Procedures for submission of joint theses

Updated: 20 September 2010

Joint theses are ones in which the major research project is undertaken by a team of two or more trainees, usually working under the same supervisor. These are encouraged by the course, but care does need to be taken at all stages to ensure that each trainee is making a separate independent contribution. This document describes how the thesis should be presented in order to make the nature of each trainee's contribution explicit.

1. On the 'Overview' page of the thesis and in the Method section of the empirical paper it should be stated that this was a joint project, and each of the other projects in the group should be cited and included in the reference list. One reason this is important is to avoid problems for any subsequent literature reviews or meta-analyses, so that the separate projects will only be counted as one study.
2. As an Appendix to the thesis, there should be an outline of what the trainee's contribution to the joint study was, and what was done by others.
3. Although one of the benefits of joint work is that it enables a division of labour and a sharing of resources, the writing up must be completely independent; that is, all parts of a trainee's thesis (including the Method section of the empirical paper) must be written by the trainee alone.
4. When theses for joint projects are sent to the external and internal examiners, a covering sheet will be attached, saying that it was a joint project and naming the other trainees that were part of the group.
5. Theses of trainees who have worked jointly on a project will normally be examined by the same external examiner.

These considerations also apply, in suitably modified form, to other analogous cases, for example, where a trainee's thesis builds on the work done by a trainee from a previous year, or where there is a collaboration between a DClinPsy trainee and a PhD student.