Dissertation appendices hold the material a careful reader needs to check or repeat your study but that would interrupt your chapters. Getting them right is mostly a matter of choosing well, ordering them by first mention and formatting them consistently.
This guide covers what usually goes in an appendix, what should stay out, how labeling works, and the audit to run before you submit. Rules vary between universities, so treat your graduate school manual as the final word.
The Appendix Test in One Sentence
Put material in an appendix when it supports your study but is not needed to follow your argument: instruments, guides, consent templates, codebooks and supplementary tables. The main text must make sense without it.
Letter appendices A, B, C in the order you first mention them, start each on a new page, place them after the reference list, and cite every one in the text.
What Dissertation Appendices Are For
An appendix lets an examiner see exactly what you did without forcing every reader through it. A 60-item questionnaire, an interview guide or a table of assumption tests all fit this description.
The test works in both directions. Your chapters must stand on their own, and each appendix must add something a reader evaluating or replicating the study would genuinely want.
Appendices are often thrown together in the final week, which is why they attract so many format review comments. Keep a running list from the moment you write your methodology chapter, and the final assembly becomes a short job.
What Typically Goes in the Appendices
The table below lists the materials most programs expect or allow. Your own list depends on your design and on your ethics approval.
| Material | Why it belongs there | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Survey instruments and questionnaires | Lets readers evaluate and replicate your measures | Copyrighted scales may need permission |
| Interview or focus group guides | Shows exactly what participants were asked | Include probes and prompts |
| Recruitment materials | Shows how participants were approached | Remove personal contact details if required |
| Consent and information sheets | Documents your ethical procedures | Blank templates only, never signed forms |
| Ethics approval letter | Evidence of approval | Some universities require it, others forbid it |
| Codebook or coding framework | Makes qualitative analysis transparent | Code names, definitions, short excerpts |
| Supplementary tables and figures | Detail that supports but is not central to results | Assumption tests, item statistics, full matrices |
| Intervention materials | Allows replication of a program or protocol | Training packs, session plans, fidelity checklists |
What Should Stay Out of Your Appendices
Leaving the wrong material out matters as much as including the right material. These items cause the most trouble.
- Anything essential to a finding. If a reader must see a table to understand a result, it belongs in the results chapter.
- Raw data and full transcripts, unless your program requires them. These normally live in secure storage or an approved repository.
- Signed consent forms or any document carrying names, signatures or contact details.
- Identifying details about sites or participants you promised to anonymize.
- Copyrighted instruments reproduced without permission.
- Unexplained software output pasted in bulk as padding.
Before submission, read every appendix asking one question: could this identify a person or site I promised to protect? Letterheads, email signatures and small details in quoted excerpts are the usual culprits.
How to Label and Order Appendices
Most style guides, including APA 7th edition, use capital letters assigned in the order the appendices are first mentioned. Your manual may vary the details, but the pattern below is the common default.
- One appendix only: label it "Appendix" with no letter.
- Two or more: Appendix A, Appendix B, Appendix C and so on.
- Give each a descriptive title beneath the label, such as "Semi-Structured Interview Guide".
- Start each appendix on a new page.
- Follow first mention: whichever document the text cites first becomes Appendix A.
Example order, by first mention in the methodology chapter.
Appendix A: Site Permission Letter
Appendix B: Participant Information Sheet
Appendix C: Consent Form Template
Appendix D: Demographic Questionnaire
Appendix E: Semi-Structured Interview Guide
Appendix F: Codebook With Example Excerpts
Some universities, particularly outside the United States, number appendices (Appendix 1, 2, 3) or use roman numerals. Follow whatever your handbook specifies and keep it consistent.
Referring to Appendices in the Text
Every appendix must be mentioned at least once in the body. An appendix nobody points to should either be cited or removed.
"The full interview guide appears in Appendix E."
"Participants completed a short demographic questionnaire (see Appendix D)."
"Results of the normality and homogeneity checks are reported in Appendix G."
Use the label exactly as it appears on the appendix page. When chapters move during revisions, reletter the appendices and update every cross-reference, because mismatches are among the most common format review comments.
Tables and Figures Inside Appendices
Under APA 7th edition, tables and figures in an appendix take the appendix letter in their number: Table A1, Table A2, Figure B1. They follow the same layout rules as tables in the main text.
Handling of an appendix that contains only a single table varies between manuals, so check yours rather than guessing. Other styles and many university templates number appendix tables differently again.
Wherever the table sits, give it a clear title, consistent decimal places and a note explaining abbreviations, so it can be read without hunting back through the chapters.
Formatting Rules to Check
- Appendices normally come after the reference list, as the last part of the document.
- Labels and titles are usually centered and often bold; follow your manual's heading style.
- Page numbering continues from the main text unless your manual says otherwise.
- Appendices appear in the table of contents if your graduate school requires it.
- Scanned documents must be resized to sit inside the margins.
- Landscape pages follow your manual's rules for page number position.
For the wider rules on margins, spacing and front matter, our guide to dissertation formatting standards covers what format reviewers check.
Copyrighted Instruments and Permissions
A dissertation deposited in a public repository counts as a publication, so reproducing a copyrighted scale in full can breach the publisher's terms. You have three usual options.
- Obtain written permission to reproduce the instrument and include the permission letter.
- Reproduce sample items only, where the copyright holder allows it, and cite the source.
- Describe the instrument and say where it can be obtained, without reproducing it.
Instruments you wrote yourself, or those released under an open license, can usually be included in full. Read the license terms rather than assuming a scale is free because it appears in a journal article.
Appendices by Research Design
| Design | Commonly included |
|---|---|
| Quantitative | Questionnaire, permissions, assumption tests, supplementary statistical tables |
| Qualitative | Interview guide, codebook, sample coded excerpt, audit trail summary |
| Mixed methods | Instruments for both strands, joint display, integration procedures |
| Professional doctorate | Intervention protocol, implementation timeline, site agreements, evaluation tools |
Large files such as datasets, code or audio may be better as supplementary files uploaded alongside the PDF. Check whether your repository accepts them and whether they will be public, because the same confidentiality rules apply.
A Final Appendix Audit
Run this once your committee has approved the content and before you send the dissertation for format review. It takes an hour or two.
- Search the text for "Appendix" and confirm each reference matches a real appendix letter and title.
- Check the order against first mention and reletter if chapters moved.
- Read each appendix for names, organizations, places and signatures.
- Confirm and file permissions for every reproduced instrument or figure.
- Check margins, page numbers, heading style and table numbering.
- Update the table of contents.
- Export to PDF and scroll every page, since scans and landscape pages often shift.
How DissertationHorse Helps with Dissertation Appendices
Send your draft chapters, the files you want in the appendices and your graduate school manual. An editor letters and orders the appendices by first mention, fixes cross-references, formats tables and flags anything that could identify a participant.
You see the price before you pay, your identity is never shared with the editor, and free revisions within the scope of your original request are included. We never create or alter data, instruments or approval documents.
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Send your draft, your appendix files and your graduate school manual. We return appendices that are lettered, cross-referenced and formatted to your rules.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Usually not, but it varies by university and sometimes by department. Check your handbook, and never move essential discussion into an appendix to get under the limit.
In most formats they come after the reference list, as the final section. Each appendix starts on a new page.
Usually not. Transcripts are long and carry confidentiality risks. A short anonymized excerpt showing your coding is more common, if your ethics approval allows it.
Some universities require it, while others ask you to give only the approval reference number in the methodology chapter. Follow your graduate school's guidance.
Yes. A single appendix is simply labeled "Appendix", without a letter, in APA style and many university manuals.
In APA 7th edition they take the appendix letter, such as Table A1 or Figure B2. Other styles and university templates differ, so check yours.
Most graduate schools require each appendix title and page number to be listed. A few accept a single "Appendices" entry.
Large datasets are better deposited as supplementary files or in an approved repository, if your ethics approval and consent forms permit sharing.