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MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): Theses & Dissertations

Master's Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Master's theses are research papers that are submitted by those pursuing Master's degrees. Dissertations are extensive research documents typically submitted by doctoral candidates including those pursuing a Ph.D. or other doctoral degrees.

Works Cited List Citation

Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. Title of Dissertation or Thesis. Year of Publication. Name of Academic Institution Awarding the Degree if given, Type of source (PhD dissertation or Master's thesis). Name of Website, Repository, or Database, URL.


Note: If you're citing a dissertation or thesis that is not posted online, you can exclude the website/database/repository name and link from the citation. If citing the PDF version of the document, add the following at the end of the citation: PDF download.


Example: PhD Dissertation

Wiley, Amanda J. Exploring Nursing Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Academic Integrity: Perceptions of Severity. 2021. Columbia University, PhD dissertation. Columbia Academic Commons, academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-z7kc-5a88. PDF download.

 

Example: Master's Thesis

Altidor-Brooks, Alison Genevieve. Citation Use and Identity Construction: Discourse Appropriation in Advanced Academic Literacy Practices. 2014. University of Toronto, Master's thesis. TSpace Repository, tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/70191.
In-Text Citation

Required elements: Author last name, page number (if given) 

 

Parenthetical style example

(Wiley 5)

 

Narrative style example

Wiley states that "insert quote here" (5).
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.