GSAS Writing Toolkit

GSAS Policies for Formatting Your Dissertation
Everything you need to know to prepare your work to qualify for your diploma: from language, length, and pagination, to the insertion of images and tables and the writing of your abstract.

Whether you are publishing articles, your dissertation, or other scholarly work, be sure to avail yourself of the following resources.

Handbooks
 

• From Dissertation to Book
  "The essential guide for academic writers who want to revise a doctoral thesis for publication."

Campus Resources
 

• Create your profile on OpenScholar@Harvard and distinguish yourself with an ORCID, a persistent digital identifier that you own and control, which you may connect with your professional information — affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more.
  • After you've created your ORCID, connect it to Harvard with Harvard ORCID Connect.
     
• Check out the Presenting and Publishing Modules in Unabridged On Demand.
   
• Harvard Library's Open Scholarship and Research Data Services (OSRDS) provides training on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) for graduate students. They also can help you negotiate contracts with publishers, assist with publishing in fee-based open-access journals, and avoid plagiarism. To support the publication of your work as a member of the Harvard community, OSRDS runs the following programs:
  • DASH, Harvard's open-access repository
  • Harvard Open Journals Program (more information forthcoming in June 2024)

Whether you are about to sign a publication contract or are incorporating work by others that goes beyond quoting, you may benefit by understanding fair use, your copyrights as an author, and when and how to seek copyright permissions.

• Harvard's Library's Copyright First Responders can help!

Below are some informational resources to get you started:

• Copyright Advisory Program
• Can I Copyright This?
• What is Fair Use? Infographic
• Empowering Students: Before You Sign That Contract!
• Chart: Copyright Term and the Public Domain In The US (For some eras, it is necessary to know whether or not copyright was registered/renewed. Ask us for assistance)