Please find the steps required during the completion of your thesis below. The students are expected to follow all steps and the deadlines. All the rules stated below are in line with Middle East Technical University Rules and Regulations Governing Graduate Studies (also available in Turkish).

Supervisor

• You can assign your supervisor via METU Thesis Supervisor Assignment System.
• Thesis supervisor must be a member of METU. Faculty members from other universities or other departments from METU, persons having PhD from industry can be appointed as co-supervisor for METU theses.
• Master's students have to assign their supervisors at the end of their first semester. PhD students have to assign their supervisors at the end of their second semester. Their interactive course registrations will be approved by their supervisors following that semester.
• You can assign your co-supervisor through the same system at least one semester before the thesis jury. If the name of the co-supervisor is not on the list in the mentioned system, you can email nejla[at]metu.edu.tr by providing us the necessary information about the co-supervisor you want to assign including the title, institution, and the email address.
• A thesis supervisor must have supervised at least one master's thesis in order to be able to supervise a PhD dissertation.

Publication Requirement for Graduation

• In order to be able to defend the graduate thesis, students should satisfy the following conditions:
• MSc students must prepare a draft of a manuscript prepared in the format of a national or an international journal along with their MSc thesis. In case of an already existing publication based on his/her thesis' studies a copy of the paper would be sufficient.
• PhD students must have submitted a manuscript for possible publication in one of the SCI, SCI-E or SSCI indexed journals. This manuscript must be handed over to the jury members together with the thesis' draft. In case of an already existing publication based on his/her thesis' studies a copy of the paper would be sufficient.
• This rule will be valid for the students enrolled to the programmes at IAM starting from 2019-2020 Fall Semester.

Jury Assignment

The thesis jury is appointed by the recommendation of the thesis advisor and the programme chair after the approval of the Institute. If the principal advisor is an affiliated faculty of IAM, it is highly recommended that the thesis jury should contain one member from IAM Faculty. The Jury Assignment Form (Tez Jürisi Atama Formu, in Turkish) has to be typed digitally and sent to the Institute one month before the exam date for its approval.

• MSc Thesis Jury

• The MSc Thesis Jury is composed of three or five members. In case of the jury with 3 members, the co-supervisor is not allowed to be a jury member. However, the co-supervisor can be a jury member if she/he is a faculty member and if the jury comprises of five members;
• The MSc Thesis Jury  must be formed by at least one of jury members must be a IAM member and at least one of the jury members must not be a METU member.

• PhD Thesis Jury

• The PhD Thesis Jury is composed of five members of faculty including those in the Thesis Advisory Committee (TAC) (Tez İzleme Komitesi (TİK)) and two faculty members from who are not a member of METU;
• In addition to the five members of the thesis jury, the co-supervisor may attend the meeting without a right to vote.

• Term Project Submission Rules

• Term project report should be prepared according to the rules of thesis preparations. The format should be iamPaperFormat-v.1.0.rc1.
• Upon the submission of your report, an oral presentation is expected to be made which is announced to IAM mail list.
• The final draft (pdf) should be submitted to the secretary office as well as OpenMETU.

Thesis Preparations

• IAM has its own set of rules on the thesis format in accordance with the university regulations and the format approval is required before finalizing the binding process.

IAM THESIS FORMAT AND APPEARANCE

• Use IAM thesis LaTeX template. No other document format is accepted.

• The current LaTeX template for theses of IAM can be downloaded: thesisFormat-2.1.zip .
• We suggest you also should check the Frequently Asked Questions on the topic.
• The LaTeX template downloaded from iamPaperFormat-v.1.0.rc1 can be used for the purpose of
• Term Project,
• Report for Thesis Monitoring Committee,
• Qualification in PhD,
• Draft of a Manuscript.

• If needed, please visit METU Academic Writing Center for improving the text.
• Photocopies must be made from the original and all pages must have high contrast with consistently dark print throughout the thesis. Inferior copies and copies not made on approved paper will not be accepted.
• Kind of type and type size should be one of the document class from IAM thesis LaTeX template. But footnotes, endnotes, quotations, examples, tables, charts, figures, etc. can be written with smaller point sizes as long as they are easily readable.
• Ink corrections, strikeovers and handwriting are never allowed.
• The pages in each chapter should be two-sided. However, there are intentionally left blank pages between chapters; see LaTeX template!

THE PARTS OF THE THESIS

• All headings and titles should be presented in the same way, in terms of capitalization, placement, kind of type used, point size, etc. including all Preliminary Pages, Chapters, Appendices, References & CV.
• Title page (on page i, but without numbering)
• Approval page must be corrected according to the sample approval page (on page iii, but without numbering). First committee member should be the chair of examining committee. Second committee member should be your supervisor and third committee member should be your co-supervisor if s/he is exist. The rest should be sorted according to their academic titles. All affiliations should fit in a single line. If affiliation line is broken into two lines, you should shorten the affiliation by using abbreviations or any other means.
• Plagiarism Page (on page v)
• Abstract / Öz (each starts on an odd-numbered pages)
• Dedication, Acknowledgements, and Preface are optional, but each starts on an odd-numbered page. Dedication must be brief and centered on the respective odd-numbered pages.
• Table of Contents (on an odd-numbered page)
• List of Tables, if applicable/necessary (on an odd-numbered page)
• List of Figures, if applicable/necessary (on an odd-numbered page)
• List of Symbols/Abbreviations, if applicable/necessary  (on an odd-numbered page)
• The Text/Chapters (each chapter starts on an odd-numbered page)
• Illustrations of any kind should be numbered, this includes appendices.
• Table numbers and captions are placed above the top of line of illustration.
• Figure numbers and captions are placed below the last line (bottom) of illustration.
• For all illustrations (figures, tables, charts, etc.), the captions and headings should be same in terms of typeface, point size.
• Bibliography/References starts on an odd-numbered page. Special names and abbreviations should be written with capital letters. The names of the journals should be in long format; using iamBiblioStyle.bst and BibTeX are strongly advised.
• Appendices: Do not make a cover page for appendices; each appendix starts on an odd-numbered page.
• Vita required only for PhD thesis  should start on an odd-numbered page.

WHAT TO DO BEFORE AND AT THE END OF THE THESIS DEFENSE

• Check whether the format of your thesis fits with IAM Thesis Template.
• Send your thesis document to kaytanci[at]metu.edu.tr and kcabas[at]metu.edu.tr for a format check before sending it to the Examining Committee Members at least 20 days before your defense.
• Send your thesis to Examining Committee Members at least 15 days before your defense.
• Send your Thesis Announcement Form (Tez Duyuru Formu, in Turkish) to IAM secretarial at least 15 days before your defense in order for it to be announced by IAM.
• Print out the (first page of the) turnitin report of your thesis (to be done by your supervisor). Check the FAQ: https://faq.cc.metu.edu.tr/Turnitin .
• Make sure that your Thesis Exam Official Report Form (Tez Sınavı Tutanak Formu) to be signed after the defense by jury members. This form has to be submitted to the secretary office no later than 2 days after the defense.

WHAT TO DO AFTER THE THESIS DEFENSE

• Make the necessary adjustments offered by the Examining Committee Members in 30 days.
• Make sure that the format and appearance are as required! For this, the thesis manuscript has to be approved by Res. Assist. Dr. Kübra Kaytancı (kaytanci[at]metu.edu.tr) and Res. Assist. Furkan Kerim Çabaş (kcabas[at]metu.edu.tr)  before it is officially binded.
• Ensures that all the fields on the approval page of the thesis are signed by the related faculty member. Blue ink must be used for all signatures.
• You may close the online access to your thesis for 6 months, your patent for two years after its submission to the institute. To do so, you have to make an official application to the secretary office no later than one week after the thesis defense.

• Bring your printed, binded and signed thesis to METU Library attached with Thesis Permission Form (Tez İzin Formu).

• Fills the OpenMETU form. (This form will not be printed).
• Fills the YOK Thesis Entry Form and prints it. In addition to this form, prepare a CD with the pdf of your thesis (No personal information and signatures should be on this pdf).
• In summary, at the last stage you are required to bring the following documents to the secretary office:

1. Binded and signed copy of the thesis.
2. Advisor-signed turnitin report of your thesis.
3. Approved OpenMETU form (sent by METU Library to the institute secretary right after you fill the OpenMETU form).
4. YOK Thesis Entry Form.
5. PDF of your thesis recorded on CD.
6. Thesis Information Form (Tez Bilgi Formu).

General Principles, Rules and Regulations

• Middle East Technical University Rules and Regulations Governing Graduate Studies (also available in Turkish).