All required material must be submitted to the Graduate Program Director (GPD) Dr. Gerben Zylstra at least one week before the following School of Graduate Studies deadlines:
- October 1, 2024, for an October (2024) dated degree (due to GPD by Monday 9/23/24)
- January 6, 2025, for a January (2025) dated degree (due to GPD by Monday 12/30/24)
- April 1, 2025, for a May (2025) dated degree (due to GPD by Monday 3/24/25)
- October 1, 2025, for an October (2025) dated degree (due to GPD by Monday 9/22/25)
1) You must follow all of the School of Graduate Studies requirements found at https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduation/checklist-phd-degree.
2) You must have the appropriate amount of course credits and research credits for graduation. Please have Dr. Zylstra calculate these for you before you meet with your committee. Requirements for graduation are also on the Ph.D. Degree Information page.
3) You need to write a thesis. Talk to your research advisor on their requirements for length, style, and content. You should also check https://grad.rutgers.edu/academics/graduation and follow the links for (A) Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Submission, (B) Thesis and Dissertation Style Guide, and (C) Copyright Issues for Dissertations: Guidelines on Use of Prior Works.
4) In many cases some chapters in the thesis may have already been published, may be submitted for publication, or may be in preparation for submission to a journal. In these situations proper acknowledgement of the publication and the role of the dissertation writer (student) in preparing those manuscripts must be explained in a Preface. More information on acknowledging your previously published publications included in your dissertation is at the SGS dissertation guideline web site. Please also read the section at the bottom of this web page on Acknowledgement of a Student's Previously Published Work Included in a Dissertation.
5) You must have a thesis committee. In consultation with your advisor you need to choose at least four professors (including your advisor) for your Ph.D. thesis committee. Three professors must be members of the Microbial Biology Graduate Program (the list of faculty is on the Faculty Research web page). One professor must be an "outside member." This means someone from outside the University, a Rutgers faculty member not on the list of Microbial Biology faculty members, or someone on the list of Microbial Biology faculty members but who is not in your advisor's department (or center). Dr. Zylstra needs to approve the members of your thesis committee so when you have chosen the people please email him their names for approval.
6) You need to schedule a defense date. Work with your research advisor to schedule a date, time, and place for your defense. You need to schedule a large room for at least one hour to give your public seminar and you need to schedule a conference room for at least two hours for the meeting with your thesis committee after your public seminar. Please make sure that you email Ms. Lindsay Vasy and Dr. Zylstra the title of your thesis and the date, time, and place of your defense at least one month in advance. Ms. Vasy will circulate notices about your defense so that other students and faculty may attend. You can have a virtual thesis defense on Zoom with your research advisor's permission. In this case you need to provide the Zoom information to Ms. Vasy in place of the room information for your defense (again, at least one month ahead of your defense). You can also have a hybrid thesis defense with both in person and virtual participation. In that case both the room information and the Zoom information need to be provided to Ms. Vasy.
7) You must email Dr. Zylstra a PDF copy of your thesis at least one week before your defense. He needs to check your thesis for plagiarism and provide a report to your thesis committee.
8) You must bring the completed Defense Form to your thesis defense (this form is sometimes referred to as the Candidacy Form). Please make sure that the courses you list on the Defense Form are in chronological order. At your defense the committee must sign the Defense Form that you passed. If you have a virtual or hybrid defense then please email your Defense Form to Dr. Zylstra and he will collect electronic (DocuSign) signatures from your thesis committee. Please make sure to use the standalone version of Acrobat to fill out the Defense Form. Using the PDF editor in web browsers (especially on an Apple computer) do not always result in a PDF readable by other computers.
9) You must bring a copy of your thesis title page to your defense for your committee members to sign. If you have a virtual or hybrid defense then please send a PDF of your thesis title page to Dr. Zylstra and he will collect electronic (DocuSign) signatures from your thesis committee.
10) You must submit your final thesis (after making edits suggested by your thesis committee) to the Rutgers University Electronic Thesis and Dissertations system before the final deadline.
11) Bring (or email in the case of PDFs) all of the documents needed for your graduation to Dr. Zylstra by the deadline above. He will email all of the documents to SGS with a cc to you. Some documents can be sent to Dr. Zylstra before your defense. See the Checklist for the Ph.D. Degree for SGS paperwork needed for graduation. In summary you need to email Dr. Zylstra SEVEN documents:
(1) PDF copy of the Defense Form (in the case of forms signed in ink Dr. Zylstra will scan the form when he signs it)
(2) PDF copy of the signed thesis title page (in the case of title pages signed in ink Dr. Zylstra will scan it)
(3) PDF copy of the Diploma Application
(4) PDF copy of the Publishing Agreement
(5) PDF copy of the Certification of Completion of the Survey of Earned Doctorates
(6) PDF copy of the Verification Sheet of the Ph.D. Exit Survey
(7) PDF copy of the Degree Candidate Responsibility Statement
Important: Remember that Dr. Zylstra must receive these documents at least five days ahead of the SGS due date! Many of these documents can be sent to Dr. Zylstra BEFORE your defense! Dr. Zylstra will electronically submit all the documents to the SGS by the due date.
Acknowledgement of a Student's Previously Published Work Included in a Dissertation
Please read the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Style Guide especially the section on Acknowledgment of Previous Publications.
In many cases some chapters in the thesis may have already been published, may be submitted for publication, or may be in preparation for submission to a journal. In these situations proper acknowledgement of the publication and the role of the dissertation writer (student) in preparing those manuscripts must be explained in a Preface.
Example statements to include in the Preface:
Chapter 1 has been published as Student1, Student2, Professor1, Professor2. 20xx. Role of geneX in some very important microbial process. JournalName 58:104-110. DOI xx123yy456 PMID 12345678. Student1 participated in writing the manuscript and is directly responsible for those experiments dealing with x, y, and z; Figures 2, 4, and 7; and Tables 1, 3, and 5. (Cite the figure numbers in the actual published paper.)
Chapter 2 has been submitted for publication as Student2, Student1, Student3, Professor1, and Professor2. 20xx. I found some interesting bacteria in some unusual habitat. Student1 participated in writing the manuscript and is directly responsible for those experiments dealing with x, y, and z. (Since the paper isn't published yet you can't cite which figures and tables are yours.)
Chapter 3 is being prepared for publication as Student1, Student2, Student4, Professor3, and Professor2. 20xx. I analyzed some genomes and I found some fascinating things. Student1 participated in writing the manuscript and is directly responsible for those experiments dealing with x, y, and z. (Since the paper isn't published yet you can't cite which figures and tables are yours.)