The student is responsible for the dissertation under guidance from the faculty members and readers on the dissertation committee. This responsibility can in no way and to no extent be externalized to others. The student is fully responsible for the substance, methodology, quality, completeness, and appropriateness of the dissertation, and must understand all of the work sufficiently to be able to present it independently and justify and explain it to others.

Students sometimes receive assistance from other than committee members and readers with tasks such as editing, data collection, data management and data analysis. None of these tasks may be delegated completely to another individual. Assistance from someone other than a committee member or reader implies that this person has a secondary role in terms of effort and decision-making responsibility.

The dissertation committee members, and in particular the committee chair, should be consulted regarding assistance prior to obtaining it. The students should seek their guidance regarding how much assistance is appropriate and how much might exceed acceptable levels in the judgment of the committee. The student must identify in the dissertation those individuals who provided approved assistance and describe what was provided.

Failures to comply with this policy should be referred to the Committee on Academic Integrity as described in the policy on Academic Honesty & Plagiarism.

Related Policies

• Academic Honesty & Plagiarism

  Policy Revised 07/01/2006