ncsu dissertation search

University Catalog 2024-2025

3.6 theses and dissertations, b. dissertations, c. company-funded research, d. submission procedures for theses and dissertations, e. publication in compliance with nondisclosure provisions.

• F.  Artificial Intelligence policy for dissertations and theses *

In degree programs requiring preparation of a thesis, master’s students must undertake an original investigation into a subject that has been approved by the student’s advisory committee. All theses must be submitted in accordance with the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Guide . Theses should be submitted to the advisory committees at least two weeks prior to the final defense.

The doctoral dissertation must present the results of the student’s original investigation in the field of primary interest. It must represent a contribution to knowledge, adequately supported by data, and be written in a manner consistent with the highest standards of scholarship. All dissertations must be submitted in accordance with the ETD Guide. Publication is expected and encouraged. Dissertations should be submitted to the advisory committees at least two weeks prior to the final defense.

For thesis or dissertation research that is funded by a company, students and their advisors must ensure that there is a clear agreement as to the ability to place the results in an ETD and, should there be proprietary information, that a mechanism be in place to ensure that the ETD remains viable. Furthermore, if a company’s requires approval of the document prior to a defense, this will require additional lead time to insure that only the appropriate information is included.

All advisory committee members must approve the thesis/dissertation prior to submission to the library for publication.

After receiving an unconditional pass on the final oral exam, the student must submit the thesis/dissertation electronically to the ETD system.

A thesis/dissertation must be submitted by the ETD deadlines as published in the Graduate School Calendar.

At the time of dissertation submission, students are also required to submit the required forms and fee as outlined on the ETD website. The Graduate School will not award the degree until these forms and fees have been submitted.

Theses and dissertations containing disclosures of patentable discoveries may be embargoed by submitting a request through the ETD system. They may be granted for up to one year. Placing an embargo on a thesis or dissertation until a patent application is filed will not prevent a student from graduating on time.

F.  Artificial Intelligence policy for dissertations and theses  *

Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT and, more generally, tools from Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) have impacted academic work by assisting in research and writing as well as by providing feedback and assessment, among other emerging applications. These tools offer promises of increased efficiency but also bring to the fore delicate questions about the very nature of our work.  The goal of this document is to propose a framework to allow our graduate students to use these tools ethically while developing their dissertations and theses. 

The debate on the use of LLMs within Academia is raging and is somewhat reminiscent of the debate on the use of calculators at school.  In fact, LLMs are sometimes described as “calculators for words”. We summarize the position of the NC State Graduate School on the matter as follows:

• Our students would benefit from receiving training on how to use GAI tools efficiently, ethically and reliably. 
• The mere use of LLMs does not constitute plagiarism; the uninformed and/or poorly documented inclusion of outputs from LLMs into dissertations and theses may constitute a form of plagiarism. 

The Graduate School follows one main guiding principle which largely matches the approach proposed in Nature and other publications, such as Science.  

Guiding principle 

• Candidates utilizing GAI tools must document their use clearly and thoroughly in their dissertation or thesis.

General guidance for graduate students and advisors 

• Graduate students should discuss general authorship principles and issues as well as acceptable use of LLMs or other GAI tools as early as practically possible with their advisor. 
• Advisors need to be direct and transparent about what tools students are permitted to use, and about the reasons for any restrictions. Additional guiding principles and approaches for the use of GAI in their specific field(s); if such principles are adopted by the program, they must be clearly communicated to the students and applied uniformly by advisory committees.
• GAI tools raise issues of privacy and intellectual property. Material submitted can become part of the application’s database, user’s information may be collected and cookies installed to track further activity.

Bias and Statistics

• LLMs are models; therefore, there are inherent biases associated with them. Users must, at a minimum, be aware of the existence of such issues. For instance, LLMs may attempt to ``average” the set of opinions they are trained on which may lead to surprising and/or unwanted results (statisticians will tell you that averages may be low probability states…). 
• The accuracy, or lack thereof, of detection tools for AI-generated texts has been studied. Due to their unreliable nature, the use of AI tools claiming to detect LLM generated text is discouraged.

Other editorial issues

• The guidelines from Nature also state that no LLM tool should be credited as co-author on a research paper. That is because any attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility. 
• The above guiding principle does not directly address the use of GAI in generic courses. For additional guidelines, please, refer to the Navigating the Landscape of Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence page from the Office for Faculty Excellence or to Developing an AI Syllabus Statement for Your Course from Delta.   
• The use of writing assistance tools such as Grammarly is generally allowed and rarely acknowledged. Grammarly, for instance, is in fact based on GAI. If in doubt, students should contact their advisory committee and/or err on the side of caution and acknowledge use. This very document was typed using the Google Docs Editor with Smart Compose (another AI based tool) turned on and hereby acknowledged. Clearly, legislating all this to the n-th degree will not be possible because of the constant evolution of the tools available to us; good judgment from all sides is likely to be needed.      

Definitions

• Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is the broad category of AI capable of generating new data such as text, images, video, music and other forms of media.
• Large Language Models (LLM) are a subset of GAI and are designed to work with human language (language is the focus) such as ChatGPT.
• Writing Assistant Tools are designed but not limited to checking spelling and grammar, such as Grammarly.

This document has benefited from consultations with the NC State  Office for Faculty Excellence  and with the  Data Science Academy .

Print Options

Send Page to Printer

Print this page.

Download Page (PDF)

The PDF will include all information unique to this page.

2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

A PDF of the entire 2024-2025 Undergraduate catalog.

2024-2025 Graduate Catalog

A PDF of the entire 2024-2025 Graduate catalog.

• Meet Our Department Head
• TELS Committees
• Undergraduate
• Faculty Publications
• Faculty Grants

Theses and Dissertations

• Our Faculty and Staff
• Our Students
• College Home Page
• Give Now 

TELS students in MS and PhD concentrations conduct education research in educational equity and psychology, learning technology, and select content areas (elementary science and math, literacy and English language arts, and social studies). Recently published theses and dissertations are linked below in reverse chronological order from the university's Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) repository :

• Scripting the Narrative: A Critical Content Analysis of EL Education’s Middle School English Language Arts Curriculum.  Jacobs, Laura Emily (2022-06-29)
• Infusing Global Perspectives through Inquiry in Social Studies Classrooms around the World: A Narrative Inquiry.  Wafa, Nada (2022-06-15)
• Investigating the Creation of Online Courses: A Multi-case Study of Development Team Discussions.  Lindsay, Waylon Keith (2022-05-07)
• The Preservice Teacher Approach: An Exploratory Case Study of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Assistive Technology in Elementary Science Instruction.  Romeo, Laura Marie (2022-05-05)
• The Impact of Metacognition and Design Thinking on Creative Problem-Solving in a Teacher Preparation Course.  Calderon Lima, Rebeca Aurora (2022-05-03)
• Metacognition of Academic Speech for International Multilingual Graduate Students.  Wagemaker, Marina (2022-04-08)
• Teachers’ Aesthetic Practices: A Comparative Case Study of Arts Integration in ELA Classrooms across North Carolina.  Schoonover, Nina Radakovic (2022-03-23)
• Exploring Outdoor Educators’ Positional Identities: Survey Development and Validation Using Structural Equation Modeling in a Mixed Methods Study Blending Quantitative Results with Phenomenological Analysis.  Fraulo, Aimee (2022-03-10)
• Collaborative Programming Practices in Elementary Classrooms: Exploring the Roles of Gender, Motivation, and Collaborative Discourse.  Zakaria, Zarifa (2021-11-03)
• Intercultural Competence in English Language Education: Redefining the International Profile of Nonnative English Language Teachers from an Intercultural Competence-focused MOOC.  Nguyen, Ha Thi Thanh (2021-11-01)
• Exploring Early Mathematics through Book Reading: An Inquiry Centering on Head Start Participants’ Experiences, Practices, and Sayings.  Yova, Frederique Cecile (2021-05-12)
• “I didn’t sign up for this”: Four English Language Arts Teachers’ Perceptions, Implementations, and Reflections of Trauma Care in the Midst of COVID-19.  Atkinson, Ashley Ann (2021-05-11)
• Exploring Adolescents’ Sense of Presence with Educational Content in Immersive Virtual Reality: A Mixed Methods Study.  Davis, Rebekah Sacco (2021-04-30)
• “Your Generation is Going to Do This Right”: A Qualitative Case Study of Critical Citizenship Education in an Eighth Grade Social Studies Classroom.  Holmes, Casey (2021-03-29)
• Using Growth Patterns to Simultaneously Promote Elementary Students’ Multiplicative Reasoning and Early Algebraic Thinking: An Examination of Children’s Thinking, Teachers’ Perspectives, and Curriculum.  West, Heather Mary (2021-03-24)
• Profiles of Communal Socialization: African American Students’ Perceptions of the Communal Values Taught in Mathematics Classrooms.  McElveen, Tamika LaShaye (2021-03-23)
• Design, Validation, and Application of An Upper Elementary Computer Science Attitudes Survey: A Mixed Methods Approach.  Vandenberg, Jessica (2021-03-22)
• Trends and Patterns in Mathematics Motivation during Elementary School: Combining Variable-centered and Person-centered Approaches.  Karamarkovich, Sarah Marina Kessler (2021-03-15)
• Rural Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions and Enactments of Dialogic ELA Comprehension Instruction Amidst Pandemic-Induced Remote Learning.  Outlaw, Janet Kim (2021-03-12)
• A Community Classroom as “Our Home” for Children and Youth Resettled as Refugees and Tutors: Three Essays on Language and Literacy Practices in a Transcultural and Translingual Space.  Vehabovic, Nermin (2020-04-27)
• Black Girls Accepting the Grand Challenge: A Qualitative Exploration of a Summer Engineering Program’s Influence on Black Girls’ Racial Identity, Engineering Identity, and STEM Self-Efficacy.  McCoy, Whitney (2020-03-25)
• Understanding Elementary Teachers’ Mathematics-focused Professional Development Opportunities: A Mixed Methods Study.  Kates, Amanda Jane (2020-03-12)

• Mission & Vision
• Academic Calendar
• Doctoral Exam Schedule
• Graduate Programs
• Financial Support
• Priority Deadlines
• Catalog and Handbook
• New Graduate Student Orientation
• Signature Events
• Degree Planning
• Embedded Counseling
• International Students
• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)
• Graduate Peer Mentoring
• Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR)
• Graduate Assistantships Overview
• Graduate Student Support Plan
• Tuition, Fees and Other Resources
• Fellowships and Grants
• Goodnight Doctoral Fellowship
• University Fellowships Office
• Professional Development
• Five Competencies
• Teaching Programs
• Wellness Program
• Career Readiness Program for Non-Academic Careers
• Writing Program
• Leadership Program
• Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA)
• Faculty & Staff
• Forms and Data
• GSC Resources
• ABGS Resources
• Resources for Student Funding
• Curriculum Development
• Program Assessment
• Recruiting Resources
• Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP)
• Give Now 

ETD Templates

This page includes templates for both Microsoft Word and LaTeX. Scroll down to find the LaTeX templates and learning resources.

Microsoft Word templates

Before using these templates, read all of the following instructions.

It would be best for you to start out writing your thesis or dissertation in a template. If you copy and paste a previously written thesis or dissertation into a template, incorrect formatting settings may also be copied into the document. If you do need to insert existing work into the template, it’s best to separately insert individual sections of body text. When doing so, make sure to maintain the standard headers and set formatting.

These templates are provided to get you started. These files are not guaranteed to be perfect for everyone as the files require customization. Even if you use a template, you are required to fix anything that does not meet the requirements covered in the ETD Guide. Therefore, you must consult the ETD Guide prior to electronically submitting the file to the Graduate School for review.

Styles These templates include three pre-programmed Styles–Body 1, Heading 1, and Subtitle–which are already applied to the existing headers and body text. The “Styles” box appears on the right-hand side of the “Home” tab. To apply these styles to new text, you have two options:

• Click the desired style and then type in that style.
• Highlight existing text and apply the desired style by clicking on its Style square.

ETD guidelines do allow some flexibility in formatting. You can alter these styles in the following ways:

• Change Subtitle style to be italicized instead of bold.
• Change chapter headers to be larger and move them to a different location on the page.

To alter a Style, you can do one of the following:

• Highlight your altered text, right click on the style square, and select the first option, “Update Style to Match Selection.”
• Right click on the style square and select “Modify.” 

The Heading 1 style maintains the bold setting, but you must keep all main headers ALL CAPS. Styles do not maintain this automatically. However, you can alter the font of headers to match the font you’ve chosen for your entire text (font must be consistent throughout the document). 

Table of Contents

There are different ways to create a Table of Contents page. The templates use Tabs, found in the “Paragraph” settings, which will be explained below. Alternatively, you can insert a Table of Contents from the References tab, as long as its formatting and appearance match that of the Table of Contents in the ETD Guide . In the templates, the tabs are set so that you simply need to type out a Table of Contents entry, hit “Tab” on your keyboard, and type the appropriate page number. Hitting “Tab” will create a dotted leader line that will change length as you type.

An ETD requirement is that your Table of Contents has a spacing hierarchy that differentiates main sections from subsections. This requires indenting the entry text for subsections. Since the templates already have altered Tab rules for the dotted lines, you must use the Ruler bar at the top of the page to make simple indentations. If you do not see the Ruler, go to the “View” tab and check the “Ruler” box.

In addition to the dotted line Tab settings, the templates already have a tab rule set for .5 inches from the left margin (it appears as a little black notch on the ruler bar). This allows you to indent lines with the Tab key while also maintaining the rules for dotted lines. However, if you need to indent lines further than this, to create another level of hierarchy, you must add a new Tab by clicking the ruler bar on the desired Tab location, creating a new notch on the ruler.

MS Word Template 1 (Page numbers at the top of the page) – or – MS Word Template 2 (Page numbers at the bottom of the page)

LaTeX templates

These LaTeX templates were created and supplied by fellow graduate students and faculty. Unfortunately, NCSU does not support LaTeX—meaning the NCSU Helpdesk and the Graduate School (ETD Reviewer and Webmaster) are not able to provide technical support for these files. You are encouraged to utilize your fellow classmates, your faculty, and the internet for assistance.

These templates are provided to get you started. These files are not guaranteed to be perfect for everyone as the files require customization. You are required to fix anything that does not meet the requirements set forth in the ETD Guide even if you used one of the templates. Therefore, you must use the Appendix A Checklist in the ETD Guide prior to electronically submitting the file to the Graduate School for the thesis review.

Thesis Class and Template Files:

A graduate student recently helped us update our LaTeX template to better reflect the latest ETD Guidelines. These files are linked below. If you find have issues or find errors in the updated template files, please let me know ([email protected]).

• Updated Template files

NOTE: the most common issue students have with their LaTeX ETD file is the right-hand margin; sometimes tables, figures, or lines of text extend too far right, and violate the required 1-inch margin. Prior to submitting, please ensure that all of your content fits within the main body area of the document.

There are some websites that may be helpful. A few are listed here. Do a search in your favorite search engine to discover more.

* LaTeX information Dr. Bloomfield’s Website (For information purposes only. Assistance is not offered). * LaTeX information LaTeX project site * LaTeX information Trinity College * LaTeX information University of Cambridge Department of Engineering * LaTeX information Emory University

NC State Theses and Dissertations

Permanent URI for this community https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/resolver/1840.20/23

Browsing NC State Theses and Dissertations by Author

• A Szanto, Committee Member   1
• A. Clay Clark, Committee Chair   3
• A. Clay Clark, Committee Member   1
• A. Fauntleroy, Committee Member   1
• A. Godfrey, Chair   3
• A. Godfrey, Co-Chair   4
• A. Godfrey, Graduate School Representative   1
• A. Godfrey, Member   25
• A. Godfrey, Minor   7
• A. Hawary, Committee Member   1
• A. K. Gupta, Co-Chair   1
• A. Kheyfets, Member   1
• A. Kuznetsov, Committee Member   1
• A. M. Seyam, Committee Co-Chair   1
• A. Mortazawi, Chair   1
• A. Reid Barbour, Committee Member   1
• A. Ronald Gallant, Committee Member   2
• A. S. Kennedy, Member   1
• A.A. Tayebali, Committee Chair   1
• A.A. Tayebali, Committee Member   1
• 1 (current)

• skip to Main Navigation
• skip to Main Content
• skip to Footer
• Accessibility feedback

Scholarly publications repository

Description, this database features:.

Opens in your default email client

URL copied to clipboard.

QR code for this page