline. It must show that the student:

• Is familiar with the published literature in the Thesis’ subject area
• Has used appropriate research methods
• Has applied appropriate levels of critical analysis
• Is competent to complete independent research and present the findings
• Defend and debate in a public forum (only in Master of Science (Management))

Requirements

The following are the requirements for the Thesis:

• The student must work independently to produce the Thesis.
• The Thesis must consist of original student research work.
• In the event that some of the work described in the thesis was not completed by the student (e.g. some experiments were completed by others), or that the student received substantial assistance in some aspect of the work described (e.g. operating specialized equipment, or advanced data interpretation), this assistance must be clearly acknowledged.
• The student is responsible for writing their Thesis under the guidance of the supervisor(s).
• The student must orally defend the Thesis.
• The Thesis remains the intellectual property of the student.
• The student grants the University of Lethbridge permission to use the Thesis for further research and study.

A thesis document may be presented in one of four types of organizational structure: (a) Traditional/Chapter-based Thesis, (b) Manuscript-based Thesis, (c) Research-creation Thesis, or (d) Portfolio-style Thesis. The student and the supervisor/s should start their discussion early in the thesis work to select one of the approved organizational structures and follow it consistently. If another type of organizational structure is an acceptable scholarly practice for the discipline, the student must obtain written permission from the Dean of Graduate Studies or Dean’s Designate before submitting the Request for Final Thesis Examination form.

Regardless of the organizational structure, the thesis document must clearly demonstrate the student’s scholarly efforts and must include both introduction and conclusion chapters. Each type of thesis document may incorporate Indigenous Knowledge that is germane to the thesis work.

A table summarizing the attributes of each type of thesis document is presented below the description for the Portfolio-style Thesis.

A) Traditional/Chapter-based Thesis

Generally, this type of thesis is organized into chapters based on a single area of research. This type of organizational structure is typically used for a monograph that includes unpublished work by the graduate student and may include content from a published or submitted for publication paper/manuscript where the student is the author/co-author.

B) Manuscript-based Thesis

This type of thesis typically includes a collection of papers/manuscripts submitted or accepted for publication and/or previously published by the graduate student as an author or co-author. Only papers/manuscripts where the student is the primary author may be included in the Manuscript-based Thesis. All components of the manuscript-based thesis must be framed/conceptualized into one cohesive manuscript, based on a single area of research, with logical progression between chapters. Permission from the supervisor and all Supervisory Committee members is required. All papers must be reformatted to conform to the formatting requirements listed below. The majority of the writing must have been completed by the student who authored or co-authored each paper/manuscript included in the thesis. For co-authored papers/manuscripts, the student must obtain permission from all co-authors.

C) Research-creation Thesis:

In certain degree programs or disciplines, the thesis work may contain creative work completed by the graduate student. The Research-creation thesis is composed of two components: (1) the research project/lecture or recital and (2) the support paper.

D) Portfolio-style Thesis:

This type of thesis typically includes a compilation of products/components related to the student’s research work. Written permission from the Supervisory Committee and the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies is required when pursuing an alternative thesis model using unknown or uncommon methodology. This written permission is required prior to initiating the research (e.g., thesis proposal stage).

The Portfolio-style Thesis may be comprised of a variety of research works such as applied work, creative work, digital work, experiential work, entrepreneurial work, and/or a combination of these works. Potential outcomes of this type of thesis include:

• policy reports and/or papers,
• knowledge mobilization to the media, communities or other groups,
• publicly available resources (e.g., apps, art, comics, documentaries, music, novels, web tools),
• inventions, prototypes, business plans, patents or other technology licenses,
• educational programs, course materials, or assessment measures, translations,
• oral histories,
• cultural creations,
• artifacts from festivals or exhibitions,
• digital artifacts (e.g., animation, webpages, interactive portals, software).
• special issues resulting from curating/managerial editing practices (e.g., oral history archives, literary magazines), and
• special issues resulting from original productions (e.g., performing arts, galleries, museums, archives, libraries, and/or literary magazines).

The Portfolio-style thesis must include:

1. an Introduction or Overview section that outlines:
   1. a comprehensive review of the relevant literature;
   2. the placement or fit of the research work into the larger context of the student’s field/s or discipline/s;
   3. objective/s of the student’s thesis research work; and
   4. a statement that explains the outline and coherence of chapter/s or section/s to follow the Introduction or Overview.
2. a Summary or Discussion/Conclusion section unifying all the research products presented cohesively.

Table: Types of Thesis Documents

⁶The policies and procedures in this section draw heavily on similar policies at University of British Columbia, University of Manitoba, Concordia University, University of Alberta, and University of Calgary.

Compliance with the University of Lethbridge’s policy on Copyright in the Graduate Studies Calendar and Course Catalogue and with the Copyright Act is the graduate student’s responsibility. Each graduate student must be aware of the University’s Student Discipline Policy - Academic Offences (see Academic Regulations in Graduate Studies Calendar and Course Catalogue), legal responsibility, and ethical obligations relevant to intellectual property and copyrighted materials as they relate to the inclusion of papers/manuscripts in a Manuscript-based Thesis. Additional information on copyright and fair dealing is available in the Library’s Graduate Research Portal.

a) Published Papers and Manuscripts included in Thesis

The inclusion of content from one or more papers/manuscripts submitted for publication, accepted for publication and/or previously published by the graduate student as author or co-author, is subject to the following requirements:

1. The graduate student must be the primary author of all papers/manuscripts included in the Thesis. If a paper/manuscript includes more than one graduate student as a co-author, ONLY the primary graduate student may include the entire paper in the Thesis. If a paper does not have a single graduate student as the primary author, only those parts of the paper written by the graduate student may be included verbatim in the thesis. See (iii) below
2. The papers/manuscripts must be clearly identified and properly acknowledged in the relevant text of the Thesis and in the Preface section, which must clearly describe the student’s contribution/s to the research and writing of each paper/manuscript.
3. In the event that a student wrote a part of a paper but was not the single primary author, the student may include sections they wrote verbatim but must paraphrase others’ contributions. If a student participated in a research study that was part of their thesis work but the student was not the primary author, they will write up their contribution as a conventional thesis chapter, paraphrasing others’ contributions as appropriate. In either case, contributions by co-authors must be clearly acknowledged within the chapter and in the preface.
4. The formatting of the Thesis must be consistent throughout and follow the Thesis Format Regulations. Hence, minor changes to the original paper/manuscript may be required (e.g., changes to the numbering scheme for tables, figures, citations).
5. The entire Thesis must present a coherent and unified conceptualization of the collection of papers/manuscripts and include an Introduction chapter and Conclusion chapter that link the research program and work together. As such, logical links between chapters and the specified sequence of materials as outlined in the Thesis Format Regulations are required. The collection of the papers/manuscripts must be integrated in the flow and organization of the Thesis to represent the overall research program and work.
6. The examination and assessment of the entire Thesis and related work are subject to rigorous evaluation during the Thesis oral defence. The inclusion of published papers/manuscripts in a Thesis does not guarantee that the graduate student’s submission will satisfy the University’s standards and be viewed acceptable by members of the Thesis Examination Committee. Regardless of publication status, members of the Thesis Examination Committee may require revisions be made to the Thesis before the Recommendation of the Award of the Degree form is approved.
7. The Preface of the Thesis must contain a subsection titled Contributions of Authors, which outlines for each paper/manuscript the relative contributions of all co-authors and collaborators (including supervisors and members of the Supervisory Committee) and the proportion and contribution of the research and writing completed by the graduate student as a primary author. The supervisor’s/co-supervisors’ signature on the Assessment of Readiness to Defend form verifies the accuracy of the statements in the Contributions of Authors subsection in the Preface. The supervisor/co-supervisors will be asked to confirm the content of the Contributions of Authors subsection during a graduate student’s oral defence.

Contributions of Authors Subsection examples:

Chapter 3 is based on work conducted jointly with [names of collaborators, including supervisor as appropriate]. I was responsible for [specify activities]. [Name of co-author] carried out [specify activities].

A version of Chapter 5 has been published. [Citation of published paper/manuscript]. I conducted [specify activities]. The paper section on [“……] was written by [researcher/faculty member’s name, ….

8. Permission to use copyrighted materials from the student’s co-authors, if they are the holders or co-holders of the copyright, and publishers, if applicable, must be obtained and submitted to the School of Graduate Students with the completed Request for Thesis Examination form. Please consult with the University Copyright Advisor office before obtaining written permission.

Both copyright holders and publishers must be aware of the following:
 

1. Terms of the University of Lethbridge’s Non-Exclusive Distribution License;
2. Thesis and Project documents are archived by Library and Archives Canada; and
3. Thesis and Project documents are submitted to ProQuest at the student’s discretion.
    

9. An additional examination committee member, who has not co-authored one of the papers/manuscripts, must be added to the Thesis Examination Committee when all members of the Supervisory Committee including the supervisor/co-supervisors are otherwise co-authors of the papers/manuscripts included in the student’s Thesis.

b) Copyrighted materials included in Thesis

Student should consult with the University Copyright Advisor office if they are planning to include substantial parts of copyrighted materials in their Thesis.

1. Unless the use is covered by an exception to infringement in the Copyright Act or is allowed under the terms of an applicable license, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder when including copyrighted material in a Thesis. The use of copyrighted material/s must be acknowledged in the Preface of the Thesis.
2. Unless the use is covered by an exception to infringement in the Copyright Act or is allowed under the terms of an applicable license, copyrighted tables, figures and images must have the following statement included in a table note or figure/image caption: Reprinted with permission of …
   
   The copyright holder must be aware of the following:
   
   a. Terms of University of Lethbridge's Non-Exclusive Distribution License;
   b. Thesis and Project documents are archived by Library and Archives Canada; and
   c. Thesis and project documents are submitted to ProQuest at the student's discretion. 
   
   Permission to use copyrighted materials and notes documenting coverage of the use by an exception to infringement in the Copyright Act or an applicable license must be appended to the Request for Thesis Examination form and must be submitted to the School of Graduate Studies.

If the research for your thesis required ethics approval, an ethics statement must appear in the preamble of your thesis. The ethics statement, which appears on a separate page according to the Thesis/Project Format Guidelines, should take the following form:

Work described in this thesis received research ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board, Project Name “TITLE”, No. 12345, DATE.

or, if the work in the thesis is covered by multiple ethics approvals:

Work described in this thesis received research ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board under the following applications:

The use of generative AI in any aspect of the production of a thesis/project must be disclosed in the preamble on a page with the following heading: “Uses of Generative AI in this Work”. This page will explain how, where and why generative AI was used in the research presented or in the writing of the thesis. This does not apply to theses or projects where generative AI was clearly the object of study and was not otherwise used. Examples of uses of generative AI that must be disclosed are: use of generative AI in organizing a literature review, in generating hypotheses or research plans, or in composing the text of the thesis or editing it. This list is not exhaustive. The student’s Supervisory Committee should be consulted if any questions arise about appropriate use of this technology.

The use of generative AI in no way diminishes a student's responsibility for the contents of the thesis. Students must verify that the material in the thesis is factual and that citations are correct.

The undisclosed use of generative AI in the creation of a thesis is an academic offence.

The School of Graduate Studies reserves the right for its staff and Members to use plagiarism detection software at any stage of the development of a thesis, from the proposal to the final submitted thesis. Plagiarism detection software will normally be operated in a mode that does not add the student’s work to the software provider’s database.