Graduate School

Guidelines for Dissertation and Thesis Titles

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Guidelines for Dissertation and Thesis Titles

The dissertation title that appears on the title page that you submit to the Graduate School is the title that will appear on your transcript and in the digital Commencement Program. We ask that you follow the title guidelines presented below in preparing the title page of your dissertation.

Taken from The Chicago Manual of Style, Fourteenth Edition, sections 7.126-7.131.

Capitalization

The first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions (if, because, as, that, etc.) are capitalized. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor), and prepositions, regardless of length, are lowercased unless they are the first or last word of the title or subtitle. The to in infinitives is also lowercased. Only acronyms should be set in full capitals.

The subtitle, following a colon, is capitalized the same way as the main title.

For capitalizing hyphenated and open compounds in titles use the following rule: First elements are always capitalized; subsequent elements are capitalized unless they are articles, prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, or such modifiers as flat, sharp, and natural following musical key symbols; second elements attached by hyphens to prefixes are not capitalized unless they are proper nouns or proper adjectives. If a compound (other than one with a hyphenated prefix) comes at the end of the title, its final element, whatever part of speech it may be, is always capitalized.

Examples: Twentieth-Century, Up-to-Date, E-flat Concerto, Self-Sustaining

Spelling

Use and for &, and spell out names of centuries (12th Century becomes Twelfth Century) and other numbers usually spelled out in text. Be sure to include accents or other special marks on letters used in non-English words.

Punctuation

Use the final comma in a list (Disease, Pain, and Sacrifice: Toward a Psychology of Suffering).

Examples:

  • Melodrama Unveiled: American Theater and Culture, 1800-1850 
  • The Labour Party in Perspective – and Twelve Years Later 
  • Thought and Letters in Western Europe, A.D. 500-900

Titles of Books within Dissertation Titles

Titles and subtitles of published books, pamphlets, proceedings and collections, periodicals, and newspapers are set in italics.

Super- and Sub-script

Mathematical or chemical names and formulas that appear in the title should retain any super- or sub-script.