Doctor of Ministry Project Papers

The Library will add the approved final version of your Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) Project Paper to our permanent collection. The Project Paper will be:

• catalogued as part of our Library collection so that other researchers can access your work. This not relinquish your own rights as copyright holder, nor does it prohibit you from publishing the work at a later date. Your work is your intellectual property.
• catalogued in the Research in Ministry (RIM® Online) database at the American Theological Library Association
• preserved in electronic format and added to the library's Digital Repository.

Instructions for submitting your paper to the Library will be available via Blackboard.

Note: The library reserves the right to refuse acceptance of any Project Paper that does not follow library guidelines. Because submitting a final paper to the Library is one of the requirements of your program, this can have an impact on your eligibility for graduation.

Project Papers are expected to conform to guidelines for source citation and formatting as established and widely used in academic writing, and The Doctor of Ministry Project Paper Handbook & Style Guide offers guidance and instructions for preparing your paper for submission to the library. (While it is often useful to consult earlier Project Papers for guidance, there’s no guarantee that an earlier model is a good one. Further, standards can change over time.)

Wesley's DMin Handbook & Style Guide is based on Kate Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students & Researchers. Turabian’s Manual has been a standard in academic writing for many years; the current (ninth) edition is revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and the University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2018). Turabian's Manual for Writers is available in the Library's Reference Collection, or if you are outside the Washington, DC area you can find it in a local library. You can also order it from an online bookseller, such as Amazon or Barnes & Noble. 

Where there is a discrepancy between these instructions and Turabian’s Manual, please adhere to the Wesley DMin Style Guide & Handbook. If you have any questions or concerns about interpreting or applying these instructions, please contact us  via email (library@wesleyseminary.edu). We ask that you refer to Turabian’s Manual for Writers first, to see if it resolves the issue.

The Library no longer binds physical copies of project papers. However, realizing students may want to print and bind copies for their personal use, the Library would like to offer the following suggestions:

The best paper to use for printing is any paper which is

• size: 8 ½ x 11 inches
• acid-free (which can be labeled “alkaline pH” or “pH neutral” or “buffered” or show a pH rating of 7 or higher)
• cotton content: 25% minimum
• weight: 20-24 lb.

Such paper is typically called “thesis paper” and can be purchased from office supply stores or online. One commonly used product is Southworth’s Thesis Paper, which can be purchased from Southworth.com, Amazon.com, and other online vendors.

After you print your paper, you may wish to have it bound. Contact local binderies in the yellow pages (under “bookbinders”) or look online. Make sure the bookbinder will accept individual orders for binding dissertations; some only accept bulk orders from institutions.