Frequently Asked Questions

Further Information

If you have any questions not addressed by the FAQ, you may contact the editor.

Am I obligated to submit my thesis or dissertation for editing?

Yes. All master’s and doctoral candidates at the Atatürk Institute are obliged to submit their final thesis or dissertation for in-house editing.

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May I submit materials to the editor other than my final thesis or dissertation?

No, this is not a part of the in-house editing service provided to degree candidates.

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When do I need to submit my manuscript?

Manuscripts may be submitted year-round.

For master’s candidates intending to defend their thesis at the end of the Spring term, submissions made by the deadline will be given priority over doctoral dissertations. Submissions made later than the deadline will not be prioritized ahead of doctoral dissertations already in the editing queue, reducing the likelihood that your defense will be in time for graduation in the Spring term.

Doctoral candidates are discouraged from submitting dissertations in the period from April through June, which is set aside for the editing of master’s theses. Dissertations submitted at this time will be edited only after the editing of master’s theses is complete.

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In what format do I submit my work?

Submit your completed manuscript by e-mail in Microsoft Word format.

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May I submit partial work to the editor?

No. Partial work will not be accepted. Theses and dissertations must be complete, including notes, bibliography, appendices, and all front matter. If the acknowledgements are not submitted with the rest of manuscript, they will not be edited.

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My text is done but the notes and/or bibliography are not. May I submit it anyway?

No. Verifying citations is part of the editor’s mandate, so you must finish this work prior to submitting.

Moreover, manuscripts submitted for editing are part of the final submission to the department, not a draft. Any failures to cite sources for materials and ideas not your own will be considered plagiarism.

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What exactly will the editor do?

The ethics of editing student academic work are different than for professional editing.

The goal of editing will be to make your content readable, not defensible. The editor’s mandate is to make recommendations with regard to format, grammar, spelling, and usage. In cases where word choice, grammar, syntax, or the argument are unclear, the editor will write a query/comment rather than correct, rewrite, or restructure the text.

As they are part of the test of a your academic ability and preparedness, the content, arguments, structure, calculations, and choice of technical terminology within your manuscript are your own responsibility in collaboration with your academic advisor. Any choices made in these regards will not be questioned or changed by the editor.

Given variation in degree candidates’ language proficiencies, editing will be designed to improve the writing in relative proportion, not to bring it to a standard level.

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Is there any reason the editor wouldn’t edit my work?

The editor will return your manuscript if the format does not conform to The Form of Theses and Dissertations, and you will forfeit your place in the queue.

In cases where there are substantial linguistic or ethical issues (e.g. plagiarism) that confound the editor’s ability to work, the editor will defer to the author’s academic advisor and the Director of the Institute.

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How long will the editing of my manuscript take?

Editing takes on average 6 thousand words per work day (i.e. weekday), depending on the quality of the writing.

You may check the editing queue to see information about manuscripts in the queue ahead of your own.

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In what format will the editing be returned to me?

Editing will be returned to you in a non-editable PDF format with deletions, additions, and comments highlighted. Microsoft Word files will not be provided.

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Why doesn’t the editor provide Microsoft Word files with tracked changes?

This is the Institute’s way of ensuring academic standards. You are ethically responsible for each word of your own manuscripts; thus, you are obliged to consider each edit and make the final revisions to your own copy of the manuscript.

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What if I don’t like a change that the editor has made?

The editor’s mandate is to make recommendations with regard to format, grammar, spelling, and usage. If you feel an edit encroaches on the content of your manuscript, the choice to accept or reject any given edit is ultimately your discretion in collaboration with your academic advisor.

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The deadline to submit my manuscript to my academic advisor and committee members is coming up! How can I finish making the revisions in time?

Doctoral dissertations are returned a chapter at time so that you can work concurrently with the editor. That said, it is the policy of the Institute that you should not make specific plans regarding the scheduling of your defense until the editing of your manuscript has been completed. See the editing queue for further information.

For logistical purposes, master's theses that are not time sensitive will be returned only once the editing of the whole text is complete. Longer master's theses that are submitted by the appropriate deadline may be returned a chapter at time at the editor's discretion.

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I’ve made revisions to my text. Will the editor look at them again?

No. There is no iterative editing of the work. Editing of additions and changes to manuscripts after the initial edit are your responsibility.

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Who else will see the edits to my work?

Edited work will be sent to your academic advisor for their records.

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When can I schedule my defense?

It is the policy of the Institute that you should not make specific plans regarding the scheduling of your defense until the editing of your manuscript has been completed.

To estimate the timing of your defense, divide the number of words in your manuscript by 6 thousand to arrive at the approximate number of working days (i.e. weekdays) the editing may take. You may then need a couple weeks to make revisions before distributing your text. Your committee members will need one week ― ten (10) days for doctoral dissertations ― to review the work. Generally this means your defense date can be no earlier than three (3) to four (4) weeks after the editing is completed.

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In what format will my final, formatted work be returned?

Final work is exported to archival PDF files with bookmarks and metadata that may be used by searchable repositories and databases like ProQuest and J-Stor—as well as by the algorithms of search engines like Google—to organize and weight content, resulting in more robust search results. Including this descriptive metadata is essentially a form of search engine optimization that may boost and promote your work.

The archival PDF should be used to print your bound copies for submission to the Institute. It should also be used for the digital submission required by the Yükseköğretim Kurulu (YÖK).

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