Doctoral Students' Guide to McKillop Library: APA: Dissertation Formatting

Front Matter

• Title Page
• Copyright Page (Note: you own the copyright to your manuscript, so this page is optional if you do decide to include a copyright page, it is not included in the page numbering. If you used copyrighted materials for which permission was sought and given, documentation may be included as part of your appendix)
• Abstract (typically limited to 250 words. Also included on this page is the Keywords section: three to five words that describe the most important aspects of your paper and help readers find your work during a database search)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures (if applicable)
• Acknowledgements

Text

• Chapter 1: The title serves as the Level 1 heading (subsequent level headings in this section should be relative to those which state the problem; content in this chapter identify the purpose of the project, clinical questions, and the theoretical framework employed) 

• Chapter 2: Review of the Literature

• Chapter 3: Methodology (this section includes study setting, sample/participants, study instrument(s), data collection, ethical considerations, timeline)

• Chapter 4: Results (this section is for objective analysis of the data)

• Chapter 5: Discussion (this section interprets the results and assesses its significance, as well as identifies strengths, limitations, and in conclusion, possible implications)

Back Matter

• References
• Tables
• Figures
• Appendices

The following checklist outlines sections of the DNP Scholarly Project and identifies specific pages where guidelines are found in The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition.

Chapter 7 of the APA Publication Manual, 7th edition presents detailed guidance on creating tables and figures; it also includes handy checklists (See APA 7.20, 7.35) to ensure all data are presented, formatted, and documented appropriately. 

You may also find additional guidance and examples in the APA Style online resource, APA Style and Grammar Guidelines/Tables and Figures.

Brainfuse: Online Support in Canvas

For additional support, all Salve graduate students have access to the online tutoring program, Brainfuse, embedded in your Canvas courses and located in the left navigation menu. Clicking the link opens a landing page and prompts you to launch the application. From there, you will need to confirm and authorize it for the first time:

Guidelines from the Behavior Analysis Handbook:

The purpose of a dissertation report is to summarize the project in manuscript form. The report should be written as if it were being submitted to a journal to be reviewed for publication. Report documents must include all required components of a research manuscript with an emphasis on the following components:

• Title Page
  • Each committee member should be included.
• Abstract
• Introduction
  • Detailed Review of Relevant Research
  • Clearly Articulated Purpose
• Methods
  • Independent and Dependent Variables
  •  Experimental Design
  • Procedures
  • Plan for Believability Data
  • Results
  • Description of Anticipated Outcomes
  • Mock Graph of Results
• Discussion/Conclusion
  • Limitations/Future Directions
• References
• Appendix
  • IRB Approval Documentation (if applicable)