Asbury Theological Seminary
Doctor of Ministry
Completing the Dissertation Process
- When your dissertation committee approves your proposal, and the Proposal Approval form is signed, that form along with a clean copy of the proposal (furnished by the participant) is filed in the D.Min. office.
- After your proposal has been accepted you may proceed with the implementation of the field research project.
- You then execute and evaluate the project and send chapter drafts to the faculty mentor on an agreed-upon schedule. During the process of implementation and writing, it is critical that you maintain contact with the faculty mentor and make progress reports.
- You submit an entire project/dissertation draft to the editorial assistant to edit for form and style, punctuation, and grammar.
- You incorporate the editorial assistant's corrections into a final draft of the entire project/dissertation and submit it to the D.Min office.
- When you and your faculty mentor believe you are ready for a dissertation defense, your faculty mentor requests a defense date. We begin the process of coordinating the committee members' schedules for a defense date.
- Submit three copies (three-hole punched) to the D.Min. Office no later than two weeks prior to the scheduled dissertation defense date. We distribute one copy to the D.Min. Dean or Associate Director, one to your faculty mentor, and one to your internal reader. If the final draft arrives after the two-week deadline, the defense date will have to be rescheduled.
- You meet with your committee in the D.Min. Director's office for the defense.
- You bring to the defense one copy of the approval page for each dissertation you intend to have bound. Be sure to bring one copy on 25% rag or cotton content paper. The dissertation committee recommends to the D.Min. Dean with regard to the project/dissertation to:
- Accept
- Accept with Minor Revisions;
- Reject.
- Revisions in the Project-dissertation will be made by the participant, as needed. The Dissertation Committee certifies, by signing the approval page of the Project-dissertation, that necessary revisions have been completed satisfactorily.
- The participant sends one copy of the corrected project-dissertation to the D.Min. Office for editing of preliminary pages, references, etc.
- The D.Min. Office will contact the participant with a list of required revisions.
- Revisions in the project/dissertation will be made by the participant, as needed. The student sends the original (which is laser printed on 25% rag or cotton content paper) and four copies of the dissertation on regular bond paper (a minimum of five copies) to the D.Min. Office They are then forwarded to the ATS library and on to the bindery. Subsequent to binding, the five copies will be distributed to:
- the library,
- the library archives,
- the D.Min. Office,
- your faculty mentor, and
- You
- The participant must send an electronic copy of his/her dissertation to the D. Min. office along with the five hard copies. This may be attached to an e-mail or sent by CD. If the participant is binding his/her dissertation in media format, there will be an additional cost. Any persons using media binding must add contact information to their posted information for those seeking to access materials.
- The participant bears the cost for binding the volumes. Information as to the current charge for binding may be obtained from the D.Min. Office
- A final edit will be made of the five copies. If any edited correction was overlooked, the participant will be notified. If the final corrections are not made by the deadline, the diploma will be held until they are received.