Completion Option Guidelines

Many SFU graduate degrees end with a publicly-defended thesis or research project or a capstone that serves as a final or summative product of the degree process.

Academic units have additional requirements for theses, research projects or capstones beyond what is listed here. These are available in each unit’s program-level completion guidelines.

A thesis results from original research and contributes to the exchange of knowledge. It is submitted in partial fulfilment of an SFU graduate degree. The scope of the research presented in a thesis is reflected by the fact that 18 units of credit are assigned to the work. Every SFU thesis is defended publicly and is submitted to the SFU Library and Library and Archives Canada.

The thesis may include non-textual elements including, but not limited to, audio, video, code, or other digital formats, and these may constitute the substantial body of the work. In order to facilitate the preservation and exchange of knowledge, the thesis should textually situate itself within past and current knowledge, including written description of the research methodologies and methods, the intellectual or social context that motivated the research, and the outcomes or findings. These findings should likewise be situated within the academic literature.

Theses are examined according to the procedures laid out in GGR 1.9.

A doctoral thesis should:

• present contributions to original and significant research
• communicate the student’s original and significant contribution to knowledge production, even in the case of collaborative research
• demonstrate the student’s thorough knowledge of and contribution to one or more areas of study
• demonstrate the student’s ability to conduct rigorous, ethical and respectful research
• locate the work of the thesis within the broader field or discipline(s)
• be in a format that can be archived in the SFU Library and Library and Archives Canada

A master’s thesis should:

• demonstrate that the student
  • has the ability to conduct research and produce innovative or scholarly work;
  • has mastered the literature of a specific research field; and
  • is familiar with and can situate their work within the main scholarly works in the subject area of the thesis
• be in a format that can be archived in the SFU Library and Library and Archives Canada

Theses are available as a completion option only in some master’s programs. They must be examined as laid out in GGR 1.9.

A research project is defended like a thesis but differs from a thesis in its overall scope and length. The scope of a research project is reflected by the fact that 10 units of credit are assigned to the work compared to 18 units for a thesis. Every 10-unit research project is defended publicly and is submitted to the SFU Library and Library and Archives Canada.

Research projects are available as a completion option only in some master’s programs. They must be examined as laid out in GGR 1.9.

A research project should:

• demonstrate that the student
  • has the ability to conduct research and produce innovative or scholarly work; and
  • is familiar with and can situate their work within the main scholarly works in the subject area of the thesis
• be in a format that can be archived in the SFU Library and Library and Archives Canada

Capstone projects, portfolios or extended essays are smaller in scope than a research project. This is reflected by the fact that 6 units of credit are assigned to the work. Capstone projects, portfolios or extended essays are normally completed within a course and may be graded by the course instructor. Academic units are responsible for determining the forms that capstones may take and how they are evaluated and whether they are to be deposited in the SFU’s digital repository (Summit).

Capstones are only available as a completion option in some master’s programs.

Research within a graduate program may include a range of methods and methodologies.

Academic supervisory committees provide students with guidance regarding the type of research and methodologies that are best suited to the work that graduate students will undertake, and Graduate Program Committees may provide explicit guidance regarding appropriate forms of research within the field.

SFU theses and projects must be preserved in an approved digital file type. Formats vary across disciplines and may include instances or combinations of the following:

• a set of manuscripts/academic papers
• a single monograph
• a video or audio documentation of an artwork/performance
• a creative work (e.g., a film, novel, story, graphic novel, app, game)
• a policy brief or report
• a website or app
• an invention
• a portfolio
• a geospatial visualization
• other formats approved by their academic supervisory committee

It is possible for a student to combine multiple formats into a larger whole.

Each academic unit is responsible for determining which thesis formats are acceptable for their graduate students. Most theses, research projects, capstone projects and essays are written text documents. Students may consider adding other types of content to the written text, and/or they may wish to produce a thesis, research project, capstone project, portfolio or essay that consists primarily of other types of content (e.g., website, audio recording, video recording, creative work). A student who wishes to submit their work in an alternative format must gain approval for this format from their academic supervisory committee and Graduate Program Committee. Where possible, information should be presented in such a way that individuals within the field with diverse needs are able to access the work (e.g., closed captions, sans serif fonts).

When approving diverse options for doctoral dissertations, it is important to consider how an external examiner will receive the dissertation in advance of the formal defence.

If the submission for the thesis or research project is not a pdf, the student and their academic supervisor should discuss the feasibility of preserving this media type with the Library (digital-scholarship@sfu.ca) as soon as possible, normally at the time of the approval of the work.  This will ensure that the intended work can be archived.