digital copy of thesis

Dissertation and thesis submission (PhD, JSD, DMA, engineering master's)

Learn more about dissertation and thesis submission

Graduated and enrolled Stanford students may submit their dissertations and theses through Axess. The electronic submission process is free of charge. The service provides the ability to check your pre-submission requirements, and, when ready, you can upload a digital copy of your dissertation or thesis.  

Learn how to use the Dissertation and Thesis Center

Who is eligible?

The online Dissertation and Thesis Center in Axess is currently available to Stanford PhD, JSD, DMA, and engineering-degree students only.

What to expect

• After you have applied to graduate and have enrolled, you will see the Dissertation and Thesis Center in Axess.
• You’ll want to  prepare your work for submission , following the guidelines for format and title page.
• It may be helpful for you to check out  how to request to use copyrighted material , if you have questions.
• Next, you’ll submit your dissertation or thesis by following this helpful  checklist for submitting your dissertation or thesis .
• After submission, a  certificate of final reading will be created by your Final Reader, using the online submission workflow.
• In addition, you’ll need to  obtain approval from each member of your reading committee .
• After you have fulfilled all requirements and your dissertation or thesis has been approved by the University Registrar, it will be cataloged, preserved in the Stanford Digital Repository, and made available online via  SearchWorks , the online library catalog. 
• Please note: if embargoed, your dissertation or thesis PDF will be available only to Stanford affiliates for the duration of the embargo.

For more detailed information about submitting your dissertation or thesis online, refer to this set of dissertations and theses web pages provided by the Student Services Center.

Capstone and thesis submission (undergraduate honors, master's)

Check out the capstone and thesis submission (undergraduate honors, master's) page for information about submitting these types of theses.

Questions about the dissertation and thesis submission service? 

If you have questions about submitting your dissertation or thesis, please contact the  Student Services Center .

Dissertations and Theses

Main navigation.

Congratulations on being close to the finish line with your dissertation or thesis.

After you’ve applied to graduate and enrolled, dissertations and theses may be submitted online through the Dissertation & Thesis Center in Axess.  

Once you finish submitting your dissertation or thesis in Axess, and it has been approved by the university, the submission is considered final and no further changes are permitted. 

The electronic submission process is free of charge and allows you the ability to check your pre-submission requirements and when ready, upload a digital copy of your dissertation or thesis. 

You can learn more about the center on the How to Use the Dissertation & Thesis Center webpage.

• FAQs: Dissertation & Theses
• How to Submit Your Signature Page
• How to Use the Dissertation & Thesis Center
• How to Request to Use Copyrighted Material

Note: The online submission process is not available for master's theses or undergraduate honors theses. Please consult with your department directly regarding submission procedures.

Follow these guides to ensure you meet all the requirements for submitting your dissertation or thesis. 

• Prepare Your Work for Submission
• Submit Your Dissertation or Thesis
• Steps After Submission

Submission Deadlines for Conferral

You must apply to graduate and enroll before you can access the Dissertation & Thesis Center in Axess.

The Dissertation & Thesis Center opens to submissions on the first day of instruction each quarter for which the student has applied to graduate.

The quarterly deadlines are set as late in the quarter as possible, providing the time necessary for review of the dissertation or thesis, including review of final degree requirements by the Registrar's Office and the departments. 

You are strongly encouraged to submit your work at least two weeks prior to the deadline to ensure that all requirements can be met in time for the conferral of your degree. 

Once you finish submitting your dissertation or thesis in Axess, and it has been approved by the university, the submission is considered final and no further changes are permitted. 

After the final reader approves the dissertation, it typically takes about seven (7) business days for the university to process the submission.  

Deadlines by Quarter

Dissertation deadlines are strictly enforced.  No exceptions are made. By noon on the final submission deadline date, all of the following steps must be completed:           

• The student enrolls and applies to graduate;
• The student confirms the names of reading committee members in Axess, and designates a Final Reader;
• The student submits reading committee signatures;
• The student completes the necessary University Milestones;
• The student’s candidacy is valid through degree conferral;
• The student submits the final dissertation or thesis in Axess;
• The designated Final Reader certifies the final draft of the dissertation or thesis submitted in Axess.

For help, contact the Student Services Center .                                                                        

For faculty and staff information on Dissertations, visit Inside Student Services.

MIT Libraries logo MIT Libraries

MIT Specifications for Thesis Preparation

Approved November 2022 for use in the 2022-2023 academic year. Updated March 2023 to incorporate changes to MIT Policies and Procedures 13.1.3 Intellectual Property Not Owned by MIT .

View this page as an accessible PDF .

Table of Contents

• Thesis Preparation Checklist

Timeline for submission and publication

• Bachelor’s degree thesis
• Graduate degree thesis

Dual degree theses

Joint theses, what happens to your thesis, title selection, embedded links.

• Special circumstances

Signature page

Abstract page.

• Acknowledgments

Biographical notes

Table of contents, list of figures.

• List of tables
• List of supplemental material

Notes and bibliographic references

Open licensing, labeling copyright in your thesis, use of previously published material in your thesis, digital supplementary material, physical supplementary material, starting with accessible source files, file naming.

• How to submit thesis information to the MIT Libraries

Placing a temporary hold on your thesis

Changes to a thesis after submission, permission to reuse or republish from mit theses, general information.

This guide has been prepared by the MIT Libraries, as prescribed by the Committee on Graduate Programs and the Committee on Undergraduate Program, to assist students and faculty in the preparation of theses. The Institute is committed to the preservation of each student’s thesis because it is both a requirement for the MIT degree and a record of original research that contains information of lasting value.

In this guide, “department” refers to a graduate or undergraduate program within an academic unit, and “thesis” refers to the digital copy of the written thesis. The official thesis version of record, which is submitted to the MIT Libraries, is the digital copy of the written thesis that has been approved by the thesis committee and certified by the department in fulfillment of a student’s graduation requirement.

The requirements in this guide apply to all theses and have been specified both to facilitate the care and dissemination of the thesis and to assure the preservation of the final approved document. Individual departments may dictate more stringent requirements.

Before beginning your thesis research, remember that the final output of this research—your thesis document—should only include research findings that may be shared publicly, in adherence with MIT’s policy on Open Research and Free Interchange of Information . If you anticipate that your thesis will contain content that requires review by an external sponsor or agency, it is critical that you allow sufficient time for this review to take place prior to thesis submission. 

Questions not answered in this guide should be referred to the appropriate department officer or to the MIT Libraries ( [email protected] ).

• Final edited and complete thesis PDF is due to your department on the date specified in the Academic Calendar.
• Hold requests should be submitted to the Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education or TLO concurrent with your thesis submission.
• Thesis information is due to the MIT Libraries before your date of graduation.
• Departments must transfer theses to the MIT Libraries within 30 days from the last day of class (end of term).
• One week later (30 days from the last day of classes + 7 days) or one week after the degree award date (whichever is later) the MIT Libraries may begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT.
• If you have requested and received a temporary (up to 90-day) hold on the publication of your thesis from the Vice Chancellor, your thesis will be placed on hold as soon as it is received by the Libraries, and the 90-day hold will begin 30 days from the last day of class (end of term).
• If your thesis research is included in a disclosure to the TLO, the TLO may place your thesis on temporary hold with the Libraries, as appropriate.

Submitting your thesis document to your department

Your thesis document will be submitted to your department as a PDF, formatted and including the appropriate rights statement and sections as outlined in these specifications. Your department will provide more specific guidance on submitting your files for certification and acceptance.

Your department will provide information on submitting:

• A PDF/A-1  of your final thesis document (with no signatures)
• Signature page (if required by your department; your department will provide specific guidance)
• Original source files used to create the PDF of your thesis (optional, but encouraged)
• Supplementary materials  (optional and must be approved by your advisor and program)

Degree candidates must submit their thesis to the appropriate office of the department in which they are registered on the dates specified in the Academic Calendar. ( Academic Calendar | MIT Registrar ). September, February, and May/June are the only months in which degrees are awarded.

Bachelor’s degree theses

Graduate degree theses, submitting your thesis information to the libraries.

Information about your thesis must be submitted to the Libraries thesis submission and processing system  prior to your day of graduation. The information you provide must match the title page and abstract of your thesis . See How to submit thesis information to the MIT Libraries section for more details .

The academic department is required to submit the thesis to the MIT Libraries within one month after the last day of the term in which the thesis was submitted ( Faculty Regulation 2.72 ). The thesis document becomes part of the permanent archival collection. All thesis documents that have been approved will be transferred electronically to the MIT Libraries by a department representative via the MIT Libraries thesis submission and processing system .

The full-text PDF of each thesis is made publicly available in DSpace@MIT . A bibliographic record will appear in the MIT Libraries’ catalog, as well as the OCLC database WorldCat, which is accessible to libraries and individuals worldwide. Authors may also opt-in to having their thesis made available in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database.

Formatting specifications

Your work will be a more valuable research tool for other scholars if it can be located easily. Search engines use the words in the title, and sometimes other descriptive words, to locate works. Therefore,

• Be sure to select a title that is a meaningful description of the content of your manuscript; and
• Do: “The Effects of Ion Implantation and Annealing on the Properties of Titanium Silicide Films on Silicon Substrates”
• Do: “Radiative Decays on the J/Psi to Two Pseudoscalar Final States”

You may include clickable links to online resources within the thesis file. Make the link self-descriptive so that it can stand on its own and is natural language that fits within the surrounding writing of your paragraph. The full URL should be included as a footnote or bibliography citation (dependent on citation style).

• Sentence in thesis: Further information is available on the MIT Writing and Communications Center’s website . The full-text PDF of each thesis is made publicly available in DSpace@MIT .
• Footnote or Bibliography: follow the rules of your chosen citation style and include the full website URL, in this case http://libraries.mit.edu/mit-theses

Sections of your thesis

Required (all information should be on a single page)

The title page should contain the title, name of the author (this can be the author’s preferred name), previous degrees, the degree(s) to be awarded at MIT, the date the degree(s) will be conferred (May/June, September, or February only), copyright notice (and legend, if required), and appropriate names of thesis supervisor(s) and student’s home department or program officer.

The title page should have the following fields in the following order and centered (including spacing) :

Thesis title as submitted to registrar

Author’s preferred name

Previous degree information, if applicable

Submitted to the [department name] in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree(s) of

[degree name]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Month and year degree will be granted (May or June, September, February ONLY)

Copyright statement

This permission legend MUST follow: The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.

[Insert 2 blank lines]

Note: The remaining fields are left aligned and not centered

Authored by: [Author name]

[Author’s department name] (align with the beginning of the author’s name from the previous line)

[Date thesis is to be presented to the department] (align with the beginning of the author’s name from the first line)

Certified by: [Advisor’s full name as it appears in the MIT catalog]

   [Advisor’s department as it appears in the MIT catalog] (align with the beginning of the advisor’s name from the previous line), Thesis supervisor

Accepted by: [name]

[title – line 1] (align with the beginning of the name from the previous line)

[title – line 2] (align with the beginning of the name from the first line)

Note: The name and title of this person varies in different degree programs and may vary each term; contact the departmental thesis administrator for specific information

• Students in joint graduate programs (such as Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) should list both their MIT thesis supervisor and the supervisor from the partner academic institution.
• The name and title of the department or the program officer varies in different degree programs and may vary each term. Contact the departmental graduate administrator for specific information.
• For candidates receiving two degrees, both degrees to be awarded should appear on the title page. For candidates in dual degree programs, all degrees and departments or programs should appear on the title page, and the names of both department heads/committee chairs are required. Whenever there are co-supervisors, both names should appear on the title page.

Here are some PDF examples of title pages:

• Bachelor’s Degree – using a Creative Commons license
• PhD candidate – using a Creative Commons license
• Master’s candidate – dual degrees
• Masters’ candidates – multiple authors
• Masters’ candidates – multiple authors with dual degrees and extra committee members
• Bachelor’s Degree – change of thesis supervisor

Title page: Special circumstances – change of thesis supervisor

If your supervisor has recently died or is no longer affiliated with the Institute:

• Both this person and your new supervisor should be listed on your title page
• Under the new supervisor’s name, state that they are approving the thesis on behalf of the previous supervisor
• An additional page should be added to the thesis, before the acknowledgments page, with an explanation about why a new supervisor is approving your thesis on behalf of your previous supervisor. You may also thank the new supervisor for acting in this capacity
• Review this PDF example of a title page with a change in supervisor

If your supervisor is external to the Institute (such as an industrial supervisor):

• You should acknowledge this individual on the Acknowledgements page as appropriate, but should not list this person on the thesis title page
• The full thesis committee and thesis readers can be acknowledged on the Acknowledgements page, but should not be included on the title page

Not Required

Please consult with your department to determine if they are requiring or requesting an additional signature page.

Each thesis must include an abstract of generally no more than 500 words single-spaced. The abstract should be thought of as a brief descriptive summary, not a lengthy introduction to the thesis. The abstract should immediately follow the title page.

The abstract page should have the following fields in the following order and centered (including spacing):

• Thesis title

Submitted to the [Department] on [date thesis will be submitted] in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of [Name of degree to be received]

[Insert 1 blank line]

Single-spaced summary; approximately 500 words or less; try not to use formulas or special characters

Thesis supervisor: [Supervisor’s name]

Title: [Title of supervisor]

The Abstract page should include the same information as on the title page. With the thesis title, author name, and submitting statement above the abstract, the word “ABSTRACT” typed before the body of the text, and the thesis supervisor’s name and title below the abstract.

Acknowledgements

An acknowledgement page may be included and is the appropriate place to include information such as external supervisor (such as an industrial advisor) or a list of the full thesis committee and thesis readers. Please note that your thesis will be publicly available online at DSpace@MIT , which is regularly crawled and indexed by Google and other search-engine providers.

The thesis may contain a short biography of the candidate, including institutions attended and dates of attendance, degrees and honors, titles of publications, teaching and professional experience, and other matters that may be pertinent. Please note that your thesis will be publicly available online at DSpace@MIT , which is regularly crawled and indexed by Google and other search-engine providers.

List of Tables

List of supplemental material.

Whenever possible, notes should be placed at the bottom of the appropriate page or in the body of the text. Notes should conform to the style appropriate to the discipline. If notes appear at the bottom of the page, they should be single-spaced and included within the specified margins.

It may be appropriate to place bibliographic references either at the end of the chapter in which they occur or at the end of the thesis.

The style of quotations, footnotes, and bibliographic references may be prescribed by your department. If your department does not prescribe a style or specify a style manual, choose one and be consistent. Further information is available on the MIT Writing and Communications Center’s website .

Ownership of copyright

The Institute’s policy concerning ownership of thesis copyright is covered in Rules and Regulations of the Faculty, 2.73 and MIT Policies and Procedures 13.1.3 . Copyright covers the intellectual property in the words and images in the thesis. If the thesis also includes patentable subject matter, students should contact the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) prior to submission of their thesis.

Under these regulations, students retain the copyright to student theses.

The student must, as a condition of a degree award, grant to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license. The MIT Libraries publish the thesis on DSpace@MIT , allowing open access to the research output of MIT.

You may also, optionally, apply a Creative Commons License to your thesis. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. For more information about CC: https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ . To determine which CC license is right for you, you can use the CC license chooser .

You must include an appropriate copyright notice on the title page of your thesis. This should include the following:

• the symbol “c” with a circle around it © and/or the word “copyright”
• the year of publication (the year in which the degree is to be awarded)
• the name of the copyright owner
• the words “All rights reserved” or your chosen Creative Commons license
• Also include the following statement below the ©“ The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.”
• Also include the following statement below the © “The author hereby grants to MIT a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free license to exercise any and all rights under copyright, including to reproduce, preserve, distribute and publicly display copies of the thesis, or release the thesis under an open-access license.”

You are responsible for obtaining permission, if necessary, to include previously published material in your thesis. This applies to most figures, images, and excerpts of text created and published by someone else; it may also apply to your own previous work. For figures and short excerpts from academic works, permission may already be available through the MIT Libraries (see here for additional information ). Students may also rely on fair use , as appropriate. For assistance with copyright questions about your thesis, you can contact [email protected] .

When including your own previously published material in your thesis, you may also need to obtain copyright clearance. If, for example, a student has already published part of the thesis as a journal article and, as a condition of publication, has assigned copyright to the journal’s publisher, the student’s rights are limited by what the publisher allows. More information about publisher policies on reuse in theses is available here.

Students can hold onto sufficient rights to reuse published articles (or excerpts of these) in their thesis if they are covered by MIT’s open access policy. Learn more about MIT’s open access policy and opt-in here . Contact [email protected] for more information.

When including your own previously published articles in your thesis, check with your department for specific requirements, and consider the following:

• Ensure you have any necessary copyright permissions to include previously published material in your thesis.
• Be sure to discuss copyright clearance and embargo options with your co-authors and your advisor well in advance of preparing your thesis for submission.
• Include citations of where portions of the thesis have been previously published.
• When an article included has multiple authors, clearly designate the role you had in the research and production of the published paper that you are including in your thesis.

Supplemental material and research data

Supplemental material that may be submitted with your thesis is the materials that are essential to understanding the research findings of your thesis, but impossible to incorporate or embed into a PDF. Materials submitted to the MIT Libraries may be provided as supplemental digital files or in some cases physical items. All supplementary materials must be approved for submission by your advisor. The MIT Libraries can help answer questions you may have about managing the supplementary material and other research materials associated with your research.

Contact [email protected] early in your thesis writing process to determine the best way to include supplemental materials with your thesis.

You may also have other research data and outputs related to your thesis research that are not considered supplemental material and should not be submitted with your thesis. Research materials include the facts, observations, images, computer program results, recordings, measurements, or experiences on which a research output—an argument, theory, test or hypothesis, or other output—is based. These may also be termed, “research data.” This term relates to data generated, collected, or used during research projects, and in some cases may include the research output itself. Research materials should be deposited in appropriate research data repositories and cited in your thesis . You may consult the MIT Libraries’ Data Management Services website for guidance or reach out to Data Management Services (DMS)( [email protected] ), who can help answer questions you may have about managing your thesis data and choosing suitable solutions for longer term storage and access.

• Supplementary information may be submitted with your thesis to your program after approval from your thesis advisor. 
• Supplemental material should be mentioned and summarized in the written document, for example, using a few key frames from a movie to create a figure.
• A list of supplementary information along with brief descriptions should be included in your thesis document. For digital files, the description should include information about the file types and any software and version needed to open and view the files.
• Issues regarding the format of non-traditional, supplemental content should be resolved with your advisor.
• Appendices and references are not considered supplementary information.
• If your research data has been submitted to a repository, it should not also be submitted with your thesis.
• Follow the required file-naming convention for supplementary files: authorLastName-kerb-degree-dept-year-type_supplemental.ext
• Captioning ( legally required ): text versions of the audio content, synchronized with the video: ways to get your video captioned
• Additional content, not required:
• For video, an audio description: a separate narrative audio track that describes important visual content, making it accessible to people who are unable to see the video
• Transcripts: should capture all the spoken audio, plus on-screen text and descriptions of key visual information that wouldn’t otherwise be accessible without seeing the video

For physical components that are integral to understanding the thesis document, and which cannot be meaningfully conveyed in a digital form, the author may submit the physical items to the MIT Libraries along with their thesis document. When photographs or a video of a physical item (such as a model) would be sufficient, the images should be included in the thesis document, and a video could be submitted as digital supplementary material.

An example of physical materials that would be approved for submission as part of the thesis would be photographs that cannot be shared digitally in our repository due to copyright restrictions. In this case, the photographs could be submitted as a physical volume that is referred to in the thesis document.

As with digital supplementary information and research materials, physical materials must be approved for submission by your advisor. Contact [email protected] early in your thesis writing process to determine if physical materials should accompany your thesis, and if so how to schedule a transfer of materials to the MIT Libraries.

Creating your thesis document/digital format

You are required to submit a PDF/A-1 formatted thesis document to your department. In addition, it is recommended that original files, or source files, (such a .doc or .tex) are submitted alongside the PDF/A-1 to better ensure long-term access to your thesis.

You should create accessible files that support the use of screen readers and make your document more easily readable by assistive technologies. This will expand who is able to access your thesis. By creating an accessible document from the beginning, there will be less work required to remediate the PDF that gets created. Most software offers a guide for creating documents that are accessible to screen readers. Review the guidelines provided by the MIT Libraries .

In general:

• Use styles and other layout features for headings, lists, tables, etc. If you don’t like the default styles associated with the headings, you can customize them.
• Avoid using blank lines to add visual spacing and instead increase the size of the spaces before and/or after the line.
• Avoid using text boxes.
• Embed URLs.
• Anchor images to text when inserting them into a doc.
• Add alt-text to any images or figures that convey meaning (including, math formulas).
• Use a sans serif font.
• Add basic embedded metadata, such as author, title, year of graduation, department, keywords etc. to your thesis via your original author tool.

Creating a PDF/A-1

PDF/A-1 (either a or b) is the more suitable format for long term preservation than a basic PDF. It ensures that the PDF format conforms to certain specifications which make it more likely to open and be viewable in the long term. It is best for static content that will not change in the future, as this is the most preservation-worthy version and does not allow for some complex elements that could corrupt or prevent the file from being viewable in the future. Guidelines on how to convert specific file types to PDF/A .

In general: (should we simplify these bullets)

• Convert to PDF/A directly from your original files (text, Word, InDesign, LaTeX, etc.). It is much easier and better to create valid PDF/A documents from your original files than from a regular PDF. Converting directly will ensure that fonts and hyperlinks are embedded in the document.
• Do not embed multimedia files (audio and video), scripts, executables, lab notebooks, etc. into your PDF. Still images are fine. The other formats mentioned may be able to be submitted as supplemental files.
• Do not password protect or encrypt your PDF file.
• Validate your PDF/A file before submitting it to your department.

All digital files must be named according to this scheme: authorLastName-kerb-degree-dept-year-type_other.ext

• Thesis PDF: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2023-thesis.pdf
• Signature page: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-dusp-2023-sig.pdf
• Original source file: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-source.docx
• Supplemental file: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-supplmental_1.mov
• Second supplemental file: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-supplmental_2.mov
• Read Me file about supplemental: macdonald-mssimon-mcp-2023-supplemental-readme.txt

How to submit thesis information to the MIT Libraries

Before your day of graduation, you should submit your thesis title page metadata to the MIT Libraries  prior to your day of graduation. The submission form requires Kerberos login.

Student submitted metadata allows for quicker Libraries processing times. It also provides a note field for you to let Libraries’ staff know about any metadata discrepancies.

The information you provide must match the title page and abstract of your thesis . Please have a copy of your completed thesis on hand to enter this information directly from your thesis. If any discrepancies are found during processing, Libraries’ staff will publish using the information on the approved thesis document. You will be asked to confirm or provide:

• Preferred name of author(s)as they appear on the title page of the thesis
• ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. The goal is to support the creation of a permanent, clear, and unambiguous record of scholarly communication by enabling reliable attribution of authors and contributors. Read ORCID FAQs to learn more
• Department(s)
• A license is optional, and very difficult to remove once published. The Creative Commons License allows you to grant permissions and provide guidance on how your work can be reused by others. Read more information about CC .
• Thesis supervisor(s)
• If you would like the full-text of your thesis to be made openly available in the ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global database (PQDT), you can indicate that in the Libraries submission form.
• Open access inclusion in PQDT is at no cost to you, and increases the visibility and discoverability of your thesis. By opting in you are granting ProQuest a license to distribute your thesis in accordance with ProQuest’s policies. Further information can be found in the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Author FAQ .
• Full-text theses and associated supplemental files will only be sent to ProQuest once any temporary holds have been lifted, and the thesis has been published in DSpace@MIT.
• Regardless of opting-in to inclusion in PQDT, the full text of your thesis will still be made openly available in DSpace@MIT . Doctoral Degrees: Regardless of opting-in the citation and abstract of your thesis will be included in PQDT.

Thesis research should be undertaken in light of MIT’s policy of open research and the free interchange of information . Openness requires that, as a general policy, thesis research should not be undertaken on campus when the results may not be published. From time to time, there may be a good reason for delaying the distribution of a thesis to obtain patent protection, or for reasons of privacy or security. To ensure that only those theses that meet certain criteria are withheld from distribution and that they are withheld for the minimum period, the Institute has established specific review procedures.

Written notification of patent holds and other restrictions must reach the MIT Libraries before the thesis in question is received by the MIT Libraries. Theses will not be available to the public prior to being published by the MIT Libraries. The Libraries may begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT one month and one week from the last day of classes.

Thesis hold requests should be directed to the Technology Licensing Office (TLO) ( [email protected] ) when related to MIT-initiated patent applications (i.e., MIT holds intellectual property rights; patent application process via TLO). Requests for a thesis hold must be made jointly by the student and advisor directly to the MIT Technology Licensing Office as part of the technology disclosure process.

Thesis hold or restricted access requests should be directed to the Office of the Vice Chancellor ([email protected]) when related to:

• Student-initiated patents (student holds intellectual property rights as previously determined by TLO) [up to 90-day hold]
• Pursuit of business opportunities (student holds intellectual property rights as previously determined by TLO)[up to 90-day hold]
• Government restrictions [up to 90-day hold]
• Privacy and security [up to 90-day hold]
• Scholarly journal articles pending publication [up to 90-day hold]
• Book publication [up to 24-month hold]

In the unusual circumstance that a student wants to request a hold beyond the initial 90-day period, they should contact the Office of Vice President for Research , who may consult with the TLO and/or the Office of the Vice Chancellor, as appropriate to extend the hold. Such requests must be supported by evidence that explains the need for a longer period.

Find information about each type of publication hold, and to learn how to place a hold on your thesis

After publication

Your thesis will be published on DSpace@MIT . Theses are processed by the MIT Libraries and published in the order they are transferred by your department. The Libraries will begin publishing theses in DSpace@MIT one month and one week from the last day of classes.

All changes made to a thesis, after it has been submitted to the MIT Libraries by your department, must have approval from the Vice Chancellor or their designee. Thesis documents should be carefully reviewed prior to submission to ensure they do not contain misspellings or incorrect formatting. Change requests for these types of minor errors will not be approved.

There are two types of change requests that can be made:

• Errata: When the purpose is to correct significant errors in content, the author should create an errata sheet using the form and instructions (PDF)  and obtain approval first from both the thesis supervisor or program chair, before submitting for review by the Vice Chancellor.
• Substitution: If the purpose of the change is to excise classified, proprietary, or confidential information, the author should fill out the  application form (PDF) and have the request approved first by the thesis supervisor or program chair, before submitting for review by the Vice Chancellor.

Students and supervisors should vet thesis content carefully before submission to avoid these scenarios whenever possible.

You are always authorized to post electronic versions of your own thesis, in whole or in part, on a website, without asking permission. If you hold the copyright in the thesis, approving and/or denying requests for permission to use portions of the thesis in third-party publications is your responsibility.

MIT Libraries Thesis Team https://libguides.mit.edu/mit-thesis-faq [email protected] | https://thesis-submit.mit.edu/

Distinctive Collections Room 14N-118 | 617-253-5690 https://libraries.mit.edu/distinctive-collections/

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Overview of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

What are etds.

An ETD is an openly-accessible electronic version of your thesis or dissertation that will be kept by Duke University Libraries instead of a bound paper copy. The transition to ETDs is a cooperative effort between The Graduate School and the library. All the information presented here comes from these two sources and represents the official policies of Duke University.

How do I submit my thesis or dissertation?

The process is  done online . Step-by-step instructions are provided at the submission site, and formatting guidelines are provided by The Graduate School’s  Guide for Electronic Submission of Thesis and Dissertation (PDF) . The Graduate School also has  Word and LaTex templates .

Initial submission to the Duke Graduate School/ETD availability Kathy Ivanov [email protected] 919-681-5985

ETD copyright or publishing Copyright Consultants Duke University Libraries [email protected]

What are the benefits of open access for my thesis or dissertation?

• Greater visibility helps improve your reputation in your field. Many scholars today do their initial searching on a topic online. Scholars seeking to build their reputation need to make their work accessible in forms actually used by potential colleagues and employers.
• Scholarly communication happens very quickly today. Internet availability is much more beneficial than the long delays and added costs that accompanied library processing and lending of print theses and dissertations.
• Your thesis or dissertation will become part of a growing international collection of ETDs through the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
• Because your work, and the fact that it is your work, will be easy to find, it will be much harder for anyone to appropriate your research without giving you credit.
• Research shows that scholarship available on the internet through open access is cited more often, and is cited sooner, than work that is available only through a subscription or the loan of a print copy.
• Multimedia objects, including color images, hyperlinks, audio, video, spreadsheets and databases, even virtual reality worlds can be easily incorporated into your dissertation and can readily be made available to all of your readers.
• You can include a stable URL for your work in a CV or e-mail it to colleagues and hiring committees. Because our database is OAI compliant, your work also will be found by major search tools.
• Open access more fully embodies the goal of the thesis or dissertation to be a public contribution to scholarship. On the internet your work can reach an audience whose interest in it may have been unforeseeable. New possibilities for interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary research, and the formation of unexpected research collaborations, are created by open access to scholarship.

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Graduate College

Electronic thesis & dissertation faq, uiuc acknowledgement heading link copy link, the uic graduate college would like to thank the uiuc graduate college for use of some of the following and for continued collaboration with the etd project., etd heading link copy link, what is an etd.

An ETD is an Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. Instead of the traditional submission process, in which a student submits paper copies to be bound, catalogued, and disseminated in hard copy through the University Library, ETDs allow for the creation, submission, and dissemination of graduate research in digital form. The components and structure of an ETD are essentially the same as a traditional paper thesis.

What is UIC Indigo? Heading link Copy link

What is uic indigo.

UIC Indigo is the digital repository for research and scholarship produced at the University of Illinois at Chicago. UIC Indigo collects, disseminates, and provides persistent and reliable access to the research and scholarship of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Format & PDF Conversion Heading link Copy link

All UIC theses and dissertations must adhere to the Graduate College thesis requirements.  For ETDs there are a few differences from the paper submission.  Follow the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Format below for more information.

Additional requirements for ETDs include:

• The document must be submitted as a single Portable Document File (PDF).
• The PDF file must be named Lastname_Firstname.pdf, where “Lastname” and “Firstname” are that of the student.
• Security settings should not be applied to the PDF file.
• The PDF file should not contain embedded multimedia.
• Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Format

PDF Conversion Heading link Copy link

Pdf conversion.

MS Word and Adobe Acrobat are two options for converting files to PDF. Installing Acrobat onto a computer allows the user to generate a PDF file by selecting “Adobe PDF” as the printer from within the program. Computers containing both MS Word and Acrobat Professional are available in computer labs on campus.

Before beginning the PDF conversion process, however, you are strongly encouraged to embed the fonts you have used in your thesis into the file to be converted. Embedding fonts will help to ensure that the material in your thesis will display correctly when viewed or printed from the PDF file. To further ensure that material displays correctly in the PDF file, use of either a Type 1 or TrueType font is recommended. Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri are among the numerous TrueType fonts that are available in popular word processing programs.

PDF conversion services may also be found online. Some of these online services are free and others are not. We have also included links below to LaTeX conversion resources.

Students are responsible for checking the PDF file of their thesis after the conversion process to verify that all material displays correctly.

• ACCC C-Stop Labs
• LaTeX to PDF
• How to make a PDF document from a LaTeX source

Submitting Your Thesis Heading link Copy link

Thesis size.

If any of your files are larger than 512MB in size, we recommend submitting them from a “wired” on-campus connection (e.g. any public computer lab on campus). It may also be possible to submit these files from off-campus if you are using a private, high-speed internet connection. However, it is not recommended to submit larger files from wireless internet available in coffee houses or bookstores, as these businesses sometimes limit the size of files you may transmit.

If you have any difficulties in uploading your thesis files, please contact the Graduate College Thesis Office at [email protected] or (312) 996-3958.

When to Submit Heading link Copy link

When to submit.

You should only submit your thesis for review by the Graduate College Thesis Office AFTER

• your defense has occurred, and
• your advisor and/or committee has approved the final version of your thesis with all content corrected, and
• you have made all format corrections requested by your departmental thesis reviewer.

Documents submitted prior to departmental approval will be rejected.

The Thesis Office will not review your submission until we have received notification of departmental approval. In most cases, format reviews will be performed within three or fewer business days of the latter of either (a) submission of the electronic document or (b) confirmation of departmental approval. If you submit close to the submission deadline for a semester, the approval process may take up to three weeks.  You will be notified by email of the outcome of the Graduate College’s review, including a list of required changes (if any) and instructions for completing the deposit of your thesis.  Review by the Graduate College may be more than three days at the thesis submission deadlines.

Supplemental Material Heading link Copy link

Supplemental material.

• For ETD submissions, students may upload supplemental electronic files as part of their thesis or dissertation. These files are considered appendix items, and an appendix page must be included as part of the thesis and should be numbered accordingly. This page should include brief information about the supplemental file(s), such as “Appendix A: Interview Transcriptions,” and a brief description of the material.
• The thesis or dissertation itself should be understandable without the supplemental appendix materials.
• As part of the thesis, it is the responsibility of the director of research and committee to review and approve appendix materials.

Submission Service Heading link Copy link

Submission service.

No. Departmental format review is an independent process, and your department may require either a paper or electronic copy of your thesis for review.

Submission Final Date Heading link Copy link

Submission final date.

Deposit deadlines are listed on the Graduate College’s Academic Calendar. Thesis Office traffic increases prior to deadlines, so it may take the Graduate College several days to reply to an electronic submission.  Keep in mind that revisions may still be required before your thesis is finalized by the Graduate College.  Additional Forms/Payments/Receipt should be received by the Graduate College Thesis Office by the thesis deposit deadline of your intended graduation term.  Any format corrections to the ETD after you have submitted it must be completed by the date given to you by the Graduate College after the initial review of the submission.

• Academic Calendar
• Additional Forms/Payments/Receipt

Thesis Acceptence Heading link Copy link

Thesis acceptence.

Your deposit will be confirmed in an email from the Graduate College Thesis Office after a correctly formatted thesis has been accepted and all required additional materials have been received.

Thesis Paper Copy Heading link Copy link

Thesis paper copy.

Effective with submissions for Fall 2011 and forward only electronic submissions will be accepted.

ETD Location Heading link Copy link

Etd location.

Following acceptance, your document will be electronically available via UIC Indigo. Doctoral dissertations will also be listed in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world.

Department Copy Heading link Copy link

Department copy.

No. The library does not provide a print copy of your thesis to your department.  A printable PDF version of your thesis or dissertation will be available through the UIC Indigo web site.  However, your department may still require you to directly provide it with a print copy.

Thesis Contact Heading link Copy link

Thesis contact.

Please contact the Graduate College Thesis Office at [email protected] or 312-996-3958.

Copyright Heading link Copy link

The copyright to a thesis belongs to the student, according to the University’s General Rules. As a condition of being awarded the degree, however, the student grants the University the non-exclusive right “to retain, use and distribute a limited number of copies of the thesis, together with the right to require its publication for archival use.”

• University’s General Rules

Intellectual Property Heading link Copy link

Intellectual property.

Please contact the University’s Office of Technology Management.

• UIC Office of Technology Management

Copyright Register Heading link Copy link

Copyright register.

You may register your copyright directly through the United States Copyright Office.

• United States Copyright Office

Registration Requirement Heading link Copy link

Registration requirement.

No. There are, however, certain benefits to registering your copyright. The U.S. Copyright Office provides a thorough explanation of these benefits.

Copyright Retention Heading link Copy link

Copyright retention.

It could be possible for you to negotiate which rights you transfer to a publisher before you sign a publishing agreement. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) has developed an author addendum that students may find useful in negotiating the rights that they transfer.

• SPARC Author Addendum

Previously Copyrighted Material Use Heading link Copy link

Previously copyrighted material use.

The Graduate College does not advise students on what can or cannot be considered “fair use.” Students are urged to consult the U.S. Copyright Office’s explanation of “fair use.” Also, consult with your advisor and Director of Graduate Studies. Students may find the following resources helpful in making their own determination–and documenting that determination–of whether permission is required for the use of previously copyrighted material in a thesis:

• U.S. Copyright Office Fair Use Index

Protection of Anothers Copyright Heading link Copy link

Protection of anothers copyright.

Did you create the material? If not, you will need to identify the owner of the work’s copyright and determine whether the work’s copyright protection has expired. You may find the following publication of the U.S. Copyright Office helpful:

• How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work (PDF)

No Longer Owning Copyright Heading link Copy link

No longer owning copyright.

Yes. If your work has been published, you may have transferred the copyright to the publisher. Check your publishing agreement: if the publisher owns the copyright to your work, you will need to request permission to reprint it in your thesis and elsewhere.

Sample Permission Request Letter Heading link Copy link

Sample permission request letter.

Yes, a detailed example of the content that should be included in the permission request letter is provided on page 4 of A Student’s Guide to Copyrights and Fair Use   (see “Copyright”) a publication of the Office of Technology Management.

• A Student’s Guide toCopyrights and Fair Use

Permission Help Heading link Copy link

Permission help.

The Graduate College does not provide such assistance. Please note that it remains the student’s responsibility to determine what material requires copyright clearance.

Thesis Requirements Heading link Copy link

Thesis requirements.

Yes, an abstract is required of all theses and dissertations. The abstract must be written in English and will be submitted in a text field in the electronic submission process. There is no word limit although it is strongly recommended to keep the length to approximately 350 words.

Thesis Requirement List Heading link Copy link

Thesis requirement list.

See the Graduate College ETD format page.

• ETD Format Page

Deposit Process Heading link Copy link

Deposit process.

Upon final deposit, the thesis becomes part of the student’s academic record. No changes may be made to the thesis or dissertation after it has been approved by the Graduate College Thesis Office.

Degree Conferral Heading link Copy link

Degree conferral.

Students graduate in the three times a year, at the end of terms: Spring (May), Summer (August), and Fall (December).

Thesis Release Options Heading link Copy link

Thesis release options.

Submission of an electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) allows you a choice of the timing of the release of your thesis and the audience to whom your thesis is released.

During the creation of your ETD submission profile, you will have the opportunity to select one of three options for the release of your work.   Note that these options apply to UIC Indigo only.

• Option 1—Open Access: The thesis or dissertation will be publicly available through UIC Indigo soon after the date of degree conferral at the end of the graduation period for which the thesis or dissertation is submitted.
• Option 2—U of I Only: Access to the thesis or dissertation through UIC Indigo will be restricted to members of the University of Illinois community for a period of 2 years from the date of degree conferral of the graduation period for which the thesis or dissertation is submitted. The thesis or dissertation will also be available through the University Library’s Interlibrary Loan service during this period of time, after which the thesis or dissertation will become publicly available through UIC Indigo.
• Option 3—Closed Access: Access to the thesis or dissertation will be restricted such that it will not be available to anyone for a period of 2 years from the date of degree conferral of the graduation period for which the thesis or dissertation is submitted. Only author name and title information will be available during this period of time, after which the thesis or dissertation will become publicly available through UIC Indigo.

Restricted Access Extension Heading link Copy link

Restricted access extension.

Yes. Options for restricting the release of your ETD (Option 2—U of I only; Option 3—Closed access) are renewable in 2-year increments. It is the student’s responsibility to initiate a petition before the two year period is to end, including all justifications. Otherwise, the ETD automatically becomes open access on UIC Indigo at that time.

Change or Renew Release Option Heading link Copy link

Change or renew release option.

After the date of degree conferral of the graduation period for which your ETD is submitted, you may contact the Graduate College Thesis Office to change or renew your ETD release option.

Special Considerations Restriction Heading link Copy link

Special considerations restriction.

The three release options described above will accommodate the need to postpone publication for most UIC graduate students. However, due to publication norms in some disciplines, the Graduate College understands that occasionally students may wish to request other arrangements.

Petitioning an alternative release option for the ETD

• Students wishing to pursue other release options must make a formal request in writing via the Graduate College petition process.
• Students may petition for U of I Only Indefinitely release, in which access to the thesis or dissertation through UIC Indigo will be restricted to members of the University of Illinois community indefinitely. The thesis or dissertation will also have limited availability to off-campus users through the University Library’s Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service.
• Students should provide a clear justification of why distribution of their work should be limited.
• Completely limiting access indefinitely will be considered only in very exceptional circumstances.

Offering availability to the University of Illinois community as well as limited availability through ILL is consistent with the distribution practices of paper theses and dissertations. Before ETD, paper theses and dissertations were bound and catalogued by the University Library. These manuscripts are available for loan through the Library and are also available to off-campus users via Interlibrary Loan.

Submitting an ETD for deposit while a petition is under review

After submitting the petition to the Graduate College:

• Students should submit their ETD for review and deposit by creating an ETD submission profile and selecting from one of the three release options offered.
• The thesis or dissertation will be withheld from release into the UIC Indigo repository until the petition has been reviewed and a decision made.
• After the thesis/dissertation is released into UIC Indigo, it will become available according to the release option determined during the petition process.

Request Thesis Withheld for Patent Review Heading link Copy link

Request thesis withheld for patent review.

A student may request to have a thesis or dissertation withheld from public release while patentability is assessed by completing a Thesis Withholding Request Form and submitting it to the Office of Technology Management  (OTM) prior to deposit.

OTM will review the student’s request and notify the Graduate College Thesis Office that a thesis is to be withheld. Withholding a thesis for a patent review does not affect graduation or thesis deposit; all students are required to complete their thesis deposit by the deposit deadline.

• OTM Thesis Withholding Page

Request Patent Review Heading link Copy link

Request patent review.

After submitting the Thesis Withholding Request Form to the Office of Technology Management (OTM), you may create your ETD submission profile and select from one of the three release options offered. Your thesis will be withheld from release into the UIC Indigo repository until the release is approved by OTM. After the thesis is released into UIC Indigo, it will become available according to the release option you chose during the ETD submission process.

Indigo Deposit Agreement Heading link Copy link

Indigo deposit agreement.

All students depositing an ETD at the University of Illinois at Chicago are asked to read and agree to the UIC Indigo deposit agreement. Basically, your agreement to this non-exclusive license allows UIC Indigo to make your ETD available according to the release option you choose during ETD submission and to make backup copies of your ETD or to migrate it to future file formats as necessary for preservation purposes. Students retain the copyright to their own work.

ProQuest/UMI Agreement Heading link Copy link

Proquest/umi agreement.

ProQuest provides several useful services for the University, including producing the microfilm copy of your dissertation.

Thesis & Dissertation Contacts Heading link Copy link

Jim kollenbroich.

• Cambridge Libraries

Physical & Digital Collections

Theses & dissertations: home, access to theses and dissertations from other institutions and from the university of cambridge.

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad. 

For information and guidance on depositing your thesis as a cambridge phd, visit the cambridge office of scholarly communication pages on theses here ., this guide gives essential information on how to obtain theses using the british library's ethos service. .

On the last weekend of October, the British Library became the victim of a major cyber-attack. Essential digital services including the BL catalogue, website and online learning resources went dark, with research services like the EThOS collection of more than 600,000 doctoral theses suddenly unavailable. The BL state that they anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is now expected to persist for several months. For the latest news on the attack and information on the restoration of services, please follow the BL blog here:  Knowledge Matters blog  and access the LibGuide page here:  British Library Outage Update - Electronic Legal Deposit - LibGuides at University of Cambridge Subject Libraries

A full list of resources for searching theses online is provided by the Cambridge A-Z, available here .

University of Cambridge theses

Finding a cambridge phd thesis online via the institutional repository.

The University's institutional repository, Apollo , holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates. Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link . More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be found on the access to Cambridge theses webpage.   The requirement for impending PhD graduates to deposit a digital version in order to graduate means the repository will be increasing at a rate of approximately 1,000 per year from this source.   About 200 theses are added annually through requests to make theses Open Access or via requests to digitize a thesis in printed format.

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

Theses can be searched in iDiscover .  Guidance on searching for theses in iDiscover can be found here .   Requests for consultation of printed theses, not available online, should be made at the Manuscripts Reading Room (Email:  [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 333143).   Further information on the University Library's theses, dissertations and prize essays collections can be consulted at this link .

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form either through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit via the image request form , or, if the thesis has been digitised, it may be available in the Apollo repository. Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.  The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study.

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

Are you a Cambridge alumni and wish to make your Ph.D. thesis available online? You can do this by depositing it in Apollo the University's institutional repository. Click here for further information on how to proceed.    Current Ph.D students at the University of Cambridge can find further information about the requirements to deposit theses on the Office of Scholarly Communication theses webpages.

UK Theses and Dissertations

Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS , a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions. It achieves this by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and by digitising print theses as they are ordered by researchers using the system. Over 250,000 theses are already available in this way. Please note that it does not supply theses submitted at the universities of Cambridge or Oxford although they are listed on EThOS.

Registration with EThOS is not required to search for a thesis but is necessary to download or order one unless it is stored in the university repository rather than the British Library (in which case a link to the repository will be displayed). Many theses are available without charge on an Open Access basis but in all other cases, if you are requesting a thesis that has not yet been digitised you will be asked to meet the cost. Once a thesis has been digitised it is available for free download thereafter.

When you order a thesis it will either be immediately available for download or writing to hard copy or it will need to be digitised. If you order a thesis for digitisation, the system will manage the process and you will be informed when the thesis is available for download/preparation to hard copy.

See the Search results section of the  help page for full information on interpreting search results in EThOS.

EThOS is managed by the British Library and can be found at http://ethos.bl.uk . For more information see About EThOS .

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted, sometimes on an open access basis from the institutional repository. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations beyond the UK is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , which facilitates searching across institutions. Information can also usually be found on the library web pages of the relevant institution.

The DART Europe etheses portal lists several thousand full-text theses from a group of European universities.

The University Library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  (PQDT) database which from August 31 2023 is accessed on the Web of Science platform.  To search this index select it from the Web of Science "Search in" drop-down list of databases (available on the Documents tab on WoS home page)

PQDT includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations, representing 700 leading academic institutions worldwide from 1861 to the present day. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The University Library only subscribes to the abstracting & indexing version of the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database and NOT the full text version.  A fee is payable for ordering a dissertation from this source.   To obtain the full text of a dissertation as a downloadable PDF you can submit your request via the University Library Inter-Library Loans department (see contact details below). NB this service is only available to full and current members of the University of Cambridge.

Alternatively you can pay yourself for the dissertation PDF on the PQDT platform. Link from Web of Science record display of any thesis to PQDT by clicking on "View Details on ProQuest".  On the "Preview" page you will see an option "Order a copy" top right.  This will allow you to order your own copy from ProQuest directly.

Dissertations and theses submitted at non-UK universities may also be requested on Inter-Library Loan through the Inter-Library Loans department (01223 333039 or 333080, [email protected] )

• Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023 9:47 AM
• URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/theses

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Dissertations & theses.

• Dissertations & Theses Online
• Dissertations & Theses @ UTD (Paper & Microform)
• Dissertations & Theses - Ordering

Subject Librarian

Ordering Dissertations & Theses

Depending on the dissertation or thesis desired, UTD-affiliated users should first check the appropriate dissertations and theses database for availability. If a full-text digital copy of the dissertation or thesis is not available, the user will have several options to obtain the document:

• Sometimes, dissertations and theses of outside universities are available to borrow via Interlibrary Loan (ILL) . Fill out the form and we will let you know if the document in question is available.  
• In the case of UTD-only dissertations and theses, a paper or microfilm copy may be your only option. Search the catalog to find out the document's availability and call number. The library has equipment for viewing, scanning, and e-mailing or printing paper and microfilm documents.  
• In some cases, it does not hurt to contact the author of the dissertation or thesis. You will likely have to conduct a web search for the author's contact information. If the author in question has a digital copy, it is not uncommon for him/her to share the document.  
• Non-UTD-affiliated users may purchase a copy of the dissertation or thesis through  ProQuest's Dissertations Express   service. If a UTD-only dissertation or thesis is available only in paper or microform format, the user must come to the library to view and digitally scan or copy the document. The Eugene McDermott Library cannot scan/digitize and transmit its paper- or microform-only theses and dissertations to remote users.
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Home > Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The University of New Mexico is proud to showcase the theses and dissertations of our graduate students. They have been collected here for public access and scholarly review, and all have received approval from the Dean of Graduate Studies at UNM.

Graduate Studies, the central graduate academic administrative unit at the University of New Mexico, is committed to helping our students succeed. Our staff is eager to assist students, staff, and faculty with all their graduate school needs.

Now that you have written and successfully defended your thesis or your dissertation, it is time for you to format your manuscript and submit it this digital repository here at UNM (Ph.D. students must also submit their manuscript to ProQuest). For information on the process, including formatting procedures, manuscript submissions, and delaying public access (embargo), please visit Graduate Studies website and explore our degree completion resources .

Cultural Sensitivity Statement

The UNM College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences’ department of Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communications (DISC) provides digital access to campus research including the University's thesis and dissertations as evidence of degree fulfillment. The University was founded in 1889 and some published items reflect the perspectives and biases of the time in which they were created. Following best professional practices, UNM preserves data in its original form to retain authenticity and facilitate research, therefore, digital surrogates may include racial, derogatory, and demeaning language that we acknowledge is problematic. Insensitive or offensive language is not condoned by UNM. Photos, terms, depictions, and annotations reflect the attitude of the author or the period in which the item was created. These may be considered inappropriate today. 

We also strive to be respectful of the beliefs and practices of the many cultures that have been the subjects of research by members of the University. Additionally, in 2021 the College endorsed the Protocols for Native American Archival Materials which are guidelines for libraries and archives to engage in respectful stewardship of Native American collections. Therefore, we are continually working to learn about and follow cultural protocols for sensitive materials. This may include providing mediated access or restricting digital access to all or parts of specific theses and dissertations. These actions will be noted in an item record’s comments field. For items originally published in print form, a complete physical copy is retained by the library and may be accessed on site. 

Please contact DISC if you find items that may need to be reviewed. 

Browse the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collections:

American Studies ETDs

Anderson School of Management Theses & Dissertations

Anthropology ETDs

Architecture and Planning ETDs

Art & Art History ETDs

Biology ETDs

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Chicana and Chicano Studies ETDs

Communication ETDs

Dental Hygiene ETDs

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Economics ETDs

Education ETDs

Engineering ETDs

English Language and Literature ETDs

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

Geography ETDs

History ETDs

Latin American Studies ETDs

Linguistics ETDs

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Museum Studies Theses

Nursing ETDs

Occupational Therapy ETDs

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

Pharmaceutical Sciences ETDs

Philosophy ETDs

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Political Science ETDs

Psychology ETDs

Public Administration ETDs

Sociology ETDs

Spanish and Portuguese ETDs

Speech and Hearing Sciences ETDs

Theatre & Dance ETDs

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Oxford theses

The Bodleian Libraries’ thesis collection holds every DPhil thesis deposited at the University of Oxford since the degree began in its present form in 1917. Our oldest theses date from the early 1920s. We also have substantial holdings of MLitt theses, for which deposit became compulsory in 1953, and MPhil theses.

It is mandatory for students completing a research degree at the University of Oxford (registered to a programme of study on or after 1st October 2007) to deposit an electronic copy of their theses with the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) in order to meet the requirements of their award.

ORA provides full-text PDF copies of most recent DPhil theses, and some earlier BLitt/MLitt theses. Find out more about Oxford Digital Theses, and depositing with ORA .

Finding theses

The following theses are catalogued on SOLO (the University’s online library catalogue) :

• all DPhil and BLitt/MLitt theses
• all BPhil and MPhil theses (1993 – present)  
• all Law theses
• all science theses

As part of an ongoing conversion project, a growing number of pre-1993 BPhil and MPhil theses can now be found on SOLO. 

SOLO collates search results from several sources.

How to search for theses on SOLO

To search for theses in the Oxford collections on SOLO :

• navigate to the SOLO homepage
• click on the 'Advanced Search' button
• click the 'Material Type' menu and choose the 'Dissertations' option
• type in the title or author of the thesis you are looking for and click the 'Search' button.

For theses completed post-2000, the item record will also give additional details, usually in the notes field: most importantly, the type of degree and supervisor’s name. These details can therefore be used in keyword searching. Example: d.phil smith . These can be combined with normal author, title or subject keywords as required in an anywhere in the record keyword search. For example: thesis smith Constantinople d.phil

The name of the Oxford faculty can also be used, as can the division, faculty/sub-faculty/department, or college (for post-2000 theses).

Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)

Digital copies of Oxford theses have been collected in ORA since 2007. For current research degrees completed at the University, it is mandatory for degree confirmation to submit an electronic copy of the examined thesis to the repository.

Many of the theses submitted are immediately available for download in PDF format from the repository. Others are access-restricted for an embargo period applied by the author, typically 1 to 3 years from leave to supplicate being granted.

The Oxford digital theses collection is primarily a modern collection that continues to grow each year. However, the collection does hold theses going back as far as 1933.  

Theses held in ORA are indexed with SOLO , as well as external services such as EThOS and Google Scholar. For more information visit the Oxford digital theses guide , and see below for guidance on searching in ORA.

Search for Oxford theses on ORA

A general search on title or terms within ORA (such as keywords or names) can be performed from the main search box of the repository website.

A more ‘closed’ search can be performed by placing the text being searched for between double quotations (“search text here”).

Search results can be further refined by using the left hand side search facets, including by:

• item type (thesis, journal article, book section, etc.)
• thesis type (DPhil, MSc, MLitt, etc.)
• subject area (History, Economics, Biochemistry, etc.)
• item date (as a range)
• file availability (whether a full text is available to download or not)

Search results can be expanded in number shown per page and sorted by relevance, date and file availability.

They can also be exported to csv, or emailed as a saved search.

From within an individual item record, further searching can be done by selecting hyperlinked text within the record details, such as “More by this author” which performs a loose search on the author name, or by selecting a hyperlinked keyword or subject.

Other catalogues

Card catalogue  .

The Rare Books department of the Weston Library keeps an author card index of Oxford theses. This includes all older, non-scientific theses not yet catalogued in SOLO. Please ask Weston Library staff for assistance, or contact the Theses Desk.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

You can use ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland to find bibliographic details of Oxford theses not on SOLO. To find the shelfmarks of such theses, apply to the staff of the Weston Library's Charles Wendell David Reading Room who will ask the Rare Books department to check the card catalogue of non-scientific theses that are not in SOLO.

Search for Oxford theses on ProQuest

You can read a 24 page PDF file preview of all theses published since 1997. You also have the option to purchase a copy of the thesis.

Basic search

The default Basic search page allows for general keyword searches across all indexes using "and", "and not", "and or" to link the keywords as appropriate. Click on the More Search Options tab for specific title, author, subject and institution (school) searches, and to browse indexes of authors, institutions and subjects. These indexes allow you to add the word or phrase recognised by the database to your search (ie University of Oxford (United Kingdom), not Oxford University).

Advanced search

The Advanced search tab (at the top of the page) enables keyword searching in specific indexes, including author, title, institution, department, adviser and language. If you are unsure of the exact details of thesis, you can use the search boxes on this page to find it by combining the key information you do have.

Search tools

In both the Basic and Advanced search pages you can also limit the search by date by using the boxes at the bottom. Use the Search Tools advice in both the Basic and Advanced pages to undertake more complex and specific searches. Within the list of results, once you have found the record that you are interested in, you can click on the link to obtain a full citation and abstract. You can use the back button on your browser to return to your list of citations.

The Browse search tab allows you to search by subject or by location (ie institution). These are given in an alphabetical list. You can click on a top-level subject to show subdivisions of the subject. You can click on a country location to show lists of institutions in that country. At each level, you can click on View Documents to show lists of individual theses for that subject division or from that location.

In Browse search, locations and subject divisions are automatically added to a basic search at the bottom of the page. You can search within a subject or location by title, author, institution, subject, date etc, by clicking on Refine Search at the top of the page or More Search Options at the bottom of the page.

Where are physical theses held?

Bodleian library.

The Bodleian Library holds all non-scientific doctoral theses and most non-scientific postgraduate (non-doctoral) theses for which a deposit requirement is stipulated by the University:

• DPhil (doctoral) theses
• Bachelor of Divinity (BD) theses
• BLitt/MLitt theses (Michaelmas Term 1953 – present)
• BPhil and MPhil theses (Michaelmas Term 1977 – present)

Some theses administered by the Bodleian Library are dispatched to other locations.

Oxford Theses (Humanities) administers theses held at the Bodleian Library, the Bodleian Law Library and the Vere Harmsworth Library.

Law Library

Theses submitted to the Faculty of Law are held at the Bodleian Law Library .

Vere Harmsworth Library

Theses on the United States are held by the Vere Harmsworth Library .

Social Science Library

The Social Science Library holds dissertations produced by students on selected social science (usually MPhil and MSc) courses. Theses for courses currently taught in Oxford are catalogued on SOLO . In some subjects, the library holds only dissertations which received particularly high marks.

The library holds dissertations from the following departments: Criminology, Economics, Geography, International Development, Politics & International Relations (MPhil Politics & International Relations theses are held in the Bodleian Library) and Socio-Legal Studies and Social Policy & Intervention.

Theses are held on open-shelf and can be browsed by department, course and year. Work is in progress to catalogue older theses, particularly the archive received from the Department of Social Policy and Social Work.

Locations for Anthropology and Archaeology theses

The Tylor Library holds theses for the MPhil in Social Anthropology. The Balfour Library holds theses for the MPhil in Material and Visual Anthropology and some older theses in Prehistoric Archaeology.

The Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library holds theses for MPhil in Classical Archaeology and MPhil in European Archaeology.

Radcliffe Science Library

The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) holds all postgraduate theses in the sciences for which the University requires deposit. Science theses are catalogued on SOLO . They are administered by Oxford Theses (Scientific). 

Ordering Oxford theses

If you are placing an order through SOLO , non-scientific theses held in the Bodleian Library must be ordered to the Charles Wendell David Reading Room in the Weston Library . Music theses may also be ordered to the Sir Charles Mackerras Reading Room . These are the only locations available.

You can request theses that do not yet appear in SOLO using the green order slips in Weston Library reading rooms.

Theses are now stored offsite at our Swindon storage faculty (BSF), so please allow at least one weekday for delivery.

Digital copies

You can request digital copies of theses held by the libraries. Many Oxford theses held in digital form by the libraries are available for download via ORA . Where ORA holds a digital copy of a thesis but it is not yet available for download – due to a temporary embargo period or other restriction – a record for the thesis will exist in ORA, and you can request access via the ORA contact form .

The request will be passed to the author for permission to share a digital copy with you under the ORA terms of use. If a record does not exist in ORA but a physical copy is held by the libraries, you can send a request for this to be digitised to the Oxford theses team ( [email protected] ).

Find out more about requesting a digitised copy, copyright restrictions and copying from Oxford theses .

• Penrose Library

How do I submit the digital (PDF/A) copy of my thesis?

• 5 Archives & Special Collections
• 12 Circulation
• 3 Citations
• 3 Computers & Printing
• 5 Databases
• 2 Faculty Services
• 19 General Information
• 11 Research
• 10 Senior Thesis
• 4 Student Employment

Answered By: Emily Pearson Last Updated: Jan 11, 2023     Views: 57

Digital (pdf/a) version.

Each student must deposit with the library a copy of the thesis in digital form. 

The digital copy must be a pdf/a file. Create one by following the  pdf/a instruction  sheet  while using Adobe Acrobat XI on either of the two computers closest to the Penrose Circulation Desk. Librarians will be available the week of Reading Day (May 9-11) for help with formatting, or make an appointment with us for help before then.

When you’ve completed all the  formatting guidelines , you’re ready to fill out the  digital thesis submission form .

Note: If your PDF file size is greater than 1GB, instead of uploading your PDF/A file, bring the file on a flash drive to Kathleen Hutchison in Room 213. A digital thesis submission form is still required.

Copyright : If you are the author of all the text, image, audio, and/or video files contained in your honors thesis, you hold copyrights and can grant full permission to post a digital copy online. If portions of your materials have been produced by others, these portions must be in the public domain or fall within the parameters of fair use. If the material does not fall within either of those categories, authors must receive permission from the copyright owner to include that material in their digital thesis. If you are unable to get permissions, consider restricting access to Whitman-affiliates only. For more information, see the library’s tutorial on copyright at Whitman.

Permissions:  The author of the thesis must complete a  non-exclusive distribution license  and select a level of access, subject to thesis advisor’s approval:

1. Worldwide distribution via the Internet, or

2. Local distribution only to authorized users of Whitman’s network

If the thesis is co-authored, all authors, even those not earning honors designation, must sign the non-exclusive distribution license. All thesis co-authors and thesis advisor(s) should sign the same form. Submit the non-exclusive distribution license to the Library by the Reading Day due date.

Related Topics

• Senior Thesis

Graduate Research Hub

• Examination

My thesis in the library

Deposit requirements.

The Library only requires an  electronic copy of your thesis. The electronic copy must be deposited to the University of Melbourne Institutional Repository, Minerva Access, via the Thesis Examination System (TES) once a final 'pass' has been recommended.

• Your thesis must meet the  Preparation of Graduate Research Theses Rules . Please also refer to the sample thesis title page .
• Your thesis should not include your signature, e.g. on the declaration page, as this can be harvested by Google and appear in Google images.
• The signatures of others should not be included in your thesis, these should be redacted, e.g. ethics approval signatures.
• If your thesis contains complete publications, you should use the author accepted manuscript. For information on author-accepted manuscripts visit the ARC and NHMRC Open Access Policies page for advice on what versions of articles can or cannot be accepted.  If you are certain you will not breach your agreement with your publisher, you may include the published version in your thesis.
• If your thesis contains other copyright material, you must obtain permission. See the Copyright Office page on Copyright and your thesis .
• Refer to the FAQs for depositing the final thesis.
• Download the Final Thesis for Degree Completion Submission Checklist to assist you in preparing your final thesis.

Thesis with creative works or other additional material

• The thesis title listed on the written component is usually recorded on your official academic record. If you wish to have an alternative thesis title recorded which better reflects all components of your research, contact the Graduate Research Examinations Office when submitting your final thesis to TES.
• If your thesis consists of a written dissertation and creative work or non-traditional research output (NTRO) component; a durable record of all components of your final thesis must be submitted to TES.  This includes thesis content that has been made available online via a streaming service, online platform, or website.   You can submit the durable record as an additional file(s). Please upload any files larger than 100MB to a filesharing service, and share the link with the Examinations Office .
• If your thesis file size is too large or consists of multiple components that are an integral part of the thesis, useful information is available on the  Depositing multiple files for your final thesis record page.

The University of Melbourne scholarships do not provide a thesis allowance as of 1 February 2017.  If your department/school requires a printed copy, this won’t be covered by a thesis allowance as this copy is not a requirement for completion.

Public access to my thesis

Until it is made publicly available, your thesis is an untapped resource of original research. The University is committed to ensuring that all research outputs are disseminated as widely as possible. This allows the University not only to meet the open access policies of national and international granting bodies but also ensures the results of research are made available to the public, industry and researchers worldwide, for the benefit of society. Individual researchers, likewise, have a responsibility to other researchers and the wider community to disseminate a full account of their research as widely as possible. In keeping with these commitments, the electronic copy of your thesis will be made available on the web, via the University's institutional publications repository,  Minerva Access .

Most major scholarly journal publishers now have clear policies supporting submission of articles derived from theses that are publicly available in an institutional repository, such as Minerva Access.

Making your thesis publicly available via Minerva Access , has the following benefits:

• The general public, which has invested in the University, can access your findings
• Allows more exposure and influence for your research
• Helps build your scholarly reputation and research profile
• Practitioners can apply your findings
• Other researchers, especially in developing areas, can see and easily access your work.

Through Minerva Access, you:

• Ensure that a digital copy of your thesis is preserved for future generations of researchers
• Receive a permanent and citable web link to your thesis
• Can track usage of your thesis.

An online guide covering the basics of Open Access (OA) is available on the University's Libguide website. The guide includes different pathways to making your work open, OA funder policies, and OA at the University of Melbourne.

You can find out more about the principles for open access to research outputs, repository open access on the Open Scholarship website.

In some circumstances, however, it may be necessary to delay or to withhold online access to the thesis.

Public access options

There are three options for access to your thesis in the repository. Once your decision is made about these options, this information is included as part of the data you enter into TES when submitting your thesis for examination. The same access option will usually apply to all submitted components unless you indicate restriction to any additional files that you submit through TES.

Embargo Criteria

The criteria for which an embargo may be sought include:

• The research was conducted under a contract or third-party arrangement that places restriction on access to the thesis
• An application for a patent or intellectual property protection is planned but not yet submitted
• The thesis contains material that must remain confidential due to legal, cultural, ethical or national security reasons
• The prospective publisher of articles from the research requires that the thesis has not been made available.

Redacted Version of Your Thesis

Some theses contain information that cannot be made public, such as confidential or private data, intellectual property agreements, or third-party copyright where permission to publish it has not been obtained.

In these cases, you will be required to provide two versions (original and redacted) of the online thesis to the Thesis Examination System:

• a full version of the thesis, as examined including any required amendments and the confidential or third-party material. This copy will not be made publicly available but will be stored in Minerva Access for long-term preservation.
• a second “public access” copy of the thesis, with confidential or third-party material for which there is no permission removed or “redacted”. Redacted material can be replaced with a statement such as "This image/material has been removed by the author of this thesis for copyright reasons”. When removing material from the digital copy, a placeholder should be included to retain the pagination of the original document.

Where possible, confidential information should be presented in an appendix rather than in the body of the thesis. The body of the thesis can then be available on open access, while the appendix is not.

Reducing an Embargo Period

Once your thesis is deposited to Minerva Access if you selected embargo to your thesis, you may lift the embargo before its expiry by submitting an email request, along with your supervisor’s endorsement, to  Minerva Access .

Research funded from ARC and NHMRC

The ARC Open Access Policy applies to all research outputs stemming from grant funds, including publications produced by graduate researchers whose scholarships are funded by the ARC. If you are funded by the ARC, the policy requires that you make your thesis openly accessible within 12 months from the date of submission to Minerva Access.  If you are unable to do so due to legal or contractual obligations, or due to sensitive information contained in your thesis, you may opt to embargo your thesis for the standard two year period. The Primary Chief Investigator on your grant will then need to explain why your thesis was not made openly accessible, and the compliance options that were investigated to make your thesis open, when they submit their Final Report to the ARC.

The NHMRC, released a new open access policy on 20 September 2022.  This policy requires full and immediate open access form NHRMC-funded research outputs.  The 2022 policy applies to new NHRMC grants and scholarships issued from 20 September 2022.  Those under the previous policy, the NHMRC strongly encourages funded graduate researchers to make their thesis and any peer-reviewed publications Open Access.

Further information about the ARC and NHMRC Open Access Polices can be found in the  University of Melbourne Open Access Libguide .

Third Party Copyright in My Thesis

Whether choosing immediate open access or seeking an embargo, the Preparation of Graduate Research Theses Rules require you to list third party copyright material included in your thesis and whether you have gained permission from the copyright owners to make this material publicly available as part of your thesis. You should obtain copyright permissions as early as possible to avoid delays in submitting your thesis.

When creating the list of third party copyright material included in your thesis, please use the Template for Listing Third Party Copyright Material .

Please ensure that:

• The inclusion of publications in the thesis complies with your publisher copyright agreement. Usually this means the post‐print ( author-accepted manuscript ) should be used rather than the publisher PDF as it appears in the final published version at the publisher site.
• Informed consent has been obtained for the use of research participants’ photographs (eg. patients), and particularly for the use of images of Indigenous Australians.
• The identity of participants in the research is adequately protected.

If you have not been successful in obtaining these permissions, you will need to deposit two copies of the thesis. Likewise, if your thesis includes confidential or sensitive material you should consider depositing two copies. See Redacted Version of your Thesis above.

For information on copyright, what constitutes as third-party copyright, including copyright in creative works and dealing with the copyright of others visit the Copyright Office .

• What is copyright?
• Copyright and your thesis

Exceptional Circumstances

In rare cases it may be necessary to prevent access to all versions of your thesis for a limited time. For example:

• Your thesis contains material which could have legal repercussions if published
• Your thesis contains material for which you intend to apply for patent protection, or there are other possible commercial benefits which would be prejudiced were the thesis to be made public immediately after acceptance
• There are other exceptional circumstances.

You must consider carefully whether applying for restricted access will unduly impair your ability to publish your research or make your work and achievements known to potential employers. Discuss these issues with your supervisors before applying.

Embargo Extensions

The embargo period of two years can be extended for up to an additional two years if required. You will be contacted prior to the initial two years embargo period expires to invite you to extend for an additional two years. If you need an extension beyond four years, submit a  completed application to the Graduate Research Examinations Office by  email .

No access means that the thesis metadata (including title, author, abstract, keywords) may not be displayed and must be approved by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Graduate and International Research) and is normally approved for up to one year. Restriction for longer periods may be approved in exceptional circumstances only. To apply for no access, submit a completed application to the Graduate Research Examinations Office by email .

When submitting your thesis for examination to TES you should select the Full Embargo option.

How users discover my thesis

Your thesis, whether in print or online, can be discovered by users around the world. Users can search for theses from the University of Melbourne Library Catalogue or Discovery tool or from search engines such as Google and Google Scholar .

All records about Australian theses held in university library catalogues and digital repositories are also made available via Trove , the National Library of Australia's database.

Search engines return results based on the metadata associated with your thesis: author, title, keywords. Some publishers provide tips for authors on how to optimise metadata for search engine discoverability. Wiley's Author Services site is one example.

If you are pursuing an academic career, the discoverability of your work is important. It is also important that your work is attributed correctly to you.

• You must include your ORCID in your thesis as specified in the Preparation of Graduate Research Theses Rules
• Manage your researcher profile by obtaining other appropriate researcher identifiers for citation databases
• Track usage of your thesis on Minerva Access .
• Resources for candidates
• Orientation and induction
• Mapping my degree
• Principles for infrastructure support
• Peer activities
• Change my commencement date
• Meeting expectations
• Working with my supervisors
• Responsible Research & Research Integrity
• Guidelines for external supervisors
• Pre-confirmation
• Confirmation
• At risk of unsatisfactory progress
• Unsatisfactory progress
• Add or drop coursework subjects
• Apply for leave
• Return from leave
• Apply for Study Away
• Return from Study Away
• Change my study rate
• Check my candidature status
• Change my current supervisors
• Request an evidence of enrolment or evidence of qualification statement
• Change my project details
• Change department
• Transfer to another graduate research degree
• Late submission
• Withdraw from my research degree
• Check the status of a request
• Re-enrolment
• Advice on requesting changes
• Extension of candidature
• Lapse candidature
• How to cancel a form in my.unimelb
• Resolving issues
• Taking leave
• About Study Away
• Finishing on time
• Accepting an offer for a joint PhD online
• Tenured Study Spaces (TSS) Usage Guidelines
• Tenured Study Spaces Procedures
• Research skills
• Academic writing and communication skills
• Building professional and academic networks
• Research internships
• Commercialising my research
• Supplementary PhD Programs
• Writing my thesis
• Examples of thesis and chapter formats when including publications
• Thesis with creative works
• Research Integrity in my Thesis
• Graduate researchers and digital assistance tools
• TES Statuses
• Submitting my thesis
• Depositing multiple components for your final thesis record
• The Chancellor's Prize
• TES Graduate Researcher FAQs
• Career planning
• Publishing my research
• Getting support
• Key graduate research contacts
• Melbourne Research Experience Survey
• Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching (QILT)
• Current Students

Dissertations and Theses: A Finding Guide: Cornell Theses

• Introduction
• Cornell Theses
• Non-Cornell Theses
• Open Access, etc.
• Cornell Dissertation Guidelines

Search ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global [PQDTG]

Nearly all Ithaca-campus Cornell doctoral dissertations are available in print form or on microfilm in one of the Cornell University Libraries. Some dissertations are now available online as well. Copies of masters theses and undergraduate honors theses are more fugitive, but some are also available at Cornell.

Recommended approach: Search  ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global [PQDTG] .

Some Cornell dissertations may be available full text in PDF format for immediate free download. Do not search Dissertation Abstracts ; all these records and more are now in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

The full text of some Cornell dissertations is available online in PQDTG beginning with June 1954; a few pre-1954 dissertations are also available online. Before 2009, only some Cornell dissertations were digitized. Since 2009, all Cornell dissertations--with the exception of embargoed titles--are also available full-text online in the eCommons Cornell Theses and Dissertations collection (see the embargo discussion below).

This ProQuest LibGuide provides searching tips and lists searchable fields in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Check Cornell's Catalog

Searching and browsing:.

• The Catalog lists the dissertations available in the Cornell University Library. Note that some records do not have subject headings. These records are searchable by title and author words.
• The Thesis Distribution List is a useful aid for browsing Cornell theses by general subject. It shows the Library of Congress call number assigned to Cornell theses for each degree program on campus and which library houses that department's theses.

Coverage Limitations:

Some dissertation information is missing from our Catalog:

• the newest print dissertations that the library hasn't received yet or that are in the process of being bound and cataloged.
• some pre-1918 dissertations that are not cataloged (see the microfilm guide below for access to these titles).

Strategies for browsing theses records that lack subject headings:

Many theses and dissertations are organized by degree program using a general Library of Congress Classification.

For example, theses in the field of mathematics will begin with the call number Thesis QA 10 . Thesis Distribution List  for a list of degree programs with call number classifications. Knowing this classification, you can construct a call number browse in the online catalog to retrieve a list of theses by thesis call number. --> To browse a thesis call number classification, do a Call Number search in the Catalog . Enter the term Thesis and add the first two letters of the classification. Do not enter the number . For example, to find Thesis QA 10 , enter Thesis QA .

Important note:

After entering the Thesis 2-letter classification, it is usually necessary to scroll down or move forward through a number of pages to see all the theses classified in in a given subject area. Further, theses starting with the same letters but different numbers (QA 10 and QA 70, for example), may sort out of numerical order in the call number browse. In general, theses with the same beginning call number are sorted in chronological order from oldest to newest; the next part of the call number after Thesis QA 10, for example, is the year of the thesis (i.e., Thesis QA 10 1997...).

We also have a set of thesis catalog cards organized by department in a cabinet located in the hallway of the 106 Olin staff area. The department serves as a rough subject guide for these dissertations. This card set covers approximately 1918 up to about 1987. Cards are filed in chronological order within each department.

The print thesis collection in Uris Library is currently shelved on Level 3B before the Q to QA regular-sized volumes. Check with the library staff for the thesis shelving locations in other libraries (Mann, ILR, Fine Arts, etc.).

Weill Medical School Dissertations:

For citations to dissertations at Weill, select Tri-Institutional (Tri-I) Library Catalog from the  Weill Library advanced search page .

Citations and abstracts for Weill dissertations may also be found in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global (mentioned earlier) for 1957 to date.

Finding the Newest Dissertations/Theses

Beginning with 2017, the first place to check for newer Cornell dissertations is the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global (PQDTG) . Graduating students submit digital copies of their Cornell dissertations to ProQuest using the ETD Administrator submission tool. ProQuest's turn-around time typically averages about 4 to 6 weeks from receipt to online publication. A pre-published copy of the full text along with the metadata is delivered to the university repository (Cornell Theses and Dissertations collection in eCommons) within several hours of a submission being released to ProQuest for publication in PQDTG.

Although the full text of many dissertations is available via ProQuest, coverage in ProQuest is not complete prior to 2017.

The Cornell Theses and Dissertations collection in eCommons holds digital versions of many Cornell dissertations completed since about 2004, as well as a few earlier ones. Since 2009, Cornell dissertations have been routinely added to eCommons.

Here is brief timeline of the eCommons deposit history:

• Before 2004 : Digital versions of dissertations and theses (ETDs) were not routinely deposited in eCommons.
• 2004 to 2008 : Students may choose to deposit their own work to eCommons directly.
• 2009 to 2016 : Students submitted their ETDs to The Graduate School who then passed them to the library.
• 2017 to the present : Students submit their dissertations to ProQuest first and ProQuest then delivers the digital version to the library to be added to eCommons.

Exceptions:

• Authors may specify an embargo. Until 2017, this was five years, by default, renewable upon request. Starting in 2017, the maximum initial embargo is two years. Permission to view dissertations that are closed in eCommons may be requested by contacting the author, or a print copy may be requested through Cornell Interlibrary Lending .
• Some ETDs are withheld entirely to allow time for patent applications to be completed. See Exception for dissertations embargoed or withheld for patent reasons below.

Most embargoed dissertations still have a record describing the dissertation in eCommons, but it is not possible to view the full text of the dissertation until the access restriction or embargo has expired. If access to a thesis is restricted in this way, users will see "Access to Document Restricted" under the document thumbnail image. Below this will be a field labeled "No Access Until," which indicates the date when the full text of the thesis will be accessible. If the "No Access Until" field does not appear, the full text of the dissertation is available immediately. If there is a problem accessing a Cornell dissertation in eCommons after the embargo date has passed, contact Michael Engle at Olin Library Reference for assistance.

Exception for dissertations embargoed or withheld for patent reasons:

For Cornell dissertations that are being withheld or embargoed for patent reasons (dissertations that are unavailable in any format, print or online), verification that the dissertation exists can be obtained from the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) . CTL has an in-house database that is not publicly available where this information resides. These dissertations have no records in either ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global or in our Library catalog, although citations to them may appear elsewhere online.

Recent dissertations not yet available online, but available in print format:

If a patron needs to read a dissertation and the full text is not yet available in Cornell Theses and Dissertations collection in eCommons , check the Library Catalog for a record with the location of a print copy or copies.

If the print copy is so new that it is not yet been processed, and there is no record in the catalog, the reference staff will contact Library Technical Services (LTS) to check on its availability. These unbound dissertations can be moved by LTS from storage to the Rare and Manuscript Collections Reading Room for use.

To help in tracking the newest dissertations, here is how the library processes new print dissertations: For many years the library has received two print copies of each dissertation--archival and circulating. We received copies of these unbound dissertations about six weeks after the conferral of degrees. The circulating copy was sent for microfilming by ProQuest. After microfilming, the archival copy that remained here and the returned circulating copy were paired and sent to our bindery, seventy-five titles every two weeks. Turnaround time was about two weeks (but note the changes in turnaround time due to the pandemic, below). We then cataloged them in the order that they were bound, usually in alphabetical order. The archival copy went to the Rare and Manuscript Collections section of the Library Annex. The circulating copy went to the stacks.

As of August 2020, moving to e-only for Cornell dissertations (no print copies) was being discussed in the Thesis and Dissertations Advisory Group in the Library. In the meantime, as of November 2020, the library was still receiving and processing print copies of Cornell dissertations, although the processing of these print copies has been understandably slowed by the restrictions on in-person work in Olin Library due to the pandemic.

Advanced Degrees Conferred (ADC)

Advanced Degrees Conferred is a list of all the graduate degrees granted at Cornell since 1932. ADC lists dissertations when required for the degree; there have been degrees that do not require a dissertation or thesis. This list is published by The Graduate School three times per year -- for the January, May, and August degree-granting events. The printed version, covering 1932 through 2010 is organized by the degree granted: Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Arts, Master of Science, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Engineering; the order has varied over time. If you are trying to verify information for an individual dissertation title or author in a given year, you may need to look at all three lists in the print version.

Use Advanced Degrees Conferred to verify dissertation authors, titles, years, degree awarded, and departments. Additional information may be available (i.e., thesis advisors).

Print version (1932 - 2010) . Call number: Olin Reference Z 5055 .U5 C81 + [called Candidates for Advanced Degrees from 1932 - 1943]. Online version (May 2011 to recent) . The link to the online version, https://intranet.gradschool.cornell.edu/data-solutions/operational-reports/degree-reports/ , requires Cornell authentication followed by re-entering this URL. Links to individual PDFs on this Degree Reports page are listed in the "Advanced Degrees Conferred (PDF)" section. Currently available PDFs start with the January 2011 conferral date and end with August 2020.

Updated 22 January 2024. MOE

Finding the Oldest Dissertations/Theses

The oldest (pre-1932) cornell dissertations: identifying and locating:.

• A two-volume printed list of the known theses from 1871 through 1911 is shelved behind the Olin Reference desk in ready reference : The call number is Olin Ref Z 5055 .U5 C809+.
• 1911-1923 : Film 8229 is shelved at the Library Annex. (It was previously shelved in the microfilm section of the Microform Area on the Olin B level). Film 8229 is the call number of the Cornell University Dissertations Microfilm Project which consists of 59 reels containing 410 dissertations submitted from 1911 to 1923. Each thesis is identified by a reel number and a thesis number. For example the call number "Film 8229 reel 1 no.10" is the tenth thesis on reel 1 of this microfilm set. These 410 theses have individual records in the Cornell Library Catalog and are searchable by author and title. An archival print version of nearly all these dissertations is also kept at the Library Annex; these versions can be paged from the Annex by Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections staff.

Another resource for identifying older Cornell dissertations and theses (including undergraduate theses which were not distinguished from advanced degree theses in the early days) is the  Cornell University Library Theses Records, 1872-1940 , Collection # 13/4/896 in the University Archives in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections on the 2B level of Kroch Library. The catalog record gives this description: "Manuscript volumes listing authors and titles of their work; lists of candidates; shelf list; and related records of theses work at the University."

The full text of some Cornell dissertations, especially those dating from the 1890s through 1922, are available in the  Hathi Trust Digital Library . Online access to the full text may be limited to individually authenticated Cornell users. Use the Log In button to sign in.

Finding Masters Theses and Undergraduate Honors Theses and Papers

Professional degree in mechanical engineering project papers.

The full text of Papers written for the Professional Degree in Mechanical Engineering is available in eCommons@Cornell .

ILR Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations, 1946-2006

On the Digital Collections@ILR website, Catherwood Library hosts ILR School Theses and Dissertations: A Listing , an online bibliography of masters theses and doctoral dissertations that is searchable and browsable. Cornell Library Catalog . -->

Masters of Professional Studies Theses

Theses for MPS (Masters of Professional Studies) programs that are shelved in Mann Library and the Library Annex (for older titles) have M.P.S. in the notes field along with the phrase "project report".  To browse a list of these MPS theses , go to the  Catalog  and enter this All Fields search: "m.p.s." and "project report". Over 1,000 MPS theses are listed, primarily from 1978 to date.

The Africana Library maintains a searchable database of all the theses for the Masters of Professional Studies Program at the Africana Studies and Research Center since 1973. Each thesis has an entry that gives bibliographical info as well as committee chairperson, degree date, call number, and an abstract.

Locating Cornell Undergraduate Theses

Information on a collection of College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate honors theses held in the Rare and Manuscript Collections is available from this catalog record: College of Arts and Sciences Honors Theses . Click on the Finding aid link in the Availability box to get a full author and title list for the honors theses in this collection (College of Arts and Sciences honors theses, 1978-2019, Collection Number: 14-4-4115).

eCommons@Cornell has the full text online for some undergraduate honors theses . Coverage begins in 2006. The following colleges and schools have separately searchable sections in eCommons:

• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (highest number of honors theses)
• College of Architecture, Art, and Planning
• College of Arts and Sciences
• College of Engineering
• College of Human Ecology
• School of Industrial and Labor Relations
• Science of Earth Systems (SES)

Some undergraduate honors theses are individually listed in our Catalog . Olin and Uris own relatively few of these; other libraries have more. Using the All Fields search, enter "honors thesis" and Cornell.

Access to additional Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections holdings of undergraduate theses:

• The New York State College of Human Ecology Honors Theses,1970- finding aid lists honors theses titles and authors for the print copies held in RMC (Kroch Library Rare & Manuscript Archives Collection # 23-11-3264) for the years 1970-1975, 1982, and 1986 to date.
• The finding aid for Department of History senior honors theses, 1978-2007 . Limited to honors theses under Michael Kammen's direction. (Kroch Library Rare & Manuscript Archive Collection # 14-17-3649).
• Department of Government honors theses, 1991- . (Kroch Library Rare & Manuscript Archive Collection # 14-16-3477). A finding aid for this collection of Government undergraduate theses.
• The Division of Nutritional Sciences Honors Theses, 1974-2015 finding aid lists honors theses titles and authors for the CD-ROM copies held in RMC. (Kroch Library Rare & Manuscript Archives Collection # 29-6-3419).
• While not honors theses, RMC has digitized a selection of papers written by Cornell undergraduates for Mary Beth Norton's class (2006-2017) on aspects of the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials along with background information, commentary, and a precis by Professor Norton for each paper in this online collection.

The Fine Arts Library has two categories of undergraduate theses in print form: Bachelor of Architecture theses (NA 38) and senior honors City and Regional Planning theses (NA 9002). These do not circulate because there are no additional copies at the University. To find catalog records for the B.Architecture theses, search B.Arch in All Fields and then limit to Theses in the results.

Catherwood Library . The Digital Collections@ILR lists a collection of "student works" . The full text is available for download from each entry. Coverage begins in 2000, but is extensive beginning in 2013.

Requests by Cornell Alumni for their Own Dissertations or Masters Theses

Cornell graduates who want to request an electronic copy of their own dissertation can contact Author School Relations to receive author pricing, by phoning 1-800-521-0600 ext. 77020 or emailing [email protected] . (Outside the U.S. and Canada? Contact ProQuest directly for assistance.)

Alumni wishing to purchase a reproduction of a Cornell master's thesis can request a scanned copy by e-mailing [email protected]. More information is on RMC's Reproductions & Permissions page .

Requests for Cornell Dissertations or Theses by non-Cornellians

The borrowing option for non-cornellians:.

Patrons from outside Cornell wishing to borrow a copy of a Cornell Ph.D. thesis should check our interlibrary loan service page . Individuals wishing to borrow a thesis must work through the ILL service at their local library.

The Purchase Option for non-Cornellians:

Cornell dissertations from June 1954 to the present are available for purchase from ProQuest only. Patrons wishing to purchase a reproduction of a Cornell Ph.D. dissertation that is too old to be handled by UMI Dissertation Express (pre-June 1954) or any Cornell master's thesis can request a scanned copy by e-mailing [email protected]. More information is on RMC's Reproductions & Permissions page .

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Columbia university archives: master's essays & dissertations.

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Phone: (212) 854-3786 Fax: (212) 854-1365 E-mail: [email protected]

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Related Collections

Barnard College The Barnard Archives and Special Collections serves as the final repository for the historical records of Barnard College, from its founding in 1889 to the present day. For more information, please contact [email protected] .

Health Sciences Library The Archives and Special Collections at the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library of Columbia University can help you find information about the schools of the Medical Center: College of Physicians & Surgeons, School of Nursing, College of Dental Medicine (formerly the School of Dental & Oral Surgery), Mailman School of Public Health, and the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences. For more information, please contact [email protected] .

How to find Master's essays and PhD dissertations

• Master's Essays
• Dissertations
• Journalism Masters Projects
• Online Essays & Theses Lists

How to Find a Master's Essay

• Master's essays can be found in the Columbia University library catalog,  CLIO . They usually have a call number that begins with COA. Please keep in mind that paper copies of master’s essays for most academic departments ceased being collected by the Libraries on an annual basis in the late 1970s.
• Harriman Institute Theses and Dissertations, 1947-2018
• Department of History Master's Essays, 1971-1989   
• School of General Studies Literature-Writing Theses, 1984-2007

​ To request a thesis from the finding aid: click the check box located on the right for the thesis you would like to see in the  Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room , and then scroll back to the top of the container list document and click “Submit Request” button in the red-rimmed box at top. This should lead you directly to your  Special Collections Research Account  to complete the request.

• Master's Essays from 1891 through 1951 (call number COA A )
• Master's Essays and Doctoral Dissertations from 1951/1952 through 1956/1957 (call number CW4 C724 )
• Master's Essays and Doctoral Dissertations from 1957/58 through 1970/1971 (call number CW4 C724 ). 

To request access to these publications go to the appropriate CLIO record and click on the link that says “Request from Special Collections”. At this point you may be prompted to log back into your Special Collections Research Account to schedule the retrieval date and the request should be listed in your account.

• School of Social Work theses are also found by searching CLIO , but these are not serviced by the University Archives. If you wish to obtain access or are seeking a copy you will need to contact the Social Work Library for assistance.  
• Some full-text Master's theses are available in Academic Commons , where you can find recent Master's theses from programs including Historic Preservation , Human Rights Studies, Oral History, Sociomedical Sciences, Theatre, and Urban Planning .

How to Request a Copy

• To request to see a Master's essay in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) reading room, you will first need to create a  Special Collections Research Account . Once you have your account, look for the essay in  CLIO . From the catalog record,  select "Request:  Special Collections" on the right side of the page. You will then be able to add the request to your account. Please note that these volumes with the call number starting in COA contain multiple essays from the same year and that these volumes are stored offsite. We prefer 5 business days advanced notice to retrieve materials from offsite storage, but require  at least   three business days to process such requests .  
• There is no charge for a PDF copy of Master's essay serviced by the University Archives up to 650 pages in length. We reserve the right to charge a fee of $30.00 for each additional title requested. To place an order, please complete, sign and return the Photocopy or PDF Form . If payment is required, it can be made by MasterCard or Visa credit card at a secure online link provided by the Libraries' Financial Office.
• There is no fee for copies of Master's essays that have been already been digitized. Please consult the list of previously scanned and available Master's Essays and Theses . To place an order, please complete, sign and return the  Photocopy or PDF Form and indicate you are requesting a previously scanned title.  
• If you are the author, or an heir of the author, of the thesis you are requesting, please consider adding the digital version to Academic Commons , Columbia's institutional repository. Email repository staff at [email protected]  to learn more.
• Scanned Master's Essays and Theses

How to Find a Dissertation

• Ph.D. dissertations can be found in the Columbia University library catalog,  CLIO . They usually have a call number that begins with COY, CWO CXO, CZO or LD1237.
• List of theses submitted by candidates for the degree of doctor of philosophy in Columbia University, 1872-1910.
• Master's Essays and Doctoral Dissertations from 1951/1952 through 1956/1957 (call number CW4 C724 )
• Master's Essays and Doctoral Dissertations from 1957/58 through 1970/1971 (call number CW4 C724 );
• Doctoral Dissertations from 1971/1972 through 1987/1988 (call number CW4 C725 ). 

After 1987/1988 you can find annual lists of Doctoral Dissertations in Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Convocation Programs which can be accessed via our Commencement Collection . To request access to the cataloged publications go to the appropriate CLIO record and click on the link that says “Request from Special Collections”. At this point you may be prompted to log back into your Special Collections Research Account to schedule the retrieval date and once you do that you should see the request listed in your account.  

How to Get a Copy

• To request to see a dissertation in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) reading room, you will first need to create a  Special Collections Research Account . Once you have your account, look for the dissertation in  CLIO . From the catalog record,  select "Request:  Special Collections" on the right side of the page. You will then be able to add the request to your account. Please note that these volumes are stored offsite. We prefer 5 business days advanced notice to retrieve materials from offsite storage, but require  at least   3 business days to process such requests .​  
• Full text copies of  dissertations published since 1997  (and some earlier dates) are available to Columbia UNI holders via  ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database . Non-Columbia patrons may order copies via  ProQuest Dissertation Express . Various formats & fees apply.  
• Academic Commons   holds the full text of doctoral theses written since 2011 at Columbia. The repository also holds a comprehensive collection of Teachers College dissertations written since 2018, as well as many Teachers College dissertations written from 2011-18. Some dissertations from Union Theological Seminary, and from Columbia and Teachers College before 2011, are also available. If you are the author, or an heir of the author, of a doctoral dissertation written at Columbia or one of its affiliate institutions, and you would like to make a digital copy available in Academic Commons, please contact repository staff at   [email protected] .  
• If a dissertation is not available via Proquest, you may request a copy from the University Archives. There is no charge for a PDF copy of  dissertation serviced by the University Archives up to 650 pages in length. We reserve the right to charge a fee of $30.00 for each additional title requested. To place an order, please complete, sign and return the Photocopy or PDF Form . If payment is required, it can be made by MasterCard or Visa credit card at a secure online link provided by the Libraries' Financial Office.  
• There is no fee for theses that have been already been digitized. Please consult the  list of previously scanned and available Master's Essays and Theses . To place an order, please complete, sign and return the  Photocopy or PDF Form   and indicate you are requesting a previously scanned title.  

School of the Arts Writing Division MFA theses can be found in the Columbia University library catalog, CLIO . They usually have a call number that begins with ARTSMA.

• To request to see an MFA thesis in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) reading room, you will first need to create a Special Collections Research Account . Once you have your account, look for the thesis in CLIO . From the catalog record, select "Request: Special Collections" on the right side of the page. You will then be able to add the request to your account. Please note that these volumes are normally stored offsite. We prefer 5 business days advanced notice to retrieve materials from offsite storage, but require at least   three business days to process such requests .  
• To request a copy of a School of the Arts Writing Division MFA Thesis, written permission of the author (or the deceased author's estate) is required . Researchers should request permission via SOA Writing Division Office (212-854-4391; [email protected] ). Once permission is received, the reproduction order can be processed.  
• There is no charge for a PDF copy of a MFA thesis serviced by the University Archives up to 650 pages in length. We reserve the right to charge a fee of $30.00 for each additional title requested. To place an order, please complete, sign and return the Photocopy or PDF Form . If payment is required, it can be made by MasterCard or Visa credit card at a secure online link provided by the Libraries' Financial Office.  
• There is no fee for copies of MFA theses that have been already been digitized. Please consult the list of previously scanned and available Master's Essays and Theses . To place an order, please complete, sign and return the  Photocopy or PDF Form and indicate you are requesting a previously scanned title.

The MS Projects and MA Theses completed by students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism are housed at Columbia University Libraries. The most recent four years' projects and theses are kept at the Journalism Library, 204 Pulitzer Hall. Earlier years may be found on the lower level of Lehman Library , in the School of International and Public Affairs. MS projects are available at Lehman Library back to 1957; the online listing covers 1927 to the present.

Bound volumes of Master's projects and theses do not circulate — they must be read at the library.

The most recent five years of broadcast Master's projects and theses are available for loan from the Journalism Library Reserves Collection and circulate for 2 days. Projects from earlier years may be requested at the Lehman Library Reserves Desk. To request a radio or television project, you must know the author's name and their year of graduation.

An online index to many of these Journalism master's essays is available via the Journalism Library's website .  If you have further questions please contact the Journalism Librarian by emailing [email protected] or calling 212-854-0390.

To find Master's Essay and Doctoral Dissertation titles and authors, please consult the set of publications linked to below.  Printed by the Libraries, these volumes list authors alphabetically and arrange essays by department for a particular year.  Please note that some volumes list only Masters' Essays, some only Dissertations and only a few print both.

List of theses submitted by candidates for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Masters’ essays (list of essays submitted for the master’s degree), masters' essays and doctoral dissertations, doctoral dissertations, about the image.

Low Library and campus view postcard, 1903. (Scan #0127)  Historical Photograph Collection ,  University Archives, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University Libraries.

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the journal of electronic publishing

Excerpted: electronic theses and dissertations: digitizing scholarship for its own sake.

Permissions : This work is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Please contact [email protected] for more information.

For more information, read Michigan Publishing's access and usage policy .

For most scholars, the graduate thesis or dissertation is the first major work of scholarship they produce. To make those works more readily available to other scholars, as well as to save money, many universities and libraries are now making digitized (or electronic) versions available. Following the lead of Virginia Tech, some institutions, moreover, are even beginning to require that all graduate theses and dissertations be submitted and published electronically; some even go so far as to completely eliminate printed copies.

Electronic theses and dissertations, or ETDs, are defined as those theses and dissertations submitted, archived, or accessed primarily in electronic formats. That includes traditional word-processed (or typewritten and scanned) documents made available in Print Document Format (PDF), as well as less-traditional hypertext and multimedia formats published electronically on CD-ROM or on the World Wide Web. In this paper we briefly look at the move toward making theses and dissertations available in electronic formats and discuss some of the proposals that have been advanced for dealing with problems of production, storage, and dissemination of those works.

The Move to ETDs

Many libraries are now in the process of digitizing information in an effort to preserve it and to make it more widely available. The Library of Congress's National Digital Library Project plans to digitize five million items by 2000, and many university, public, and private libraries worldwide are currently working on digitizing their collections as well. The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, is a collection focused specifically on digitized versions of theses, dissertations, and technical papers that began in 1996 at Virginia Tech. The NDLTD reports that more than twenty universities around the world have become official contributing members of the Initiative within just the past year, and nearly twice that number have expressed interest or are taking steps to participate.

Traditional methods of archiving and storing theses and dissertations are inefficient and unwieldy. Many theses and dissertations lie moldering in library basements, with no efficient way for researchers to locate the information that may be contained in them. Further, the time and costs involved in procuring copies of those works may often be prohibitive. One effort to make those works more readily available has been to register them with University Microfilms International (UMI), a commercial service that, according to its Web site (1997), "publishes and archives dissertations and theses; sells copies on demand; and maintains the definitive bibliographic record for over 1.4 million doctoral dissertations and master's theses." Today, however, most theses and dissertations are available from UMI only on paper, microfiche, or microfilm, at prices ranging from $29.50 to $69.50, depending on the format. Copies ordered through UMI's Web site using a credit card arrive in no fewer than four days. Archiving theses and dissertations electronically can help to alleviate some of the problems involved in storage, and making full-text versions available either on the Web or as e-mail attachments would make access almost immediate. Electronic versions on disk, CD-ROM, or other digital electronic media could be cheaper as well. Universities may opt to publish theses and dissertations produced at their own institutions on the World Wide Web, or individual scholars might publish their own works on the Web, thus allowing free access to full texts. Even if libraries decide not to offer the text of the ETD free, they could help scholars by allowing full-text searching. That would allow researchers to be sure that the documents they order or download actually contain the information they seek.

"Many theses and dissertations lie mouldering in library basements, with no efficient way for researchers to locate the information that may be contained in them."

Writing with new technologies has already become more than just plain text; many writers are beginning to take advantage of the flexibility offered by new technology to include multimedia elements such as hypertext links, video and audio, and interactive elements in their electronic publications. And many students want the freedom to experiment with these new forms. One particularly innovative example of a work that would have been impossible without new electronic technologies is the University of Arkansas Online Writing Center , designed by Paula Puffer in fulfillment of her master's thesis requirement in English. That writing center allows students worldwide to submit writing assignments electronically to tutors who will evaluate and critique them online.

More examples of ETDs can be found at the Virginia Tech Library Collection of ETDs or the Directory of ETDs Currently in Progress at the University of Virginia.

Although some schools have allowed students to produce theses and dissertations in non-traditional forms, most still require that students submit them on paper as well, thus either precluding the use of multimedia or hypertextual elements altogether, or else forcing students to, in effect, produce two entirely different works for two entirely different media. As Daniel Eisenberg, assistant to the dean for information technology at Northern Arizona University, noted in a listserv discussion on ETDS,

I had a student who wanted to do a digital edition of a text for a thesis but the university insisted on a paper copy of the digital edition. . . . Almost every dissertation now, in the U.S., is done in some type of digital format. These disks are erased and recycled, or sit in the hands of the new Ph.D. This is a waste of a resource that future generations may well take us to task for. . . . (Eisenberg 1997)

Some scholars fear that as new definitions of "writing" are developed, writers may be seduced into using new technologies to produce documents that offer more sensory appeal than substance. Most ETDs, however, are still produced for print; multimedia applications are used only to enhance or supplement the arguments. One reason is that graduate departments and committees remain fairly conservative so even those scholars who take advantage of electronic formats, including multimedia, hypertext (or hypermedia), and/or virtual reality components, produce theses and dissertations that will be approved by their committees and graduate departments. Simply allowing or requiring that theses and dissertations be submitted electronically, therefore, is unlikely to effect radical change in the substance or the form of those works in the near future.

As electronic technologies develop, however, reading and writing may also change in as-yet-unforeseeable ways. We don't know how much new technologies will change our conception of scholarship. Only by allowing graduate students and their committees the flexibility to experiment with new forms, and by developing guidelines that can sustain change, will we find out.

More Problems to Consider

There are, of course, problems as well as opportunities in allowing or requiring electronic submission, distribution, and archiving of theses and dissertations, including problems of access and distribution , archiving and storage , and copyright and publication issues.

Access and Distribution

In order to access ETDs, people need a computer. And, since reading lengthy works online is still a formidable task unless you have very good eyes, access to high-speed printers (or plenty of time) may also be necessary. Printing large documents, moreover, can still be a costly venture. The cost of paper and toner can add up, and paying a commercial print shop to print out an ETD file can be as costly as (or perhaps more costly than) ordering a printed copy through UMI. Further, ETDs that make heavy use of audio and video may require faster processing speeds and expensive software or hardware. To serve those without Internet access, it may be necessary for librarians or archivists to produce copies on disk or CD-ROM, which could require purchase of high-speed drives to facilitate duplication. Mailing disks or CD-ROM copies, too, takes time, the same amount of time now required to send paper copies. And interactive ETDs (such as the Online Writing Center) cannot easily be converted to paper without subverting the very nature of the author's intentions.

"The move from paper to electronic versions of theses and dissertations has been possible only through expenditures of time and/or money on the part of library and information sciences programs."

Currently, in order to access the full text of a print thesis or dissertation, researchers need to procure it from the library of the university where it was produced, either in person or through interlibrary loan. Some schools, however, do not participate in interlibrary loan, forcing some researchers to travel great distances to access those scholarly works. Where dissertations and theses are archived by UMI, researchers can buy them in print, microfiche, or microfilm formats for a fee.

Electronic publication of theses and dissertations can make access and distribution faster and less expensive for most scholars. NDLTD, for example, makes theses and dissertations available free on the Web, and many libraries and universities offer computer access to the World Wide Web. Most universities also provide printing. As projects like the National Digital Library Project make more information available online, it is likely that the trend toward providing faster, cheaper, and easier public access to ETDs will continue.

ETDs can help to make information more readily available to scholars and researchers by allowing quicker and more thorough search capabilities. For example, the University of Virginia has begun testing and adapting a distributed storage and retrieval system [formerly http://www.ncstrl.org/Dienst/htdocs/Info/ncstrl.html] developed by Jim Davis of Xerox and Carl Lagoze of Cornell University that will allow researchers to use the Web to browse the entire Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations by author, subject, keyword, department, or year of publication. That system will also allow users to search and retrieve chapters or sections of a thesis or dissertation to home in on specific sections that are of interest to them. The NDLTD continues to add to its current base of both participating schools and documents, with more than five hundred selections now available at Virginia Tech alone. Many scholars are already taking advantage of the service: During the 1996-97 academic year at Virginia Tech, ETDs were accessed "almost two orders of magnitude more than the number of circulations of the library copy." (Fox et al. 1997).

Archiving and Storage

In all of the universities participating in the ETDs Initiative, libraries are responsible for maintaining accessibility by ensuring that files produced by outmoded or obsolete applications are translated into newer media as necessary. That has resulted in the creation of new positions or added responsibilities for many library staff members and administrators. The move from paper to electronic versions of theses and dissertations has been possible only through expenditures of time and money on the part of library and information sciences programs. That need for more resources, however, is not unique to ETDs. Libraries are devoting resources to digitizing all kinds of information, not only ETDs, but traditionally published works as well. While some fear that all the work being done to digitize information will be lost with the next major change in technology, in fact, software publishers in recent years have been careful to assure that newer versions of software usually accommodate files produced by older versions. Thus it is not likely that changes in technology will make ETDs inaccessible.

ETDs are easily backed up, so the risk of losing information is minimal. ETDs stored electronically are less likely to be damaged than their print counterparts, since they have no physical form to yellow and decay with age, and since loaning out a copy does not include relinquishing the original. And advances in technology have made possible increases in electronic storage capacity (such as advances in file compression technology and the availability of larger hard drives) that substantially lower costs. The storage potential of libraries may increase exponentially. IBM recently donated a server with four terabytes of hierarchical storage (or 40,000 gigabytes) to the Virginia Tech pilot project on ETDs, "enough for about 40 million average-sized ETDs" (Fox et al. 1997). That one server could accommodate all existing theses and dissertations worldwide in just a fraction of its memory capacity.

Copyright and Publication

Publishers are concerned about the relationship of ETDs to other forms of publication. Often a dissertation becomes the basis for a scholar's first book. While most of those works are considerably revised for publication, some are published with relatively few changes. Even though paper theses and dissertations are available, most academic presses are not as concerned that they represent prior publication, probably because of the barriers of time, distance, and cost. However, the prospect of having full texts available on the World Wide Web, given that the market for scholarly books is very small, may worry some publishers. On the other hand, greater access might be seen as a way to induce readers to preview a book. According to a recent issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (Winkler, 1997), some academic publishers consider online publication to be "great advertising": "For each of our electronic books, we've approximately doubled our sales," says Marney Smyth, electronic-productions editor of the MIT Press. "The plain fact is that no one is going to sit there and read a whole book on line. And it costs money and time to download it."

The National Academy Press has already put nearly 2,000 of its books online, and has found that the electronic publication of some books has boosted sales of paper copies often by as much as two to three times previous levels.

Universities in other countries are also looking at copyright as they move to put theses and dissertations in electronic formats and publish them online. Kerstin Olofsson, head of the Teacher Education Library at Umea universitetsbibliotek in Sweden, writes,

[T]he copyright issues are the most complicated part of the project. I guess you have the same problem in the States, that the author of the thesis or dissertation also sells the rights to it to a commercial publisher as well. So you would have to negotiate with every publisher for each commercially published thesis. Then you have the problem with the other type of dissertation, mostly in science and medicine, which usually are made up of articles already given to scholarly journals. (Olofsson 1997)

To address potential conflicts over copyright, Virginia Tech has established a system where access to an ETD can be delayed temporarily to allow an article or book to be the only source of the author's material. Holding back electronic publication of an ETD can allow the paper publication to come out first. Too, access to an ETD from outside the author's university can be blocked, ensuring the economic incentives required by many publishers (Fox et al. 1997). Those solutions, while not entirely foolproof, nonetheless offer a protection for both authors and publishers concerned with the risks of electronic access to ETDs. Another concern is the use of copyrighted material in an ETD. Scholars had sometimes included graphics and other copyrighted material in their theses and dissertations without acquiring permissions unless the work was accepted for commercial publication. If ETDs are published on the Web, however, authors will need to ensure compliance with copyright law and fair-use guidelines. That may include acquiring permission to use copyrighted material, which can sometimes be costly. Although UMI and other services have long made theses and dissertations available to the public, the access was limited enough that inclusion of copyrighted materials did not seem to have been an issue in most cases. However, copyright issues and fair-use guidelines are being debated hotly in light of the explosion of electronic publishing. (See, for example, the list of pending copyright legislation at http://www.copyright.gov/legislation ). ETD authors must consider the impact of that debate on their ability to use copyrighted materials.

"Most students already prepare their theses or dissertations electronically, using computers and word-processing software."

Formats for ETDs

Most students already prepare their theses or dissertations electronically, using computers and word-processing software. Formats proposed to make ETDs easily viewable through different platforms include the use of PDF (or Print Document Format) files created with Adobe Distiller . That software creates an exact, digitized picture of a document, page by page, including any graphics and fonts. The file can then be downloaded and viewed using the Adobe Reader, available free on the Web. PDF documents retain all formatting and graphics and also allow the author to include links to other sites on the Web or annotations within the article. In addition, Adobe files can be indexed easily and searched by keywords specifically chosen by the author or indexer. PDF documents available on the Web may also be searchable using words or phrases found anywhere within the document, thus greatly facilitating a researcher's task. For larger and more complex documents, Virginia Tech encourages submission of ETDs in LaTeX or TeX format. LaTeX and TeX are device-independent document formatting systems that use PostScript fonts. They are particularly useful for formatting complex mathematical equations in electronic documents. Those files are then converted to PDF format.

ETD-ML, or Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Markup Language, is another format used by Virginia Tech for submission of ETDs. ETD-ML is actually a form of SGML, or Standard Generalized Markup Language, which uses tags to embed formatting codes in a document. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the language of Web documents, is a variety of SGML that uses similar specialized tags. SGML allows for the "exchange of information at any level of complexity among software, hardware, storage and presentation systems (including database management and publishing applications) without regard to the manufacturer's name on the label" (SoftQuad). That makes it portable across platforms. The strength of SGML for publishers is its use of document-type definitions, or DTDs, which allow a publisher to specify exactly what the document will look like by defining tags for that particular document type. The Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia already makes available thousands of text files marked up with SGML, which are automatically converted to HTML when accessed by the user so they can be read online with a Web browser such as Netscape.

ETDs are still placed with UMI, giving researchers the option of accessing them in print or microform. While interactive ETDs cannot easily be reproduced with print and microform, those options ensure access to many important works by a wide variety of researchers. UMI now makes electronic versions of journals and other publications available online and via other electronic means, and it is likely that the company will one day provide full-text copies of ETDs as well.

Like print, electronic publication has limitations:

• PDF files can be created and read only with Adobe software. If the Adobe reader becomes the standard for publication of ETDs, there is no guarantee that Adobe will continue to offer it free. That could mean that either scholars will again have to face cost prohibitions or that libraries will have to pursue other means of making ETDs freely available.
• Learning to use markup languages such as SGML adds additional layers of complexity to the already complex task of producing scholarship.
• Access to technology is still limited, limiting the availability of ETDs to some scholars.
• The costs of gearing up, including the costs of training scholars, researchers, and staff to implement the ETD initiative, are substantial.
• Theses such as Paula Puffer's are interactive and cannot be accessed without a computer, modem, and Internet connection. Many scholars may want to include interactive components, CGI-scripting elements (such as HyperNews forums), external links, virtual-reality components (i.e., live MOO conversations), and other elements that are becoming common on Web sites, elements that are not easily archived because they may change with each "reading."
• Access to hardware and software, access to telephone connections, and knowledge of protocols can limit access to important information if it is available only online.

While electronic publication can make works more accessible to students, researchers, and others who lack the time, search capabilities, finances, or other resources to locate them in traditional print formats, the system works only if they have access to the necessary computer resources and know-how.

As we move beyond thinking of scholarship as print-based, however, we need to consider how we make our works of scholarship available. We need to consider how we can foster scholarship that is innovative as well as substantive.

Print forms also have limitations: they cannot include multimedia elements, they cannot include interactive elements, and accessing them through interlibrary loans or repositories such as UMI can be time consuming, expensive, and limiting. Just as the invention of the printing press wrought changes in how scholarship was produced and disseminated, technological innovations are having an impact on our conceptions of reading, writing, research, and publication. Electronic theses and dissertations are only one small part of the move to make information available through electronic means to as wide an audience as possible, and to allow scholars to continue to do what they have always done: participate in the creation of knowledge.

Christian Weisser teaches professional writing, computer-assisted composition, and computer-assisted technical writing at the University of South Florida (USF). He is currently co-editing a book on Electronic Theses and Dissertations. He is a member of the USF Task Force on ETDs, and has delivered presentations on computers and writing at several international conferences. Christian has authored or co-authored several publications in the field of Rhetoric and Composition.

Janice R. Walker is the Coordinator for the Computers and Writing Program at the University of South Florida where she teaches courses in Composition, Professional Writing, Technical Writing, and Expository Writing in the multimedia computer classroom. She has authored several articles on electronic research and documentation, scholarly publishing, and copyright issues. Her book, The Columbia Guide to Online Style (co-authored with Todd Taylor), is scheduled for release in 1998. She is currently working on an article on copyright issues for an upcoming special issue of Computers and Composition Journal.

Works Cited

Eisenberg, Daniel. 1997. "Re: Electronic Dissertations." Digital Libraries Research Mailing List . [email protected]. (23 January). Also at [formerly http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/papers/etds/etdsmail.html] (1 November).

"ETD Initiative Homepage." 1997. http://etd.vt.edu/ (10 October).

Fox, Edward A., et al. 1996. "National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations: A Scalable and Sustainable Approach to Unlock University Resources." D-Lib Magazine (September). Also at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september96/theses/09fox.html (18 July 1997).

Fox, Edward A., et al. 1997. "Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations: An International Effort Unlocking University Resources." D-Lib Magazine (September). Also at http://www.dlib.org/dlib/september97/theses/09fox.html (10 October).

Kipp, Neill A. 1997. "Document Type Definition for Electronic Theses and Dissertations. http://etd.vt.edu/etd/etd-ml/dtdetds.htm (1 November).

Library of Congress. 1997. "National Digital Library Program." http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/dli2/html/lcndlp.html (25 October).

National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. 1997. "NDLTD Project." http://www.ndltd.org/index.htm (1 November).

Networked Computer Science Technical Reports Library. 1997. "A Brief Description of NCSTRL." [formerly http://www.ncstrl.org/Dienst/htdocs/Info/ncstrl.html] (25 October).

Oloffson, Kerstin. "Citing (off-list)." 1997. 24 January 1997. http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/papers/etds/etdsmail.html (27 October).

Puffer, Paula. "Electronic Thesis." 1997. http://ww w.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/papers/etds/etdsmail.html (27 October).

Savage, William. "1986-96 Publishing Stats." Personal e-mail. (21 October 1997).

SoftQuad, Inc. "The SGML Primer." 1995. http://www.sq.com/sgmlinfo/primbody.html (9 November 1997) [Editor's note: Link removed August 2001 because article no longer exists.]

University Microfilms International. 1997. "UMI's Online Dissertation Services." http://www.umi.com/hp/Products/Dissertations.html (9 November). Winkler, Karen J. 1997 "Academic Presses Look to the Internet to Save Scholarly Monographs." 1997. The Chronicle of Higher Education (12 September): A18.

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Finding SOAS PhD Theses in the Library Catalogue

All SOAS PhD theses can be found through the  Library catalogue and this will tell you if there is a digital copy which can be viewed online.

• Search by author or title if you know the details of the particular thesis you would like to see
• To browse our PhD thesis collection enter ‘Thesis’ in the search box and select ‘Classmark’ in the drop-down menu
• To limit your search of theses to a particular subject then click on ‘Advanced’ select ‘Add Search Field’ and enter keywords into the new search box
• If a digital copy of the PhD thesis is available for you to view online there will either be a note in the catalogue record or a separate entry for the digital copy

Using Printed Copies of SOAS PhD Theses

• SOAS keeps printed copies of all PhD Theses and they can be consulted in our Special Collections Reading Room on Level F
• All printed PhD theses need to be ordered before you visit the Reading Room. Once you have found the PhD thesis you need you can fill in an online order form through the ‘Order archive material’ link from the catalogue record of the PhD thesis. Alternatively you can fill in an order form available from the Library Enquiry Desk or Special Collections Reading Room
• Before you consult any SOAS PhD thesis in the Special Collections Reading Room you will be asked to fill in a Data Protection Declaration
• You are permitted to photograph a maximum of 5% of a PhD thesis or one complete chapter (whichever is the greatest) for personal research purposes only
• Please note that some of our printed PhD theses are currently unavailable to consult in Special Collections because they are being digitized. If this is a case you will find a note on the Library Catalogue record for the PhD thesis
• If the printed thesis you need is affected please write to [email protected] for further assistance

Using Digital Copies of SOAS PhD Theses

• A significant number of SOAS PhD theses have been made available freely online (with permission from the author) through SOAS Research Online since 2011
• You can browse the latest PhD theses via SOAS Research Online or you can search by author or title if you know the details of the thesis you need
• Some PhD theses in SOAS Research Online are restricted for a period of time at the request of the author. They will only become available digitally once this restriction period has expired
• A number of our PhD theses (dated before 2011) are available via the British Library EThOS service. You can search the EThOS database to check if a PhD thesis is available
• SOAS will be making a significant proportion of our PhD thesis collection available online in 2018 due to our work with Proquest who are digitizing our backrun of PhD Theses. If you cannot find a digital copy through the SOAS Library catalogue then please check ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses database

Finding PhD theses from Other Institutions

To find PhD theses produced at other institutions we recommend you use the following resources

• British Library EThOS Service
• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: The Humanities and Social Sciences Collection
• EBSCO Open Dissertations
• DART - Europe E-Theses Portal
• Shodhganga - Indian Theses
• Theses Canada Portal
• SOAS Interlibrary Loan Service
• Other Library Catalogues

SOAS PhD Digitization Project

SOAS is currently working with  Proquest to digitize our entire collection of PhD theses. The results of this project will mean that theses will be made available to anyone to read, without charge, via SOAS Research Online . In addition, a copy will be added to ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses online database, a very well established database used by students and researchers internationally.

Please note that this may affect access to the printed library copy of some theses in 2018, if this is the case there will be a note in the catalogue records of the individual thesis. Once a PhD thesis is added to SOAS Research Online you will be able to find a link to the digital copy via the SOAS Library Catalogue.

We have written to our SOAS PhD graduates by letter and email to ask authors to opt-out of the project if they do not want their thesis to be digitized. If you are an author of a SOAS PhD thesis and did not receive this communication and do not want your thesis to be included in the project please let us know by writing to [email protected] Please note any thesis submitted from 2011 onwards is not included in this project as authors have already selected whether they wish to have their thesis digitized and these existing agreements will stand.

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Dissertations and Theses

• Locating and Borrowing Dissertations and Theses Written at Catholic University
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Locating Dissertations and Theses written at Catholic University

• Locations and call numbers for dissertations and masters theses can be found in  SearchBox .
• Dissertations & Theses @ Catholic University of America Cites all Catholic University dissertations included in ProQuest Dissertations + Theses Global . Full text availability begins in 1961 although dissertations from the early years may not be covered. For information about these dissertations please contact the Information Desk at the Catholic University of America (202-319-5070).
• Many dissertations dated after 2009 may also be found in our institutional repository in  Digital Collections .

Borrowing Dissertations and Theses Written at Catholic University

Borrowing / Purchasing a Digital Copy

• Dissertations and theses circulate to Catholic University borrowers with valid, updated library privileges, including students from other Washington Research Libraries Consortium (WRLC) schools.
• Dissertations and theses dated before 1962 may be requested through interlibrary loan by persons not affiliated with Catholic University or WRLC. Contact your local public, academic, or business library to submit an interlibrary loan request.

If a copy is unavailable for loan from the general collections and the customer would like to purchase a copy of the thesis or dissertation, the following reproduction fees apply

• Electronic copy (pdf of printed thesis or dissertation)

           $10.00 per item: 1-50 scans            $15.00 per item: 51-150 scans            $20.00 per item: 151-250 scans            $25.00 per item: 251-350 scans            $30.00 per item: 351 or more scans

• Unbound print or electronic copy (pdf) from microfilm: $75.00

IFLA vouchers are accepted for international requests and will be quoted upon request.

• We do not copy or lend Catholic University dissertations dated after 1962, because these dissertations are available for purchase through ProQuest Dissertation Express .

How to Cite a Thesis or Dissertation

Cite a dissertation or thesis published in the  ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database:

Last name, F. N. (Year). Title (Doctoral dissertation or Master's Thesis).

      Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database. (UMI No. xxxxxx)

Author Last Name, First Name. Title. MA Thesis or Diss. School, Year. 

      ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. Web. day Month year of access.

Author Last Name, First Name. "Title." MA thesis or diss., School, Year. 

      ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. (UMI No. xxxxxx)

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Theses: Writing / Submission

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Writing theses

The Graduate research and writing section of Research and Learning Online (RLO) has information about writing theses. For information relevant to specific disciplines, please refer to individual Library Guides by subject.

Submitting your thesis for examination

Monash University Higher Degree by Research students are required to submit a digital copy of their final thesis for examination through the Monash Graduate Research Office portal - See  Thesis submission and examination  for more information and to access the Thesis Examination Portal.  

If you are completing your degree with the IITB-Monash Research Academy, please contact MGRO ( mgro-thesisexams @monash.edu) who will provide you with instructions for submitting your thesis.

On acceptance, the thesis will then be automatically added to the Monash University Research Repository for archiving and public discoverability in  bridges .monash.edu . Requests for changes to the information in the record, adding or removing an embargo, or changes to the thesis file itself must be submitted in writing to the Monash Graduate Research Office: mgro-thesisexams @monash.edu.

Publishing of the final thesis to the Research Repository is an automated procedure, students should therefore take care to supply the correct information and select the appropriate access category when submitting the thesis for examination.

Access options when submitting final thesis

1. open access.

The bibliographical details and the full-text of the thesis will be publicly discoverable and accessible (viewed and/or downloaded). The student retains copyright on the thesis but grants Monash University a non-exclusive licence to publish the thesis in the Bridges research repository. The student will need to seek permission to publish any sensitive or third-party material within the thesis.

2. Open access with initial temporary embargo

Requests to have your thesis placed under an initial embargo must be approved by the Monash Graduate Research Office (MGRO) for reasons relating to sensitive or confidential information, or publishing intent.

If approved, the full-text of the thesis will not be made available to anyone for a specified period of time, as approved by MGRO. The public will only have access to the bibliographical details of the thesis. These bibliographical details include the title, abstract, and keywords for the thesis.

Once the embargo period has elapsed, the thesis will automatically revert to open access. The full-text of the thesis will then be publicly discoverable and accessible (viewed and/or downloaded).

3. Restricted access

If your thesis contains sensitive or third-party content for which you do not have copyright permission to publish, it should be submitted with a request to make the file restricted access.

The full-text of the thesis will not be published online. The public will only have access to the bibliographical details of the thesis. These bibliographical details include the title, abstract, and keywords for the thesis.

The Library may still supply the full-text of the thesis, in whole or in part, for research purposes through institutional document delivery services, as permitted under Section 51 (2) of the Australia Copyright Act 1968.

4 Restricted access with initial temporary embargo

Once the embargo period has elapsed, the thesis will automatically revert to restricted access. The full-text of the thesis will remain unpublished, however the Library may supply the full-text, in whole or in part, for research purposes through institutional document delivery services, as permitted under Section 51 (2) of the Australia Copyright Act 1968.

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• Graduate Thesis Manual /
• General Information

The bound thesis will be retained at the IIT library, and a digital copy will be stored in the IIT Digital Repository; therefore, it is imperative to present the thesis in an acceptable form according to the rules and standards established in this Thesis Manual. These standards reflect those of the University Microfilms and Dissertation Abstracts for Ph.D. dissertations; the standards apply to master's theses as well.

Contents of a Thesis

Every thesis, typed double spaced, must consist of three major divisions:

Preliminaries

• Supplementary information

These divisions may in turn be composed of sub-divisions. Each item will be discussed in the following chapters. The divisions must be prepared in the following order (starred items are requested in all cases):

• Title page*
• Blank page (or copyright notice page)*
• Acknowledgments (optional but usually included)
• Authorship Statement*
• Table of Contents*
• List of Tables (if thesis contains tables)
• List of Figures (if thesis contains figures)
• List of Abbreviations (if thesis contains symbols and abbreviations)
• Abstract (mandatory)*
• Introduction*
• Historical Review or Survey of the Literature*
• Body of the Report*
• Methods and Procedures
• Conclusions
• Summary (and recommendations for further studies)*

Supplementary Information

• Appendix (if thesis requires appendix)
• Vitae (optional)
• Bibliography*

Many words in English may be spelled correctly in more than one way. A student must be consistent in such usage, and ordinarily the spelling given first in a recent edition of a standard dictionary is preferred. Simplified spellings should be avoided, such as “thru” for “through” and “nite” for “night.” 

Thesis Copies

The Thesis Examiner approves the final copy of the thesis and provides instructions about the final deposit and forms requirements. The final copy of the thesis is converted to PDF and is uploaded to the ProQuest ETD Administrator. After the uploaded copy is reviewed and approved, and Graduate Academic Affairs has officially awarded graduates’ degrees, all approved PDF copies are digitally sent to ProQuest, where the three bound copies are produced. The bound copies are shipped to IIT for distribution to Galvin Library and the appropriate colleges/departments. The thesis fee includes the cost of binding three copies for IIT. However, additional copies for personal use may be ordered through the ProQuest ETD Administrator or taken to Office Services for binding. 

Manuscript Preparation

Students may prepare the thesis manuscript by using a computer. A description of the allowable structure, spacing and fonts is provided in the following sections.

A set of instructions and a “style” file for using the LaTeX word processing system may be obtained, by contacting the Thesis Examiner. By following the style file, students can format their thesis to conform to the IIT thesis style. The style file and LaTeX are a collection of “macros” written for the powerful mathematical typesetting program TeX.

Students may use other word processing programs such as Microsoft Word, Corel Word Perfect, etc. A template for the IIT thesis in Microsoft Word format is available at: https://web.iit.edu/gaa/thesis

The final manuscript of a thesis should be prepared in a standard type face with black letters using either 10 point or 12 point. The fonts recommended are: 12 point Times New Roman, 12 point Courier, 10 point Geneva, 12 point Palatino or 12 point New Century Collegebook. Special sizes or styles of non-standard typefaces must be recommended in writing by the student's adviser and approved in advance by the Thesis Examiner.

Characters that slant to the right are  typically italic fonts. Bold characters are presented darker and thicker than normal fonts. Most word-processing programs and printers allow the use of italics and bold type. However, italics and bold fonts used in text are not distinctive enough and not always easily recognizable in electronically prepared manuscripts. Therefore, bold type is allowed for first-, second-, and third-order headings. Italic type is allowed in headings but is not encouraged within the text of the thesis, unless it used for a scientific or medical term that is always written in italic.

To avoid uncertainty and ambiguity, underlining should be used rather than italics for emphasis in non-typeset manuscripts. Use italics or underlining to emphasize words and letters, but do so sparingly and out of necessity.  Underline or italicize foreign words on first reference only. Underline special terminology, for example scientific terms such as genus or species, or other technical terms requiring emphasis. The use of bold type, italics, or underlining words or phrases in the text simply for emphasis is rarely appropriate in research writing and strongly discouraged.

There are several types of lists, both ordered and unordered. For ordered lists, Arabic numbers (i.e., 1., 2., 3., etc.) are aligned on the periods following them. Ordered lists may be set flush with the text or indented. Additional lines for list items must be aligned with the first word following the numeral. In case additional paragraphs are subordinate to the numbered or ordered list item, the relevant text should also be indented appropriately and aligned with the first word following the numeral.

Unordered lists are sometimes referred to as bulleted lists. In this case, a standard bullet symbol [•] instead of a number precedes each list item. Unordered lists may be set flush with the text or indented. Additional lines for list items must be aligned with the first word following the symbol character. In case additional paragraphs are subordinate to the unordered list item, the text should also be indented appropriately and aligned with the first word following the symbol.

For punctuation of listed items, refer to your department’s preferred style manual. In general, the first word in each listed item is capitalized and includes the appropriate end punctuation, if each listed item is a complete sentence. If the items are syntactically part of the previous sentence, however, then the first word is not capitalized and appropriate end punctuation is applied to only the last item in the list. Under no circumstances is mixing of complete sentences and sentence fragments allowed in the same list.

Style Manuals

Each graduate student should check with their respective department regarding the appropriate style manual for their thesis. Use one of the following:

American Institute of Physics. Style Manual for Guidance in the Preparation of Papers for Journals (4th ed.). New York: American Institute of Physics.

IEEE Editorial Style Manual  http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/style_references_manual.pdf

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers . 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003.

The Chicago Manual of Style . 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . (7th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association (APA), 2019.

Every page of a thesis has a number, whether the number is printed on the page or not. Pages in the preliminaries, preceding Chapter 1, are numbered consecutively in lower case Roman numerals, centered 0.5 inches above the bottom of each page.

The title page is considered page i, but the number is not printed. If the thesis is to be copyrighted, then the second page contains the copyright notice, and the page is numbered ii. However, if the thesis is not to be copyrighted, then the second page is a blank page, and the number is not printed. All other subsequent page numbers are printed, and no other page is a blank. There must be no dashes, parentheses, or other characters around any page number. Page iii will usually be the Acknowledgments, and page iv will typically be the Table of Contents.

Beginning with the first page of Chapter 1 and continuing through the entire thesis (including the Appendix), pages must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals, located 0.5 inch below the 8.5-inch top edge, and 1 inch in from the 11-inch right edge on every page. On tables or figures turned with the top at the bound edge—in Landscape--the page number should still be in the same place and direction as the normal vertical text page, i.e., all page numbers will be in the same direction, when placed over each other as the upper right corner is fanned. No line of text, table, figure or photograph may extend farther right than the last numeral of the page number. The first page of Chapter 1 must always be page 1. Insertion of late pages (such as 37, 37A, 38) is never permitted in a thesis.

The margins on all pages, whether text, table, figure, photograph or bibliography, must not be less than 1.5 inches from the bound edge and 1 inch from the other three edges except for page numbers. Margins are essential not only for uniformity of appearance, but also because the outer edges of the paper are trimmed off in the binding process. The left margin is wider to provide the spine for binding and still leave the text material visible when the book is opened. All pages except the last page of a chapter should be reasonably uniform, and no letter in any line should be farther right than an imaginary vertical line passing down from the farthest right numeral in the page number. Right margin justification is optional. Do not use right margin justification, if the printer spaces are noticeably wide or uneven between words.

Consistency

The most important element of style in any writing is consistency. Alternate methods of punctuation, hyphenation, abbreviation, and capitalization may be acceptable in various fields. Once adopted, a system must be used consistently throughout the entire thesis. Use clear copies with sharp, black letters. Subscript, superscripts, and special symbols must be large enough to be meaningful (minimum 7 points). What every pattern used for section headings, sub-headings, and subsequent divisions, beginning in Chapter 1, must be continued throughout the document, where appropriate. 

Prior Publications

Each academic unit has a policy on prior publications. Students should familiarize themselves with this policy.

Students should be sure to obtain any required copyright permission when including previously published work in their thesis.

Special Requirements for Ph.D.  and Master Degree Candidates

IIT participates in the services offered by UMI Dissertation Publishing in Ann Arbor, Michigan. To doctoral students:

• your thesis is “published” once it is uploaded to the ETD Administrator and sent to Proquest; and
• an abstract is printed in Dissertation Abstracts announcing to the public that your thesis is available from UMI.

On the ETD Administrator site, the student must sign a Dissertation Publishing Agreement Form authorizing ProQuest Information and Learning (PQIL) to deposit and publish the thesis, while holding them harmless from any damages which might arise from copyright violations. The original copy of both the thesis and the agreement are sent to UMI Dissertation Publishing. When the original copy of the thesis is returned to IIT, it is bound and becomes the archival library copy.

For publishing in Dissertation Abstracts, International, the Ph.D. student must upload a copy to the ETD Administrator and deposit one copy, in the UMI format, with the required forms that are due by the final thesis deadline. This copy is kept in the student's file in Graduate Academic Affairs. The abstract is separate from the thesis and is expected to give a succinct account of the dissertation so that a reader can decide whether to read the complete dissertation.

The heading of the UMI Dissertation Abstract must include the following:

• title (all capitals)
• author's name and degree title
• school (Illinois Institute of Technology) and date of graduation
• adviser's name

Although 350 words is the maximum length, nearly all abstracts would be shorter. An abstract of this sort contains:

• statement of the problem
• procedure or methods
• conclusions

The abstract will be published without editing or revision. The copy must be printed on one side of the paper only and must be double-spaced. An abstract never contains footnotes.

• Undergraduate
• Preliminary Pages
• Text Chapters
• Bibliography
• Summary of Required Items

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Thesis preparation, submission and examination

Rules and procedures for your thesis.

It is important that you understand your responsibilities and the relevant procedures you need to follow during the thesis submission process.

Nomination of examiners

The University requires nomination and selection of graduate research thesis examiners to be based on the principle that students receive an impartial examination by high-quality examiners in the relevant field of research.

The examiners must not have had any involvement in the preparation of the thesis, as a member of the supervisory panel or as an academic advisor for the student. The University expects all supervisors, faculties and examiners to report all actual or potential conflicts of interest.

The University applies the Conflict of Interest Guidelines [PDF 28MB] of the Australian Council of Graduate Research.

PhD/MPhil students

You should discuss possible examiners with your Principal Supervisor and other supervisors at least three months in advance of your thesis submission date. Your supervisor will contact the possible examiners to ascertain their availability to examine your thesis.

Once confirmed, your supervisor will submit an electronic examiner nomination via the HDR Thesis Examination portal to the Thesis Examination Subcommittee for review and approval. This normally includes a list of:

• Five examiners for a doctoral degree
• Four for a Master of Philosophy degree

You will have to electronically confirm the selection of the nominated examiners.

For further information on the nomination of examiners, see Schedule 2 in the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy.

Master of Research (MRes) students

You should discuss with your Principal Supervisor the names of any persons that you do not wish to examine your thesis at least two months before your expected thesis submission date.

Your supervisor will contact possible examiners to ascertain their availability to examine your thesis. Once confirmed, your supervisor will submit an electronic examiner nomination via the HDR Thesis Examination portal to the Thesis Examination Subcommittee for review and approval.

For further information on the nomination of examiners, see the Master of Research - Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Procedures and Schedule 2 in the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy .

Thesis preparation

Before you submit your thesis, it is important to ensure you are following all content, presentation, formatting, and length requirements. These may vary depending on your faculty, department or examiner’s needs. While your supervisor can guide you, it is ultimately your responsibility to ensure you follow University standards.

Your thesis must showcase the results of your original research during your candidature, with Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) theses requiring a distinct contribution to knowledge.

Unless agreed under a formal Joint or Cotutelle enrolment contract, a student may not submit as the main content of the thesis any work or material which has been previously submitted for any degree successfully completed at Macquarie University or elsewhere. However, they may incorporate that work or material in the thesis if the student specifies the work or material which has been so incorporated. At least half of the work done towards the thesis must be undertaken while formally enrolled as a graduate research student at Macquarie University.

While the presentation of research may vary, it generally includes a written component. Non-written thesis formats and media must be approved by your Faculty Executive Dean.

Your thesis must be written in English and be of satisfactory literary presentation. Theses written in full or in part in another language require approval by the Thesis Examination Subcommittee, which must be sought as soon as possible by your supervisor. If you are on a joint enrolment contract, you will not require separate approval for submission in a language other than English.

Note: The use of Generative AI to wholly generate a research output for examination is prohibited. Text-based Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT fall within the broad definition of contract cheating services according to the TEQSA Act 2011 (Cth), s5. Refer to the ' Using Generative Artificial Intelligence in Research' Guidance Note for further information.

Thesis by publication

A thesis by publication may include relevant papers, such as conference presentations, which have been published, accepted, submitted or prepared for publication for which at least half of the research has been undertaken during your enrolment. The papers must form a coherent and integrated body of work, which focusses on a single thesis project or set of related questions or propositions. The papers are one part of the thesis, rather than a separate component or appendix.

As a general rule, you will need to have enough papers to support the important findings from the research, presented in a logical and coherent way. Most theses by publication have between 2 and 8 papers in combinations of sole and co-authored papers.

You must complete (and submit with your thesis for examination) an  Authorship Contribution Statement  to document the contribution of all authors to each of the proposed or published research papers. This requirement is in accordance with the  Macquarie University Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research and the  Authorship Standard . If there are multiple authors (5+) on the Authorship Statement, the contribution of each author must be noted but the form can be signed only by the student and supervisor (and corresponding author, if not supervisor). You may also choose to include the details of the contribution of all authors in the footnotes/endnotes or cover page for each experimental chapter.

In addition, section 1.6.55 of the Research Training Program (RTP) Guidelines sets out the requirement that the Commonwealth's contribution is acknowledged in research publications by RTP students where related to a research project.

The acknowledgement must include mention of the student's support through an 'Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship'.

An example acknowledgement statement would be:"This research is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship."

For further information on thesis by publication, see Schedule 1 in the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy and the Examiner Guidelines [PDF 202KB].

Creative component

If you are including a creative component, you must specify its size in relation to the critical component. Creative components must be submitted in a form which enables further examination/re-examination and allows for Library deposit.

Students may also choose to merge their creative and critical components, as in ficto-critical writing or essay films. In this case, you still have to include an explicit critical analysis in written form. Its length is based on Faculty expectations but is often 25,000 words for an MPhil thesis and 50,000 words for a PhD thesis.

For further information on theses with creative components, see Schedule 5 in the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy and the Examiner Guidelines [PDF 202KB].

Relationship between Master of Research (MRes) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The research project undertaken in the MRes is intended as a gateway to your PhD or MPhil project. However, the MRes thesis does not form part of your MPhil or PhD directly but works to help you better understand your research area and demonstrate your research ability.

If your topic for your PhD or MPhil thesis is related to your MRes, you must include a clear statement outlining what work was done for the MRes. If you must include any text or data from your MRes thesis in your PhD or MPhil thesis, you must identify this as such, as it is non-examinable. Failure to do so is a breach of Academic Integrity.

Presentation and formatting

The written component of your thesis should be presented:

• in A4 pdf format
• double or 1.5 spacing
• margins no less than 3cm on the left border, 1.5cm on the right border and 1.5cm on the top and bottom
• pages numbered consecutively

If one of your examiners requests a hard copy of your thesis for examination, you will have to submit a copy with a temporary binding of a stitched and glued soft cover or in hardback form (spiral binding or a loose-leaf binder of the spring-type or screw-type is not acceptable). During binding, the edges should be trimmed.

Preliminary pages

A thesis should incorporate the following pages in order:

• the thesis title
• your names and degrees
• your university department
• date of submission/re-submission.
• If applicable, the name of the organisation, institute or laboratory where the research was conducted
• a table of contents
• a summary of approximately 200-300 words for MRes/MPhil and 300-500 for PhD
• a signed statement [DOCX 16KB] indicating that:
• the work has not been submitted for a higher degree before
• you have referenced all sources and the extent to which you used them
• your Ethics Committee approval and protocol number (if applicable).

Cotutelle students should submit a statement [PDF 115KB] indicating that the thesis is being submitted in accordance with their Cotutelle agreement. If you have completed a thesis by publication , you must also specify your specific contribution to the conception, data collection, analysis and writing of each paper. The contribution of others to the preparation of the thesis or to individual parts of the thesis should also be specified in the thesis.

• Impact of COVID-19 changes on the thesis (if applicable). If you have had to make changes to your research due to the impact of COVID-19, you may want to include a statement [DOCX 28KB] about the impact of COVID-19 in your thesis. Note that this form should be used only to explain changes to the expected experiments or thesis direction. As the standard for thesis award remains the same, this form should not be used to justify the submission of poor quality work.
• Acknowledgements (if applicable).
• The written component of the thesis.

Diagrams, figures and tables

These may vary depending on your department.

These are general suggestions for normal practice:

• Diagrams and figures should be inserted in the appropriate place in the text.
• All figures should include a legend either at the bottom or next to the figures.
• Small tables should be inserted in the text. Lengthy or bulky tables should appear as an appendix.

Thesis length

Note: the maximum thesis length does not include footnotes or references.

The editing process for research students is governed by the ‘ Guidelines for Editing Research Theses ’ as set out by the Institute of Professional Editors Limited (IPEd). As per the Guidelines, professional editing services can assist research students with copyediting (including language and illustrations) and proofreading to ensure that all thesis components are complete, consistent and correctly placed.

Whether you engage a professional editor or ask someone you know who is a good writer to check your manuscript, they will need to abide by these Guidelines and should be acknowledged in your thesis.

For more information about getting your thesis edited, check out our ‘ How do I get my thesis professionally edited ’ guide.

Thesis submission

Before you submit your thesis, it is important to ensure you prepare any additional required documents required.

Required documents

In addition to your thesis, you may also be required to submit other documents with your submission. You should prepare these documents before you commence the submission process.

Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement

The Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement (AHEGS) is provided by Australian higher education institutions to graduating students on completion of the requirements for a particular higher education award. It provides a description of the nature, level, context and status of studies that were pursued by the individual named. Its purpose is to:

• assist in both national and international recognition of Australian qualifications
• promote international mobility and professional recognition of graduates.

For the Statement to be issued, you have to provide a thesis abstract of strictly no more than 100 words.

You must upload the abstract as part of your thesis submission in the HDR Thesis Examination Portal .

Ethics approval

If you were required to obtain Ethics approval for your research, you will need to provide a copy of the Macquarie University Ethics Committee letter with your thesis.

You must upload the approval letter with your thesis submission in the HDR Thesis Examination Portal . You should also have this information on hand to complete the required fields in the portal.

Unofficial academic transcript - PhD/MPhil students only

If you had to complete coursework units ( HDRT units ) during your candidature, you will need to upload an unofficial copy of your academic transcript with your thesis submission. You can download a copy of your transcript from eStudent .

Six Digit Field of Research (FOR) codes

You will have to provide at least one Field of Research (FOR) code on your thesis submission form. You can review the FOR codes on the Australian Bureau of Statistics website . If you are unsure which code to list, contact your supervisor for advice prior to commencing your thesis submission.

Submitting your thesis

When your thesis is complete and appropriately formatted, you must submit your thesis via the HDR Thesis Examination Portal . For more information view the instructions for submitting your thesis via the HDR Thesis Examination Portal [PDF 684KB].

Note for Master of Research (MRes) students: If your thesis is submitted late, you will be penalised one percentage point from your final MRes thesis grade per calendar day until your thesis is submitted. Submission will be taken as the date your thesis is submitted electronically via the portal.

If your supervisor is unable or unwilling to approve your thesis submission, the matter should be referred to the Faculty’s Associate Dean, Research Training and Partnerships for resolution.

Once your thesis is submitted, your candidature is considered to be 'Under Examination' (UX).

For information about the examination process, see the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy .

Cotutelle and Joint Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students

If you are enrolled in a Cotutelle or Joint PhD program, refer to your agreement for additional information relating to your examiners and thesis examination. Joint PhD students with a lead university that is not Macquarie University must provide the following information to [email protected] to ensure your enrolment is not ceased:

• evidence of your thesis submission
• 100 words abstract for your Australian Higher Education Graduation Statement
• a point of contact at the partner university

Celebrating your thesis submission

Then it’s time to promote yourself!  Join the Graduate Research Academy Network LinkedIn group and share a short statement of the most interesting, unusual or exciting thing about your research (no more than 25 words). Don’t forget to upload your selfie too!

Professional Portrait

To better equip you during your future job searches and improve your online profile, the GRA is also offering you the opportunity to have your professional portrait taken for free . Having a great-quality professional headshot is a fantastic way of showing confidence in your professional capabilities. You can use the images on your social media profiles, your resume, your website or blog, your business cards and even marketing collateral.

The next photo session dates will be advised soon. Keep an eye out here.

If you have any questions about this service, please contact  [email protected] .

Examination and completion

After your thesis is submitted and your examiners finalised, your thesis will be sent for examination. Each examiner is sent your thesis together with examination instructions guidelines. Your examiners are required to complete their examination and provide their report within four weeks for MRes theses and five weeks for PhD and MPhil theses. Students and supervisors should not contact examiners during the examination process.

For detailed information about the examination process, see the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy .

Examination outcomes

• Award: The thesis meets all required standards in terms of the nature and quality of work undertaken, and the degree can be awarded without any further work by the student, other than the correction of typographical errors and small lapses of expression and presentation in the final copy.
• Award (after Corrections): The thesis meets all required standards in terms of the nature and quality of work undertaken, and the degree can be awarded without further examination once the student has made a number of corrections and clarifications in the thesis. The corrections are to be completed to the satisfaction of the Thesis Examination Subcommittee and are required to be completed within one month for MRes students and two months for MPhil/PhD students.
• Revision and re-examination: The thesis does not yet meet all required standards for the award of the degree and the student should complete a further period of research and writing. Normally, under this category, a student would re-enrol for a period of up to one-year full-time (or equivalent). The thesis will then be submitted for re-examination.
• Not award: The thesis does not meet the required standards for the award of the degree, and does not warrant a further period of research and writing.

MRes students will also be awarded a percentage score for their thesis. The maximum mark a thesis can receive after re-examination is 64%.

For further information about examination criteria and outcomes, see the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy.

Revise and resubmit

In some cases, you may be advised to revise and resubmit your thesis for re-examination. During re-examination, examiners are requested to determine whether or not the revised thesis now meets the requirements of the degree as specified.

Re-submission must occur within one year from the date of the decision for revision for PhD and MPhil students and three months from the date of the decision for revision for MRes students.

For re-submission, you will need to submit your thesis in accordance with the relevant submission requirements. You must also include documentation that addresses the matters raised in your initial examination. This documentation must not be examiner-specific.

• Initial examiners will receive an invitation to re-examine your thesis. Re-examiners are allowed access to your unrevised thesis, along with all reports from the University and initial examiners (subject to privacy requirements).
• If your initial examiners are unavailable, there may be new examiners appointed. You should make no direct contact with your examiners – any contact you wish to make must be approved by the Research and Research Training Committee.
• If you do not complete your re-submission in the determined time-frame, you will be deemed to have failed the requirements for the award of your degree.
• If you fail to meet the requirements of the degree on re-examination, you cannot apply for further re-examination.

Note that revision of your thesis requires you to re-enrol and pay any required fees.

For further information about the resubmission process, see the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy .

Final thesis submission

All graduate research students, including PhD, MPhil and MRes students must submit a final digital copy of their thesis for inclusion in the in Macquarie University Theses which is Macquarie University’s open access digital collection. Access to graduate research theses is facilitated through the University Library.

Macquarie University Theses is designed to promote globally, preserve locally and provide open access to the research theses of Macquarie University's students. Records from Macquarie University Theses are also accessible from sources such as Trove Australia, Google and Google Scholar. The Macquarie University’s open access digital  theses collection gives your research greater potential readership, ensures your research is protected from destruction and provides security through adherence to metadata standards and access rights. The Library and the GRA work together to implement, manage and oversee the submission of digital theses for inclusion in Macquarie University Theses.

Further information and FAQs can be found Theses @ Macquarie University .

Once the thesis has been examined and passed by the Research and Research Training Committee, you have to submit  a ‘HDR Thesis Submission to Library Request’ eForm accompanied by the final digital copy of the thesis.

To submit, you must:

• Log in to  eStudent
• Click in the Forms tile
• Search for the ‘HDR Thesis Submission to Library Request’
• Complete the form

After submission of the eForm, your request will go to the Graduate Research Academy. You will receive an email notification confirming that your request has been completed.

The Library will accept your digital thesis in PDF, Word and RTF format. The final display format on Macquarie University Theses is PDF and the Library will convert your thesis into this format as required. If you intend to submit your thesis in PDF format, security protection or password access should not be applied.

Parts of your thesis may be subject to copyright. If you are concerned about copyright issues related to your thesis, check Macquarie's  information on copyright , talk to Macquarie University's  Copyright Coordinator or speak to your Research Librarian.

The University recognises that in particular cases commercial and confidentiality issues may necessitate a moratorium on the digital version of a thesis. This needs to be addressed at the earliest point during the candidacy. Approval from the Research and Research Training Committee (RRTC), with support from the Head of Department, is required for such access restrictions to be imposed on a thesis. For further information, please email [email protected] .

If your thesis contains material you have written and have published or is in the process of being published, you can request an embargo on your thesis. For further information about embargos, please contact the Library by emailing [email protected].

A thesis may include supplementary files, e.g. creative component or data files, that you wish to restrict from full open access. If this is the case, please email the Library at [email protected] to discuss options for managing restrictions to supplementary files.

Hardbound guidelines

If your faculty requests a hardbound copy of your thesis, you should prepare the thesis in accordance with the following requirements:

• The spine should state the title of the thesis (abbreviated if necessary), your family name, and the date of submission or re-submission.
• The words should be in gold lettering of suitable size.
• When published papers are submitted as additional evidence, they should be bound in the back of the thesis as an appendix. When they form part of the thesis body, they should be bound into the thesis itself.

International students

If you are an international student Visa holder, your visa date will be checked by the University when your thesis examination outcome has been finalised. If your visa is found to have more than 4 weeks’ validity, the Graduate Research Academy will report the thesis submission to the Department of Home Affairs (DIHA) . You are responsible for contacting DIHA regarding your change of visa status. If you wish to stay in Australia to wait for examination results, DIHA will need to be consulted. Contact DIHA directly for advice.

For further information about thesis preparation, submission and examination, see the HDR Thesis Preparation, Submission and Examination Policy .

Celebrate your achievement!

Then it's time to promote yourself again by sharing your success and selfie photo on the  Graduate Research Academy Network LinkedIn group!

• Graduate Research Academy
• Level 2, 16 Wally's Walk
• Macquarie University NSW 2109
• T: +61 (2) 9850 4741
• E: [email protected]

Submit your thesis

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Related links

• Skill development

School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Exhibitions Feature Work by 61 Artists

Emily Taylor Rice (CFA’21,’24) (foreground) and Delaney Burns (CFA’24), both grad students in the College of Fine Arts Print Media & Photography program, working on their respective thesis projects ahead of the School of Visual Arts graduate thesis exhibitions.

Five shows by graduating students in painting, graphic design, sculpture, print media and photography, and visual narrative on view on and off campus through April 20

Sophie yarin, cydney scott.

As the academic year draws to a close and commencement season approaches, there’s no shortage of reasons to celebrate at the College of Fine Arts. Not only does 2024 mark the school’s 70th birthday— CFA was founded as the School of Fine and Applied Arts in 1954 —but it’s also a year of exciting firsts for the School of Visual Arts and its five Master of Fine Arts programs: painting, sculpture, print media and photography, visual narrative, and graphic design. 

This year marks the first that the print media and photography and the visual narrative MFA programs, both launched in 2022, will graduate a class. The 2024 exhibitions also mark the largest cohort to date—61 graduating MFA students—in the school’s history. And for the first time, this year’s shows include an off-campus venue: the sculpture exhibition is being shown at 1270 Commonwealth Ave., where what was once a CVS pharmacy has been transformed into a pop-up art gallery. 

All of the exhibitions, on view through April 20, are free and open to the public. Collectively, they offer a sense of the breadth and depth of work being done by MFA students across a range of mediums. For those who cannot make it to all five of this year’s shows, we’ve pulled together some works from each program for your viewing pleasure. But remember: there’s plenty more to see in person.

The visual arts are often compared to a written language, notes Josephine Halvorson , a CFA professor of art, painting, and chair of graduate studies in painting, in the 2024 painting thesis exhibition catalog. “Reading, literacy, and lexicons are terms we frequently cite in critique,” she writes. “Students [have turned] to language, either materially or analogically, to help them navigate meaning in their work.”

James Gold, Mosaic Excavation with Carpets . Egg tempera, India ink, acrylic gouache, and pigmented gesso on panel.

Abbi Kenny, Atlantic Cranberry Sauce (courtesy of Weight Watchers) . Acrylic, molding paste, acrylic gouache, black pepper, glitter, glass beads, muscovite mica, glass flakes, and yupo collage on canvas.

Some works in this year’s exhibition speak plainly, relying on a strong instinct toward realism and representation. James Gold (CFA’24) imbues his canvases with a photographer’s sense of discovery: his subjects—ancient tapestries, mosaics, and scrolls—are rendered so as to capture every detail and texture.

Paintings by Abigail Kenny (CFA’24) share Gold’s photorealistic sensibility, but her concerns are more outlandish, less rarefied. Vivid-hued reproductions of illustrated recipe cards, from Kenny’s own family collection, comment on Andy Warhol’s iconic soup cans from the early 1960s.

Ellen Weitkamp, Remembering 75 East Cove Lane . Oil on panel.

Cody Bluett, Where Are the Sleeping Fish . Oil and spray paint on canvas, wood carving on frame.

Yingxue Daisy Li, Tunnel. Oil and charcoal on canvas.

Ellen Weitkamp (CFA’24) and Cody Bluett (CFA’24) suffuse their paintings with a more surreal and symbolic language, more poetry than prose. Weitkamp’s works suggest the haziness of recalled memories, depicting domestic scenes through the glass of a storefront or the gauze of a curtain. Bluett is also concerned with memory; drawing from his background in working-class Pennsylvania, his scenes are nostalgic for the bucolic landscapes enjoyed by what he describes as “the proletariat during moments of respite, repetition, and reminiscence.”

Visual language dissolves into whispers and murmurs in paintings by Yinxue Daisy Li (CFA’24). Her abstract landscape works hover on the outer edges of representation, the result of a process of erasing and redrawing that transforms an idyllic outdoor scene into gesture, space, light, and shadow.

The MFA Painting Thesis Exhibition is at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, 855 Commonwealth Ave., through Saturday, April 20. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm.

Graphic Design

The theme for this year’s graphic design thesis show, Side B , refers to the flip side of a record, and “a willingness to defy expectations, explore uncommon tools, and present a multifaceted expression of craft,” write thesis advisors Christopher Sleboda , a CFA associate professor of graphic design, and Kristen Coogan , a CFA associate professor of graphic design and chair of the MFA graphic design program, in the catalog for the show. 

For her thesis project, Between Waves , Bella Tuo (CFA’24) literally crowdsourced a new font. Over the course of a day, she encouraged strangers to contribute a hand-drawn line, curve, or serif until each letter of the alphabet was complete .

Bella Tuo, Between Waves project feat. Rainbow Hui. Digital media.

Arjun Lakshmanan, The Grand Tour-50 Iterations. Digital media.

Arjun Lakshmanan (CFA’24) was inspired by a NASA mock travel poster that imagined interplanetary tourism. With the same retro futuristic style, he produced a series of 50 similar postcards that emphasized three-dimensionality and warped perception. 

Lindsay Towle (CFA’24), whose design sensibility is informed by the graphic imprint of basketball and other facets of urban street culture, devised new aesthetic associations that make room for visual subcultures within the dominant narrative. A poster of her thesis concept, Backcourt , mixes graffiti lettering, a hallmark of elements of street culture, with classic typography and handwritten elements.

Lindsay Towle, The Backcourt . Digital media.

Carolina Izsak, Masking Tape Proportionality . Belgian linen.

Dhwani Garg, Firki typeface. Digital media.

“The relationships between structure and emotion, constraints and freedom, and a set of parts and pieces to create a whole have always been part of my practice as a designer,” Carolina Izsak (CFA’24) writes. Bursting with color and built to foster interaction and joy, Izsak’s thesis project—which includes prints she has laid onto fabric and wooden blocks—emphasizes playfulness and versatility.

Firki , a typeface created by Dhwani Garg (CFA’24), considers the scalability of typography in a new way. The font uses negative space to construct each figure, an inversion of the simple and expected formula used since the dawn of typesetting. 

The MFA Graphic Design Thesis Exhibition is at the 808 Gallery, 808 Commonwealth Ave., through Saturday, April 20. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm.

Visual Narrative

The first graduating class of the MFA visual narrative program has created a collection of work that runs the storytelling gamut, crafting work that’s “humorous, poignant, and thought-provoking,” writes Joel Christian Gill , a CFA associate professor of art and chair of the visual narrative program. 

Sadie Saunders (CFA’24) and Ella Scheuerell (CFA’24) both opted to create graphic memoirs, and although their methodologies differ (Saunders uses digital drawing while Scheuerell relies on collage and mixed media), their stories are grounded in their experiences as young artists coming of age in the pandemic era. Scheuerell introduces readers to her uncle, whose art she discovered among his effects after his death by suicide. As she comes to terms with his loss, the drawings and his invisible presence keep her company. Saunders’ work reads more like a memoir-slash-sitcom, a self-deprecating tour of her barista job and the cast of characters who challenge her to find her voice. 

Sadie Saunders, pages from Spilled Milk and Other Reasons to Cry at Work . Digital drawing.

Ella Scheurell, Heavy Shoes , Colored pencil, watercolor sharpie on paper.

Avanji Vaze, page from Vrindavan House . Digital drawing.

Works by Avanji Vaze (CFA’24), Sandeep Badal (CFA’24), and Ariel Cheng Kohane (COM’22, CFA’24) have created stories that revel in invented universes and complex plotlines. Vaze’s graphic novel combines a Utopian fairytale (where Earth is run by a species of benevolent mushrooms) and MTV’s The Real World , centering a lovable-but-dysfunctional crew of artist roommates as her main cast. Badal’s thesis work is a comic within a comic; his protagonist, a graphic novelist, shares the stage with his own invented character, a trans-femme superhero who begins to feel like the world is treating her like a villain. And Cheng Kohane’s world is a reimagination of classic Western flicks, but populated by a cast of Asian and Jewish characters to match her own blended heritage.

Ariel Kohane, page from Hai Noon . Digital drawing.

Sandeep Badal, two-page spread from Phantom in a Jar . Digital drawing.

Lafleche Giasson, two-page spread from New Leaves on the Tree: How Intergenerational Trauma Affects Inheritable Gene Expression . Digital drawing.

For her thesis, Lafleche Giasson (CFA’24) chose an unconventional narrative, opting to blend her research on complex post-traumatic stress disorder with digital illustrations to create a comprehensive visual guide to the diagnosis.

The MFA Visual Narrative Thesis Exhibition is at the Commonwealth Gallery, 855 Commonwealth Ave., through Saturday, April 20. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm. Students will present their thesis work on Wednesday, April 10, and Friday, April 12, from 3 to 5 pm at the Howard Thurman Center, 808 Commonwealth Ave.

Print Media & Photography

This year’s graduates of the print media and photography MFA program have created work that “disrupt[s] the viewer’s sense of the familiar and, in turn, prompt[s] more questions than answers,” write thesis advisors Lynne Allen , a CFA professor of art, printmaking, Toni Pepe , a CFA assistant professor of art and chair of photography, and Deborah Cornell , a CFA professor of art and chair of printmaking, in the show’s catalog. The four graduates whose work is in the thesis show have subverted the expected with their thesis work, in the process highlighting a core principle of printmaking: that it’s a medium of endless possibilities.

The photographs of Sofia Barroso (CFA’24) have been processed to the point of distortion, incorporating fabric, paper, thread, paint, and processes like cyanotype and silkscreen printing.

Sofia Barroso, Exploration of Possibilities . Cyanotype on fabric.

Julianne Dao, Walking Shadows . Collagraph, Chiné-colle archival inkjet print.

Julianne Dao (CFA’24) creates prints that play with negative space; each of her prints began with an object from nature, which she then processed through woodcut, embossing, and other techniques to create a bold design full of light and shadow.

Emily Taylor Rice (CFA’21,’24) and Delaney Burns (CFA’24) injected messages of social activism into their works: Rice creates prints that reflect the emotional turmoil of substance use disorders, using found textiles and colored pigments to reflect the chaos of alcohol dependence and utilizing embossing techniques to replicate emotional scars and ripped-and-torn sections to represent a process of deconstruction and rebirth. 

Emily Taylor Rice, Standing Smack in the Middle of the Truth About Myself . Silkscreen on found fabric.

Delaney Burns, One In Four. Screenprint on tea bags with peacock flower seeds and birth control pamphlets.

Burns incorporates items from all aspects of her life—plants from her mother’s garden; diary entries, notes, and cards written by women in her family; birth control pamphlets; and used teabags—to draw attention to what she says are the unseen, misunderstood, and taken-for-granted experiences of women. Techniques such as bookbinding and wood carving mirror domestic tasks, imbuing her process with a metaphysical interaction with traditional gender roles.

The MFA Print Media & Photography Thesis Exhibition is at the 808 Gallery, 808 Comm Ave., through Saturday, April 20. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm.

The pieces in the MFA sculpture exhibition may have little in common visually, writes David Snyder , a CFA assistant professor of sculpture and chair of graduate studies in sculpture, “but what they have built together is…a conversation, a culture, a language, a heart.”

The works by the five students included in this year’s show respond to one another, playing on unconventional uses of space.

Yolanda He Yang, section of Sand Floor and Two Holes to the Basement and Happenings on the Wall. Piano strings, sand, LED spotlight and motor, glass, projector, wood, plastic sheet, mylar, telephone wires, marble.

Helena Abdelnasser, I think it’s dying. Wood, hinges, screws, white paint, soil, grass seeds, plastic bag, water, unfired clay, baby monitor.

In one area, a section of a piece by Yolanda He Yang (MET’21, CFA’24) shares room with a pillar constructed by Helena Abdelnasser (CFA’24). Yang’s sprawling narrative installations include materials that evoke personal significance, and the artist has painstakingly cataloged the origins of each object. The result: an annotated roadmap of a memory. Looming nearby is one of Abdelnasser’s sculptures: an obelisk made of whitewashed picket fences planted in a patch of earth—an untouchable idealization. In one corner of the work, blurred by decay and dirt, is a reproduction of a dead bird—a gruesome reality.

Alyssa Grey (CFA’24) is fascinated by the relationship between art and its modes of display—walk past one of her entries and a motion-sensing camera will project you onto a small television mounted on a plywood pedestal. Mae-Chu Lin O’Connell (CFA’24) injects a self-deprecating, almost paranoiac sensibility in each of her works, making liberal use of claustrophobia, clutter, sensory discomfort, and haphazardness in her installations and videos. Boxmaker , a scattered assemblage of objects in the shadow of an assembled piece of box furniture, brims with frustration, while her videos create an eerie sound collage out of the banal act of eating.

Alyssa Grey, HomeVideos . Wood, roof sealant, plywood, TV, electrical cords, camouflage duct tape, DC motor, camera.

Mae-Chu Lin O’Connell , Boxmaker (How to build a 36-drawer Wunderkabinett in a week) . Plywood, brass knobs, casters, wood screws, wood glue, epoxy, screws, nails, wood putty, and various objects.

Liam Coughlin, r/decks . OSB, dimensional lumber, towels, salvaged floor boards, adhesives and fasteners, plastic bags, garbage bags, Gatorade bottle full of spit, PEZ dispenser, sawhorses, sawdust.

Meanwhile, Liam Coughlin’s work addresses the sociopolitical landscape of the suburbs. Coughlin (CFA’24) encases trash—plastic bags and bottles, Halloween pumpkins, fast food cups—in plywood prisons to replicate “growing up in a homogenized, hermetically sealed, village-like culture of a small New England town.” 

The MFA Sculpture Thesis Exhibition is at 1270 Commonwealth Ave., through Saturday, April 20. Hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 11 am to 5 pm, and Mondays and Thursdays by appointment.

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Associate Editor, BU Today; Managing Editor Bostonia

Sophie Yarin is a BU Today associate editor and Bostonia managing editor. She graduated from Emerson College's journalism program and has experience in digital and print publications as a hybrid writer/editor. A lifelong fan of local art and music, she's constantly on the hunt for stories that shine light on Boston's unique creative communities. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her partner and their cats, Ringo and Xerxes, but she’s usually out getting iced coffee. Profile

Photojournalist

Cydney Scott has been a professional photographer since graduating from the Ohio University VisCom program in 1998. She spent 10 years shooting for newspapers, first in upstate New York, then Palm Beach County, Fla., before moving back to her home city of Boston and joining BU Photography. Profile

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