mcgill thesis submission guidelines

myThesis (Thesis Examination Management )

Service overview.

myThesis, McGill University’s Thesis Examination Management platform, allows masters and doctoral thesis students to register their intention to submit, upload their initial thesis and follow it's progress all the way to the final thesis submission. (See question 2 in the FAQ below for an overview of the complete thesis submission process.)

Who can use it

Registered masters and doctoral thesis students; McGill staff who are Supervisors, Co-Supervisors, Thesis Committee members, Graduate Program Directors (GPD), Graduate Program Coordinators (GPC), Graduate Associate Dean (GAD), Graduate Department Chair (GDC) and Graduate Postdoctoral Studies (GPS); Examiners both internal and external to McGill.

How to request & access the service

Request access (if needed).

Thesis students are automatically granted access when they have an active registration/academic record and are assigned a Supervisor.

Internal staff members must complete the SIS Security request form. Access is based on roles granted for myProgress .

Access myThesis

• Go to https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis
• Log in with your McGill username (firstname.lastname@mail.mcgill.ca) and password.
• You should see your McGill ID and information about your program of study. Click on your McGill ID to open the Intent to Submit Thesis page.
• Follow the instructions on screen.

McGill Staff / Supervisors

Access myThesis through links in the notification emails you will receive, or by going to: https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis .

Examiners (internal and external)

A link to the myThesis system will be sent via the Examiners Invitation email; log in with the same email address that invitation was sent to. See step-by-step instructions on logging into myThesis for examiners .

There is no cost associated with this service.

Availability

The service is available 24 X 7, except during planned maintenance or outages. Check the home page of the IT Support site for announcements.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a difference between eThesis and myThesis?

eThesis is no longer being used. It was used for final thesis submission for students graduating, in the summer of 2023 at the latest .

For students graduating in the fall of 2023 and onwards , the final thesis submission is done in the myThesis system. Students who submit their initial thesis to GPS via email will not have access to myThesis.

What are the steps in final thesis submission?

Here is the progress bar from myThesis showing all the steps from intent to submit to Final Thesis submission.

Can I log into myThesis without a McGill account?

Yes, external examiners can log in via the link you receive by email. See step-by-step instructions on logging into myThesis for examiners .

How will users be notified of changes?

An email notification is sent to all parties involved, at each stage of the process, with the details specified or requested.

• If a user is not receiving notification emails from myThesis: The spam filter on the users email account may be blocking the email. Check the Spam email folder to verify if emails are being directed there. If yes, the user should change their spam filter settings to include these email notifications or to a less restrictive setting.
• If a user receives an email with no visible links: This is caused by the user’s personal email settings. If it is set to convert all emails to plain text format, all the links will be removed from the email. The user will have to change their email settings to HTML format.

Why am I receiving "An unexpected error occurred" or "Invitation redemption failed" message when trying to login?

• An incognito or private window should be opened in your browser. This is to ensure that other previously logged in accounts are not auto-populated when trying access myThesis. The user should copy and paste myThesis link (https://mythesis.mcgill.ca/) in the incognito/private window and manually enter the McGill email address and password.
• Non-McGill users should always log in using the email address that originally received the invitation.
• McGill users should always log in with their @mcgill.ca or @mail.mcgill.ca email address.
• To ensure that you are logging in with the right account, open an incognito or private window in your browser. This is to ensure that the user’s auto-populated browser fields or saved cookies do not default when clicking the email link. Copy and paste into the new incognito window the "approve/decline the invitation" URL from the email invitation. Manually enter your credentials (email address that invitation/email notification was sent to) and password.

Best practices & policies

Always log out of the application when you are finished using it. 

Never leave your computer unattended while you are logged into Minerva.

Training & documentation

Visit the Thesis section of the GPS website: https://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis

• For technical issues, such as inability to log into the system, contact the IT Service Desk
• For all other questions related to the process, contact the Academic Unit. See the list of Academic Units on the GPS website.

Theses & Dissertations

• Getting Started
• Finding a Thesis or Dissertation

Requirements for Master's & Doctoral Theses

Helpful resources - ebooks, citation styles, have you heard about citation management software, need help ask us.

As per the Theses Guidelines website, hosted by Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, the following are the general requirements for McGill theses:

Master's Theses

• A thesis for the Master's degree must show familiarity with previous work in the field and must demonstrate the ability to carry out research, organize results, and defend the approach and conclusions in a scholarly manner according to disciplinary norms. 
• An exhaustive review of work in the field of study is not necessarily required. Expectation for the level of original scholarship at the Master's level varies with the discipline. 
• The thesis must be written in compliance with norms for academic and scholarly expression and for publication in the public domain.

Doctoral Theses

• A thesis for the Doctoral degree must constitute original scholarship and must be a distinct contribution to knowledge. 
• It must show familiarity with previous work in the field and must demonstrate ability to plan and carry out research, organize results, and defend the approach and conclusion in a scholarly manner. 
• The research presented must meet current standards of the discipline; as well, the thesis must clearly demonstrate how the research advances knowledge in the field. 
• Finally, the thesis must be written in compliance with norms for academic and scholarly expression and for publication with norms for academic and scholarly expression and for publication in the public domain. 

The following eBooks will guide you through the research, writing and defense of a thesis or dissertation. For addition information, please refer to the library catalog . 

Refer to our  Citation Guide  to review and learn more about citation styles and software, such as Zotero and Endnote, that will assist you during the writing and formatting of your thesis or dissertation.

Other useful style guides include:

• APA Formatting & Style Guide (Purdue OWL)  
• MLA Formatting & Style Guide (Purdue OWL)
• Chicago Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue OWL)

Manuals are available in the collections and at the desk in most McGill libraries:

You can use citation management software like EndNote or Zotero to create your own personal database. This database, which is fully searchable, can then be used to generate reference lists and bibliographies for publications, assignments and reports.

With our university-wide site license for these software packages, McGill students, faculty, and staff can download them free of charge.

To download EndNote or Zotero and/or find more information about it (including workshops) click here .

Can't find a workshop or prefer to learn online? Check these online options.

• How to Use EndNote 20 in 7 Minutes: Windows
• How to Use EndNote 20 in 7 Minutes: Macintosh
• EndNote 20 on Windows: A class recording
• Zotero Video Tutorials from McGill Library

Free Webinars

• Free webinars from EndNote (Clarivate) Webinars include "EndNote for Windows", "EndNote Online", "EndNote for MacOS", "EndNote Q&A", etc.
• << Previous: Finding a Thesis or Dissertation
• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2024 5:06 PM
• URL: https://libraryguides.mcgill.ca/thesesanddissertations

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Main navigation

• Graduate Students
• Faculty & Staff
• Use of generative AI for research
• General requirements
• Preparation of a thesis
• What is myThesis?
• Next steps (Master’s)
• Next steps (Doctoral)
• myThesis FAQ for students
• myThesis FAQ for units
• Thesis examination
• Doctoral oral defence
• Final Thesis Submission
• Thesis Writing and Support Resources
• Letters of Completion/PGWP

Fall Thesis Deadline reminder For initial thesis submission: your myThesis status should be “Eval. Authorized by GPD” by midnight, December 15 th . This means your submissions was approved by the supervisor(s) and GPD. Please remain registered for the Winter term. Students who submit the initial thesis by the deadline will be in Thesis evaluation in the winter.

Steps for Master's Students

Are you a Master's student preparing to submit your thesis? Please take note of these important considerations:

You are encouraged to review the thesis submission process guidelines and FAQs prior to submitting the thesis. When submitting your initial thesis, please make sure that you have prepared and confirmed the following: Your thesis title must be no more than 240 characters. Capitalize nouns only (e.g., The politics of the Free Trade deal). Use words rather than symbols (e.g., carbon dioxide instead of CO2). Thesis abstracts. Review your abstract(s) prior to your submission of your initial thesis. We encourage students to keep in mind the requirements for abstracts at the time of the final submission of the thesis on Minerva: They should be text only, i.e. no images, special characters (apart from the West European character set excluding the “Œ” and “œ”), chemical or mathematical formulae, or special formatting (e.g. lists, tables). Abstracts in English and French are mandatory in the final version of the thesis submitted through Minerva.   Thesis in PDF format. Your initial thesis should be submitted on myThesis in PDF format. The naming convention for the thesis file must be as follows: lastname_first name_unit name(can be abbreviated)_thesis.pdf e.g., LASTNAME_John_Electrical&ComputerEng(ECE)_thesis.pdf   A completed Initial Thesis Submission Checklist must be uploaded on myThesis as a supplemental document, with the initial thesis.   Other supplementary files (if required)

Click the button below to access myThesis:

Student Guidelines

• The new process does not apply to theses being resubmitted after revision.

Supervisor Guidelines

• Step-by-step instructions for supervisors .

Graduate Program Director (GPD) Guidelines

• Step-by-step instructions for GPDs .

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License . Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, McGill University .

Department and University Information

Graduate and postdoctoral studies.