Dissertation = thesis ?

lizrodwell

Hello!

I was wondering what the best way to distinguish a reference as an unpublished dissertation is. I just labeled it a "thesis" for the meantime, but was that the correct thing to do?

Thanks for indulging my rather daft, simple question :) Love the software (much better than Refworks.)

adamsmith

I would just reference it as a book, and then put in the publisher field: "Doctoral Dissertation, XY University", this way this will look (in APA)

Smart, L. (2008). _How to Cite Dissertations in Dissertations._ Cambridge, MA: Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University.

scot

I have always assumed that 'thesis' is the general category to which all graduate level unpublished research. I mark them as thesis with a type of 'PhD' (or DD, DMin, whatever). One of the characteristics of the citation language which Zotero uses is that it tries to keep category proliferation down, so I can't image that they intended more than one category for dissertation/thesis works.

Whether or not your chosen citation style outputs it correctly is a matter you'll have to test (and report back!).

(On a side note, much of the English speaking world calls PhD work a "thesis" and Master's level work a "dissertation", the opposite of the N. American terminology.)

erazlogo

(On a side note, much of the English speaking world calls PhD work a "thesis" and Master's level work a "dissertation", the opposite of the N. American terminology.)

Well, "thesis" seems to cover more ground either way--one can write an undergraduate, M.A., or Ph.D. thesis, and that's pretty much everything this item type is supposed to cover. So, yes, use "thesis" and just enter "Ph.D. diss." in the "type" field. This is expected in Chicago styles (and I believe others as well) and thus will be cited correctly.

lizrodwell

I'm trying to use MLA style (as required for this paper) and it's not correctly showing up in the Works Cited properly when I label it a thesis. Proper format for an unpublished dissertation in MLA is:
(example)

Marks, Elizabeth A. "Shojo Manga as Female Fantasy: Bodies of the Feminine." Diss. U of Chicago, 2008.

I can't seem to find a way using zotero's "thesis" label to get either Diss or the University to appear in the Works Cited.

lizrodwell

Oh, I wanted to add that labeling it a book instead of a thesis isn't good for MLA because then the title appears as underlined rather than in quotes in the Works Cited.