Post-Defense Dissertation Formatting: what to do after you defend

Passing your defense does not finish the degree. Most graduate schools review the format of the final document before they accept it, and a document that fails that review is sent back. Students who lose a graduation date lose it here, on margins, page numbers and signature pages, long after the research is done.

The work has a fixed order. Follow it and the format review becomes a checklist, not a surprise.

1. Get your required revisions in writing

Before you touch the formatting, settle what the committee wants changed. Ask your chair for the list in writing, and confirm who must approve the final version. Our guide to what a pass with revisions means explains how that works. Formatting a document you are about to change again wastes a week.

2. Make the revisions, then freeze the text

Complete every content change first. Use a revision table so that each committee comment has a response and a page number, and send the revised draft to the people who must approve it. Do not format while the text is still moving. Once your chair signs off, save a copy and treat the words as final.

3. Collect your institution's requirements

Look for the graduate school's thesis and dissertation guide, or its formatting template, on the graduate school website. Find:

• the required template or style file
• margin, font, spacing and page number rules
• the order of front matter pages
• the signature or approval page process
• the submission deadline and the format review deadline
• the file type for upload, and whether the school asks for accessibility
• the rules for embargo, copyright and the repository you deposit in

Where your institution's rules differ from APA, Chicago or another style manual, the institution wins. Read our guide to APA 7 formatting for a thesis or dissertation for the places where the two commonly differ.

4. Apply the template to the whole document

Applying the template is cleaner than fixing pages one at a time. Move your text into the template, or apply its styles to your existing document, and check every section afterward. Use Word styles for headings, so the table of contents builds itself and every heading looks the same.

5. Check the front matter page by page

Front matter is where reviewers find most of their errors. Compare each page to the school's sample.

• Title page. The exact wording, the degree name, the date, and the format of your name.
• Copyright page. Required in some schools and optional in others.
• Approval or signature page. The committee's names, titles and signatures, collected as the school instructs. Some schools use electronic approval and others collect paper forms.
• Abstract. Within the word limit, with the required heading and keywords if asked.
• Acknowledgments and dedication. Brief, and placed where the template puts them.
• Table of contents and lists of tables and figures. Regenerate them after your last edit, so page numbers match.

6. Check the page numbers

Page numbering is a leading cause of rejected submissions. Many schools require lowercase Roman numerals for front matter and Arabic numerals for the main text, with the first Arabic page set to 1. Others use different rules. Insert a section break between the two parts, and unlink the numbering so that the front matter does not carry into the chapters. Open the document at the first page of each chapter to check the number. Our guide to dissertation margins shows the section-break steps.

7. Check margins, fonts and spacing

Look for any page where a table, a figure or a long URL pushes text outside the margin. Check:

• the margins on every page, including landscape pages
• one font and size throughout, apart from the places the template allows
• the line spacing in the body, block quotes, tables and the reference list
• headings that sit alone at the bottom of a page

8. Check tables, figures and appendices

Each table and figure needs a number, a title and a source where required. Each must appear after it is first mentioned and sit within the margins. Label the appendices, give each a title, and list them in the table of contents. Confirm that your IRB approval letter and any permissions are in the place your school asks for them.

9. Check headings and references

Headings must follow one hierarchy from the first chapter to the last. Read our guide to chapter headings for the differences between style manuals. In the reference list, every in-text citation needs an entry and every entry needs a citation. Our guide to bibliography formatting covers hanging indents and ordering.

10. Create the final PDF

Export the PDF from Word, and do not print to PDF, so that bookmarks and headings are kept. Then check:

• the fonts are embedded
• the page count matches the table of contents
• all links and cross-references work
• images are clear
• the file name follows the school's rule

If your school asks for an accessible PDF, add alt text to figures and confirm the heading structure before you export.

11. Make the embargo and copyright decisions

Decide whether to publish immediately or delay public access, and whether to register the copyright. Both decisions are made on forms during submission. Talk to your chair before you request an embargo if you plan to publish from the dissertation.

12. Submit before the format review deadline

Format review is a separate deadline from the defense, and it is often earlier than the graduation date. Submit early, because most schools return a list of corrections and give you a short time to answer. A first submission one or two weeks before the deadline leaves room for a second round.

The mistakes that cause a second round

• Page numbers restart or continue from the wrong place.
• The table of contents does not match the page numbers.
• The title page wording or date is wrong.
• A signature page is missing or incomplete.
• Margins are too narrow on pages with tables or figures.
• Fonts or spacing change between chapters.
• The reference list does not match the citations.

Our 8 formatting mistakes that get drafts returned describes these in more detail.

Run the checklist before you submit

Our free pre-submission checklist covers the points a format reviewer checks, in the order they usually appear.

When to hand the formatting to someone else

Formatting a long document under a deadline, after months of research, is tedious and easy to get wrong. We format to your university's template and your style manual: front matter, page numbers, headings, tables, figures and references. See what thesis or dissertation formatting includes and what it costs on our pricing page. We format your document, and the content stays yours. We cannot guarantee that your graduate school will accept a submission, because its reviewers decide, but we format against the template so that you are not caught by the errors above.