Procedure

• Students must follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association with only minor exceptions.
• Committee of three faculty members appointed. The committee normally is selected from members within the student’s academic department.
• Signed prospectus title page as described in current Guide for Preparing Theses and Dissertations published by The Graduate School. The following must be completed prior to data collection when human subjects are to be used in a prospective study.
• Research design approved by the Human Subjects Committee.
• Research design approved by the building principal if research is confined to one school.

• Research design approved by principal and the school system if research involves collecting data from more than one school. The Office of Field Services will obtain approval in this instance.

1. Johnson, B., & Christensen, L. (2000). Educational Research Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. Boston: Allyn Bacon.
2. Green, S., Salkind, N., & Akey, T. (2000). Using SPSS for Windows Analyzing and Understanding Data. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.
3. The latest version of “Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association”.
4. The latest version of “Guide for Preparing Theses and Dissertations” The Graduate School University of South Alabama.
5. The online “Research Methods Knowledge Base” at Cornell University.

• The student must furnish the Graduate Office in the College of Education with one bound copy of the final paper, with appropriate signatures, by the last day of class of the semester they are completing the paper. The copy of the paper will be returned to the students's department.
  
  Microsoft Word templates have been created to guide students in the preparation of their prospectus and final draft. (Students should check their configuration to make certain their final product conforms to the standard as printers and computers may differ). A pdf copy is also available as a guide.

• Students must register for either a type I or type II comprehensive examination---see department for requirements. Failure to register for the comprehensive examination may delay graduation.
• It is the student's responsibility to meet the deadline for registering for the comprehensive examination and processing the final paper.

Line Spacing:
The general text of the manuscript shall be double-spaced. Single-space long tables, long quotations, footnotes, notes, multiple captions and bibliographic entries.

References:
Individual entries in reference lists should be single spaced, with a standard double space between entries.

Typeface:
APA uses underlining to indicate italics. Students should use italics since their approved work is the final version. Boldface type is used only in very rare instances.

Figures and Tables:
Manuscripts submitted for publication often include material at the end of the manuscript. Students should follow the instructions in the Guide for Preparing Thesis and Dissertations The Graduate School USA regarding placement in the body of the document.

Seriation:
Use APA. This means bullets are not appropriate.

Headings:
Students should follow APA

Running Head:
Do not use.