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Thesis & dissertation.

  Understanding Deadlines and Requirements

The final requirement in earning a graduate degree is the completion and defense of the master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation. Understanding the steps and associated deadlines in the thesis/dissertation submission and degree conferral process is necessary to establish a successful plan and realistic timeframe.

2024 Thesis/Dissertation Submission to the Graduate School Deadlines:

• For May 26, 2024 conferral, deadline is May 1.
• For August 31, 2024 conferral, deadline is August 1.
• December 31, 2024 conferral, deadline is December 1.

See our  Planning Timeline  for more detailed information.

  Writing Your Thesis/Dissertation

The Graduate School offers several writing resources to help you get started, meet your goals, and complete your thesis/dissertation on time. 

Before You Begin:

• Guide to Writing Your Thesis/Dissertation
• Fields Permitting the Use of Papers Option
• Required Sections, Guidelines, and Suggestions
• Formatting Requirements
• Fair Use, Copyright, Patent, and Publishing Options

Resources for Writing:

• Thesis & Dissertation Templates
• Writing from A to B

  Scheduling and Taking Your Final Exam

Once you have submitted your draft thesis/dissertation to your committee you are ready to defend. This involves scheduling and taking your final exam (“B” exam), an oral exam/dissertation defense for Ph.D. candidates, or (“M” exam), an oral exam/thesis defense for Master’s candidates.

• About Exams
• Defending Your Thesis or Dissertation
• Taking Exams

 Submitting Your Thesis/Dissertation

Policy requires the thesis/dissertation be submitted within 60 days of the final exam. The Graduate School uses a service called ProQuest to administer the electronic thesis/dissertation (ETD) submission and committee approval process. Once you have made any necessary revisions and the thesis/dissertation is final, you are ready to begin the approval and submission process.

Before initiating the submission process, students are required to complete an ORCID iD and complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates.

• Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID iD)
• Survey of Earned Doctorates 
• Thesis & Dissertation Submission Process
• Submission Fees
• Graduation Requirements 

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.

Thesis and Dissertation Guide

• « Thesis & Dissertation Resources
• The Graduate School Home

• Introduction
• Copyright Page
• Dedication, Acknowledgements, Preface (optional)
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Symbols
• Non-Traditional Formats
• Font Type and Size
• Spacing and Indentation
• Tables, Figures, and Illustrations
• Formatting Previously Published Work
• Internet Distribution
• Open Access
• Registering Copyright
• Using Copyrighted Materials
• Use of Your Own Previously Published Materials

Submission Steps

• Submission Checklist
• Sample Pages

IV. Submission

A Checklist and Sample Pages are provided at the end of this Guide. To expedite the submission process, your work must conform to these guidelines before you submit your document electronically . Please take time before submission to review and comply with these guidelines. You will be required to resubmit your document if revisions are needed, which delays your graduation clearance processing.

Read and follow all information on The Graduate School's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation website.

Completed theses and dissertations must be submitted by the deadlines posted on the Graduation Deadlines website . You are encouraged to submit your document as early as possible to provide ample time for necessary revisions before graduation.

You need to successfully apply to graduate in ConnectCarolina before submitting your document. Your Committee Composition and Exam Report forms (with all approval signatures) should be submitted to The Graduate School before submitting your document.

The time between initial submission and final approval by The Graduate School may also vary due to factors such as proximity to deadlines and your projected graduation date. You will be contacted once your thesis or dissertation has been reviewed by The Graduate School, and you are expected to submit required revisions in a timely manner; please see further details below. Please continue to monitor your email account for notifications until the document is approved.

• Create an account on the ProQuest submission site . Be sure to use an email address that you check regularly (including your junk/spam folder) to prevent delays in communication that will impact graduation clearance. Once the account is created, you can use it to log in and complete the following steps at any time.
• Read and review the information on the ProQuest Instructions page to answer any questions that you may have as you prepare to submit your thesis or dissertation.
• You may convert your document to a PDF a number of ways. You may use the conversion tool provided on the submission site. Other options include using Adobe software (available on campus) or programs and applications such as Microsoft Word 2010 that allow you to print to PDF or save files as a PDF.
• If converted properly, the conversion to PDF format should not affect the quality of the original document.
• See the ProQuest submission site PDF FAQs for more information.
• Review the ProQuest Publishing Options page and select the appropriate publishing options for you. For more information about publishing options, see the section on Distribution above. Select Save & Continue.
• Read and agree to the ProQuest Traditional Publishing Agreement .
• Provide the requested contact information. Be sure to include current, accurate information so that ProQuest and The Graduate School can contact you about your submission. Select Save & Continue.
• Pay careful attention to capitalization and spelling, as this information will be displayed online exactly as it is entered. The keywords and abstract information that you enter will be used to provide online database access to your thesis or dissertation, so accuracy is important.
• Please review the section on your Abstract when submitting this information, especially the tips on keywords and word limits.
• Acceptable media types and information about supplemental files can be found on the ProQuest FAQ page.
• The Graduate School recommends using common file formats that do not require specialized software to open and use. This will increase the likelihood of readers having ready access to the contents of your supplemental files as they review your entire thesis or dissertation.
• The Graduate School recommends that you take care to identify supplemental files as your own. If possible, embed your name and document information within the file contents. You are also encouraged to include your name as a part of the file name. When supplemental files are made accessible online, the file name and the specific contents of the file are the only way to identify to whom the work belongs.
• Electronic file size is limited to 1000 MB total of all files added together. Files can be uploaded in zipped folders.
• Although the ProQuest submission site discusses mailing in documents with very large supplementary files on a CD, DVD, or USB drive, UNC-Chapel Hill will not accept submissions in this manner.
• Choose whether or not you would like ProQuest to file a copyright on your behalf. Please see the section on Registering Copyright for more information. Select Save & Continue.
• Please note The Graduate School cannot take responsibility for your printing job.
• You may order your copies through the ProQuest site at the time of submission or at a later date.
• The Print Stop and Copy Center in the UNC Student Stores will also send documents out to a library bindery on behalf of students. The Print Stop handles payments, provides on-campus customer service, and takes care of the shipping and order tracking. For more information, visit the Print Stop on the third floor of Student Stores or call 919-962-7016.
• You may also find other companies online that offer printing or binding services for theses and dissertations.
• Pay for any applicable fees with a credit card. Expect your card to be charged after you graduate.
• Submit your document by selecting the Submit Dissertation/Thesis button.
• Allow sufficient time for The Graduate School staff to review your document, generally within ten business days of submission. You will be notified via email if revisions are needed, and you must complete all required revisions in a timely manner, usually within 72 hours. Be sure to include an email address that you check regularly in the contact information requested by ProQuest. This email address will be used to contact you with revisions and final approval.
• Once you receive notice that The Graduate School has accepted the final document, no revisions or re-submissions are accepted.

For more details about submission, please visit The Graduate School's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation site and the Frequently Asked Questions on the ProQuest site.

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Next: Checklist

Graduate College

Submitting your thesis.

With the exception of MFA students, who have the option of submitting their thesis in hard copy form, all students will submit their thesis via ProQuest.  Your deposit, whether submitted electronically or in hard copy, must be submitted no later than 5:00 p.m. central time on the established deadline date for a given semester.   The deposit deadline for Spring 2024 is 5:00 p.m. central time, April 23.   Please do not wait to submit your thesis until the deadline day.  This will give the Graduate College time to review the thesis to determine if it is complete, and to notify you if there are missing materials that will need to be submitted before the deadline.  Failure to submit the thesis by the deadline date established by the Graduate College will result in the postponement of graduation to a future session.  

At deposit, and regardless of whether you are submitting via ProQuest or in hard copy, your thesis must be complete and in final form.  Your thesis must include all edits or changes your thesis committee requested as a result of your defense.  It must also include all required manuscript elements, including properly formatted preliminary pages, and meet our formatting requirements.  

Below are instructions for both electronic and hard copy submissions.

ProQuest Deposit

With the exception of MFA students, who have the option of submitting their thesis in hard copy form, all students will submit their thesis via ProQuest . More information about the process—and information about copyright, fees, and publication details—can be found here .   Once you submit, you will receive an email receipt of submission from ProQuest.  If you don’t, please call 319.335.3599 to make sure we have received you submission.  Remember, you must meet the deposit deadline.

If there are formatting errors, you will receive corrections.  These will be sent to the email address you used when registering on ProQuest.  You are required to make these corrections and resubmit the corrected thesis to your ProQuest account.  Note that you will not receive an email confirmation of your resubmission from ProQuest.  If you are unsure whether the Graduate College has received your submission, please call 319.335.3599.

The Graduate College has now shifted to electronic committee verification of all theses and dissertations submitted via ProQuest. During the registration process, students will enter their committee members' names and email addresses.  Once the format review portion of the process concludes and the Graduate College accepts your thesis, each committee member will receive an email from [email protected], letting them know the thesis is ready to be verified.  Committee verification follows the Graduate College format review.  It does NOT precede deposit as it used to.

The deposit may be submitted no later than the end of the semester (summers excluded) following the sessions in which the final examination is passed (See Graduate College Manual of Rules and Regulations, Section XII.M.).

Hard Copy Deposit (for MFA Students)

MFA students who opt to submit their thesis as a hard copy must meet the same deadlines as students who submit their theses electronically. At deposit you must submit two, unbound, single-sided copies of you thesis, complete and in final form.  The Graduate College must also receive a signed Report of Thesis Approval .  With the shift to remote thesis defenses, committee approval of the thesis may be transmitted to the Graduate College through a variety of means.  Contact Erin Kaufman ([email protected]) if you have any questions about this. 

The deposit may be submitted no later than the end of the semester (summers excluded) following the session in which the final examination is passed (See Graduate College Manual of Rule and Regulations, Section XII.M.).

All hard-copy theses are to be unbound, with single-column type on one side of the page only.

• 8 ½ x 11 inch
• Archival (acid-free)
• 20–24 pound weight
• The author must obtain prior approval from the Graduate College for the use of non-standard size paper.

Print Quality

• The thesis deposit is to be reproduced on a laser-quality printer.
• The two copies required at deposit must be identical (two original copies or two photocopies).
• All pages of a deposit are to be clean, evenly dark, and with no visible evidence of correction.
• Final copies must meet high standards of permanence, legibility, uniformity, and reproducibility.

WPI Theses & Dissertations: For Students

• For Students
• For Faculty
• Find WPI Theses and Dissertations

Information for Students on Submission Process

Submitting your thesis or dissertation this year?

Please review the Five Steps below to prepare to submit your ETD for approval by your advisor and committee.

• Be sure to check submission deadlines: https://www.wpi.edu/academics/calendar
• For information about researching and writing your thesis or dissertation , please see this guide on research and scholarly publishing for graduate students. 

STEP 1: BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION

​ S TEP 2: PREPARING YOUR FILES

STEP 3: SUBMITTING YOUR FILES

STEP 4:  GETTING APPROVAL

​ STEP 5: GETTING BOUND COPIES

STEP 6: AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

STEP 1: BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION:

• Be sure that you are clear on your advisor's expectations.  
• Consult with your advisor or department about scheduling your defense.  
• Check with your department or advisor on how and when you should get copies of your thesis or dissertation to your committee members before your defense.  
• Present or defend your work . 
• Open to all: default option – maximizes access and impact of your work
• Embargoed: access restricted to WPI only for 1 - 3 years (due to intellectual property, grant, or publication plans); or  no access to your thesis or dissertation by anyone for 1-3 years (due to intellectual property, grant, or publication plans; or pending redaction due to classification or disclosure constraints).   
• Make any necessary changes to your document following your presentation/defense.

STEP 2: PREPARING YOUR FILES:

Recommended document and file formats.   At this time, WPI doesn’t have a required thesis template. Please consult with your advisor or department regarding preferred formats. Your primary documents will be submitted as PDF files. For information on  creating PDF files , please see:  https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/using/create-pdf.html

If you are interested in using LaTeX to create your thesis/dissertation documents, WPI now offers an institutional subscription (standard subscription plan) to Overleaf.  Overleaf is a collaborative LaTeX editor used for writing,editing, and publishing scientific documents. Active faculty, staff, and students can request an Overleaf account by emailing [email protected].  For more information, see: https://hub.wpi.edu/software/637/overleaf    An example of a dissertation template (created by former WPI graduate student Saad Islam) is at:  https://www.overleaf.com/read/smrpckjqfpff

Prepare your complete thesis or dissertation, with  unsigned  title page, converted to PDF. You will upload this file via the ETD Submission Website ( eProjects 2.0) .   Your primary thesis/dissertation document must be submitted as a single PDF file. Please do not break up your document into multiple files. ​

Your title page will contain the following information:  Title of dissertation or thesis; full name of author; degree; department/program; date; advisor's name; co-advisor's name - if applicable; names of committee members - if applicable; name of the head of department/program  - if applicable.  This information will also be used in the submission process through eProjects 2.0. 

Prepare a separate, digitally signed approval form, or a digital copy of your signed signature/title page.  You will submit this online through eProjects 2.0  at the time you submit your thesis or dissertation.    You can download a digital approval form here, instructions for its use, and examples of cover pages:

​​​ Blank Approval Form for Digital Signatures 

Use this form to create a digital Approval Form and collect digital signatures from committee members.

Guide to Approval Form with Digital Signatures 

10 step process for filling out the Digital Approval Form and obtaining digital signatures from your committee members.

Title_Cover_Page_examples_Dissertation 

Title_Cover_page_examples_Thesis 

Supplementary files: You are welcome to attach supplementary files to your ETD when you submit it online.  Your files may be in any file format, but please consider using file formats with a higher probability for long-term preservation .    If you do include supplementary files, such as a computer program simulation, data set, image, or video, be sure your thesis adequately describes it.  For example, for a program or simulation, you might also include any source code with your PDF so that someone could recreate the work later.

Note:  Current file size limit for submission through eProjects is .5GB. If your file is larger, Digital WPI can accept files up to 1GB, please work with [email protected] to submit your file. 

STEP 3: SUBMITTING YOUR FILES:

• Review the process : You will submit your revised thesis or dissertation via the online ETD submission system .   
• Submit your ETD online by going to  (login required) :   https://eprojects.wpi.edu/  
• Required: Enter identifying information about your work, including your name, department, the category of the work (e.g. thesis or dissertation), the title and abstract, and list your advisors. 
• Recommended: Add keywords that describe the topic, methods, or other important ideas reflected in your work.
• Optional: Choose United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) supported by your work. The  17 SDGs are goals defined by the United Nations , used globally to identify information, projects, research, and other activities that address global sustainable development challenges.
• Optional: Specify a  Creative Commons  or other license to specify how your work can be used by others.
• Optional: Specify an embargo period of 1-3 years as described in Step 1, for reasons of intellectual property, grant, or publication plans; or pending redaction due to classification or disclosure constraints.

If you need to modify or manage your ETD submission online before submitting (login required):

• Go to:    https://eprojects.wpi.edu/
• You can modify and manage your thesis files until you submit them for approval .

STEP 4:  GETTING APPROVAL:

• Only submit a revised final draft. Once your ETD is approved you will not be able to make further changes .
• Once submitted, the file goes to your advisor for approval.    
• Email:  [email protected]
• Office:  Daniels Hall

When the Registrar has approved your ETD, you and your advisor will be notified via e-mail.

STEP 5: GETTING BOUND COPIES:

Check with your department to see if they require a bound copy of your thesis or dissertation.  You may wish to retain a bound paper copy of your thesis or dissertation for yourself as well.

To get a bound copy of your thesis or dissertation, contact HF Group Binding Services . Using HF Group's Thesis On Demand service, you can order thesis and dissertation printing directly, online. Thesis On Demand offers a range of cover and printing options. and you can use their online calculator to get an estimate of your costs before placing your order. You can do as many or as few copies as you want.

Once your ETD appears in Digital WPI, you will be able to view, retrieve, download, and share it. Correction and revision   Once a submitted ETD has been accepted, it is considered an academic record and cannot be edited. Any corrections to submitted works should be submitted in the form of a correcting addendum, to be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies. 

Changing names or other descriptions of submitted works (metadata) The WPI Library routinely corrects, amends, adds, or otherwise revises metadata describing works in Digital WPI, including student works, to enhance accuracy and improve retrievability of the works.  All users of Digital WPI including authors are welcome to suggest such changes by contacting Digital WPI at [email protected]. 

We recognize that personal names used in Digital WPI descriptive information may not reflect preferred, lived, or corrected names. We welcome requests for changes in displayed names in the descriptions of works, from all authors, advisors, or contributors to materials in Digital WPI.  No justification is required for a requestor’s name change to be implemented. The change does not need to reflect the requestor’s past or current legal name(s). 

To request that your name be changed in the description of materials in Digital WPI, email the Digital WPI administrators at [email protected] ) with the following information:

1.    Name(s) currently listed on your works in Digital WPI, and role (ie author, advisor, contributor) 2.    Complete list of materials with the previously used name on them, with a link to each item 3.    The new name that you would like to be used in describing the materials 4.    Whether you want us to retain the previous name in addition to the new name

Once we receive a request, we will change the name as requested on the item record(s). This can usually be done quickly (within a few days or weeks at the most). 

It is also possible for us to add a preferred, new, or lived name but also to retain a previously used name in the metadata for your work.

You are responsible for contacting your coauthors, advisors, or others, if you want them to know about the change(s) you’ve requested. 

Digital WPI administrators will keep a private record of the change(s) made, as part of our archival responsibility, but we will not share this information with others without permission from the requestor.

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• Last Updated: Feb 22, 2024 11:02 AM
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Dissertation and Thesis Submission

All dissertations and theses must be submitted online through Stony Brook University's ProQuest/UMI ETD administrator site.  All candidates should check with their dissertation advisor and graduate program director regarding additional departmental requirements.

Graduation and Degree Requirements

Submission Guides

Guidelines for the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations - Electronic Submissions  

Guidelines for the Preparation of Dissertations - Electronic Submissions for the PhD in Music Composition  

Page Numbering Tips  

Thesis and dissertation templates

Submission specifications

• Digital copy must be submitted after successfully defended.  Submission Instructions
• Once submitted an email notification will be sent to the student and to the Graduate School.  No changes can be made after submitting, except for format changes as directed by the Graduate School.  Submissions are reviewed in order and will take an estimate of three weeks after the semester. 
• Updates will be sent to the email address used to submit by [email protected] .  Students should add this email address to their contacts and regularly check their email inbox. 
• Adobe is available in campus SINC sites for PDF conversion.
• Submission Deadlines: 4:00 pm EDT for the May and August and by 4:00 pm EST for the December.
• Students may email a PDF of their thesis/dissertation to [email protected] for a format review before officially submitting if they wish. The thesis/dissertation must be submitted to ProQuest by the deadline regardless of when a student's format review request is answered.
• Co-authorship or copyright permissions must accompany submission in the supplemental files section if any content, including manuscript and appendices, is under another copyright or were supported by a third party. Review UMI Copyright Guide and ProQuest Copyright Guide
• Students are encouraged to submit copy of theses or dissertation to Academic Commons after their submission is fully accepted by the Graduate School. 
• Students must contact ProQuest and Academic Commons if they wish to embargo their work.

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Thesis/Dissertation

To graduate with a master’s (thesis program) or doctoral (dissertation program) degree, students are required to submit an Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) and a Committee Approval Form to the Graduate School through the  UW ETD Administrator Site . ETDs are distributed by ProQuest/UMI Dissertation Publishing and made available on an open access basis through UW Libraries  ResearchWorks Service .

The Graduate School partners with the UW Libraries to provide comprehensive resources for students as they write, submit, and publish academic theses or dissertations. These pages outline information and policies related to preparing your thesis/dissertation, including formatting, deadlines, copyright and distribution decisions, and, ultimately, graduation. We also encourage you to review the  ETD Library Guide  for additional information.

For comprehensive information on preparing to graduate, please refer to our graduation requirements information page .

Writing Your Thesis or Dissertation

Etd resources.

As a starting point, students submitting an ETD are encouraged to review the below resources:

• Hacking the Academy: UW Theses & Dissertations (Recording of July 29, 2020 event) This session helps students think through their options for how and when to share their work, including the copyright and publishing considerations they may need to take into account.
• Electronic Theses & Dissertations with the UW Libraries The University Libraries welcomes you to this self-guided course on electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) at the UW. In this five-part learning experience, you will learn a lot about the ETD process including how the submission process works, how to give and receive recognition for your work, how to find and interpret publisher policies and how to read and inspect publishing contracts.

Formatting Guidelines

After you submit your ETD, the Graduate School will review your document as part of the graduation process at the end of each quarter. We will review for information accuracy, consistency, and to ensure your ETD meets the formatting requirements described below. There are three required sections (pages) that must be included at the beginning of your manuscript: 1) Title Page, 2) Copyright Page, 3) Abstract. Templates for these sections are provided below.

Apart from these first three pages, the Graduate School does not adhere to any specific formatting or publishing requirements unless explicitly stated by the ProQuest Author Guide: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission (provided below). You should refer to the citation, formatting, and style specifications of your discipline and the guidance of your supervisory committee.  Note: theses and dissertations must be submitted in PDF format.

For a complete overview of the graduation process, please review  Preparing to Graduate .

Required Sections:

• Must include all items listed in the sample title page and placed in the same order
• May be the first or second page of your document
• Title of document
• Author’s Full Name
• Name of degree as it will appear on your diploma
• Year of graduation
• Names of chair/committee members (do not include signatures or professional titles, e.g. Dr. or PhD, before/after faculty names)
• Program authorized to offer degree (school or department)
• Name and year must match title pages
• List the year of graduation
• Place abstract after copyright and title page

Master’s Thesis Approval Form:

You are required to upload a completed and signed Master’s Thesis Approval Form into the UW ETD Administrator (ProQuest) site; the Approval Form is part of your ETD submission. This Approval Form is a separate PDF and should not be included as a page in the thesis or dissertation itself.

• Master’s Thesis Approval Form

Electronic Doctoral Dissertation Approval:

Final Exams scheduled after March 3, 2020 include a link for Reading Committee Members to approve the dissertation online at MyGrad Committee View.

ETD Formatting Resources:

• Thesis/Dissertation Formatting Checklist  – a quick reference guide of the formatting do’s and don’ts provided below.
• ProQuest Dissertation Publishing — Author Guide: Preparing Your Manuscript for Submission
• ProQuest Online Submission FAQs
• Master’s Thesis Title Page – Fillable PDF Template 
• Doctoral Dissertation Title Page – Fillable PDF Template
• Word Templates  – Alex Mamishev, Professor in Electrical Engineering maintains a Word file that other students may find useful when formatting their document.

Common ETD Formatting Revisions Requested

To ensure timely graduating, take some time before you submit to review this information and ProQuest’s document formatting guidelines. These are all common errors and revisions the Graduate School will request when reviewing ETD formatting. You will be required to resubmit if revisions are needed. Be precise, and consistent as you format your document.  Many formatting errors result from following a fellow or former student’s example, so it’s important to review the most current templates and guidelines.

Title Page, Copyright Page, Abstract

Language requirement.

Your document must be written in English ( policy 1.1.4.3 ). If you need to write your document in another language to accommodate the main audience, you must get prior approval to do so by  submitting a petition the dean via MyGrad . If the petition is approved, the required sections (title page, copyright page, abstract) must still be written in English.

Plagiarism is using words, ideas, diagrams, and other content from publicly available work without appropriately acknowledging the sources of these materials. This definition constitutes plagiarism whether it is intentional or unintentional and whether it is the work of another or your own, previously published work.

Plagiarism is a very serious offense that the University of Washington does not tolerate. Evidence of plagiarism may prevent granting of your degree.

Submitting and Publishing

Submitting for dissemination and access.

The Graduate School and the Libraries require that all UW theses and dissertations be submitted electronically for management efficiency, cost control, ease of dissemination, and long-term preservation reasons. In addition, your ETD must eventually be made available openly on the web. Your ETD will be hosted in both UW’s institutional repository,  ResearchWorks , and in  ProQuest’s ETD Database .  Consequently, you will need to indicate your choices in two sections about how your ETD is made available. Most students choose to make their work available immediately, but you can choose to limit access  temporarily  before making it available openly.

Students may restrict access to their theses and dissertations…

• while seeking to publish journal articles or books based on them,
• to protect intellectual property during the patent application process, or
• to prevent the disclosure of sensitive or classified information.

During the submission process, you will select ProQuest and ResearchWorks (Institutional Repository, or IR) publication options. The options are summarized on a table below, followed by selected scenarios to assist you in making your decisions.

IMPORTANT: The metadata describing your ETD, including the citation and abstract, is openly available  immediately— regardless of the embargo or restriction status. This information is searchable by Google, Bing and other search engines, so take care that neither the descriptive information nor the text contain confidential or sensitive information.

Selecting Access Options

Selected etd access scenarios.

The UW Libraries and the Graduate School are committed to the goal of sharing graduate students’ research as soon and as widely as possible, while allowing students to temporarily limit access to their theses and dissertations for such reasons as to support formal publication in journal article or book form or to allow time for filing patents. Below are some examples of how students may wish to use these options to support their publishing or intellectual property-protection goals.

Discussion of Scenarios

• Journal Article Publishing. In recent years graduate students – especially in scientific, medical and technical fields — have increasingly been publishing results of their research in journals.
• The “Research Article” Dissertation. In some disciplines students may be expected to publish 2 or more journal articles during the course of their studies and submit them as the core of their thesis or dissertation — along with an introduction, literature review, and conclusions. Because this has become so common, most journals now permit authors to immediately republish their articles within their theses or dissertations as long as they provide the full article citation and a statement that an article is being “reprinted with permission” of the journal. However, some other journals allow the practice but require that an article not appear on an open access basis before a delay of 6 or 12 months. The Libraries strongly suggests that students become familiar with the policies in place at the journals in which they would like to publish their work, and choose appropriate access restrictions if needed when they submit their ETD’s.
• Book Publishing. Some students in such humanities and social science disciplines as history and political science may hope to publish a revised version of their dissertation as their first book. As they consider that possibility they may be concerned they might undermine their prospects by making their dissertations widely available via ProQuest and/or on an open access basis.Before deciding whether or for how long to limit access to their work based on these concerns, The Libraries recommends students become familiar with the arguments and evidence put forward on these issues. For example, Cirasella and Thistlethwaite 3 and Courtney and Kilcer 4 provide excellent discussions of issues and review recent literature, while William Germano’s classic From Dissertation to Book 5 and Beth Luey’s Revising Your Dissertation 6 offer important insight into what might be involved during the dissertation revision process. While the Libraries recommends that most students hoping to publish their dissertations as books make them widely available while they work toward that goal, they should feel free to consider choosing otherwise, such as “Immediate Access” for ProQuest and limiting to UW for five years – at the end of which students may request additional time.
• Patent Protection Strategies. Students whose theses or dissertations describe work for which patent protection might be appropriate should contact Jesse Kindra at CoMotion ( [email protected] or 206 616-9658) prior to submitting their work to ProQuest and choosing access restrictions. Depending on the circumstances, a student may choose to completely withhold access for one year, but should recognize that doing so will prevent anyone else at the UW from having access to it during the restricted access period. To exercise this option, students should delay releasing their work to ProQuest for 1 or 2 years, and then choose “No access for 1 year, then make Open Access” from the Institutional Repository (IR) Publishing Options menu for the UW copy. In unusual circumstances, requests for access to be withheld an additional year may be considered. To make such a request, students should describe the reason(s) for it in an email to [email protected] prior to expiration of the original embargo period.

1 Marisa L. Ramirez, Joan T. Dalton, Gail McMillan, Max Read and Nancy H. Seamans, “Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities,” College and Research Libraries 74 (July 2013): 368‐80, http://crl.acrl.org/content/74/4/368.full.pdf+html .

2 Marisa Ramirez, Gail McMillan, Joan T. Dalton, Ann Hanlon, Heather S. Smith and Chelsea Kern, “Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?” College and Research Libraries 75 (November 2014): 808-21, http://crl.acrl.org/content/75/6/808.full.pdf+html .

3 Jill Cirasella and Polly Thistlethwaite, “Open Access and the Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual,” pp. 203-224 in Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication: Implementation (Kevin L. Smith and Katherine A. Dickson, eds.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), http://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/286/ .

4 Kyle K. Courtney and Emily Kilcer, “From Apprehension to Comprehension: Addressing Anxieties about Open Access to ETD’s,” pp. 225-244 in Open Access and the Future of Scholarly Communication: Implementation (Kevin L. Smith and Katherine A. Dickson, eds.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017).

5 William Germano. 2013. From Dissertation to Book, 2d. ed. : University of Chicago Press.

6 Beth Luey (ed.). 2008. Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors. University of California Press.

Publishing Agreements

When you submit your ETD for review and publication, you will be required to read and accept two separate publishing agreements. You will also have to decide whether to publish your work right away or to delay its release. Additional pages within this section will outline all the considerations to keep in mind, when deciding how to make your work available to the scholarly community.

All students writing a thesis or dissertation should review the UW Libraries Copyright Research Guide . Understanding copyright law is another critical aspect as you write your thesis or dissertation.  As you compose your work, ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you referenced others’ work? If so, you either need to get explicit permission from the rights holder or to determine that your use is Fair.
• Have you previously published any part of the work? If you’ve signed your copyright over to your publisher, you will need permission to use your material in your thesis.

Ordering Paper Copies

There are no required fees , although you have the option to register your copyright via ProQuest for a fee. If you want to order bound (paper) copies of your document, you may do so through the UW Copy Centers or through ProQuest. Questions should be directed to the UW Copy Centers or to ProQuest at 1.800.521.0600 ext. 77020 — available 8 a.m.–5 p.m. EST, Monday through Friday (excluding U.S. holidays).

Frequently Asked Questions

I created an account in the etd administrator site, but i’m not ready to submit my etd. can i come back to my account later.

Yes. If you need to finish your submission later (for instance, if you need to update your PDF file before uploading it), you can save your information and come back to finish. No information will be lost.

I submitted my ETD but would like to make an edit to the document. How can I edit my submission?

Once your thesis/dissertation is submitted, no additional changes to the document are allowed with the exception of a major data error in the document. In this circumstance, a letter outlining the necessary changes is required from your supervisory committee chair.

What will the Graduate School be reviewing after I submit my ETD?

Submissions are reviewed by GEMS advisors for formatting requirements for the three required sections — title page, copyright page, abstract — before they are delivered to ProQuest for publication. We are checking for accuracy and consistency. Refer to the Formatting Guidelines section on this page for detailed information.

I submitted my ETD and haven't heard anything yet. When will it be reviewed?

We try to review all ETDs as they are received, but if you submit early in the quarter it may not be acted on immediately. If you need to confirm completion of your degree requirements to an external agency or employer, please access the request for letter of certification in the forms section of our Additional Resources page (once your degree has posted to your UW transcript, we can no longer issue this letter). In general, ETDs are reviewed in the last two to three weeks before the quarter ends and after the last day of the quarter. When your submission has been accepted by a GEMS advisor, you will receive email confirmation.

How can I tell if my ETD was submitted and received by the Graduate School?

When your ETD is successfully submitted and pending review, the status will read “submission in review.”

When will my ETD be made available for access?

This depends on the type of access restrictions you selected when creating your account. However, your submission will be delivered to ProQuest for publishing four to six weeks after graduation and you will receive email confirmation when this has occurred. It should be available in UW ResearchWorks around the same time.

When will the printed dissertation / thesis copies I ordered from ProQuest be ready?

After you receive the email confirmation that UW has “delivered” your submission (ETD) to ProQuest, you should please refer to the ProQuest customer service guidelines for the expected delivery date of your order.

What if I am missing a faculty signature for my thesis or dissertation, or I have encountered difficulties in uploading my ETD? Must I pay the graduate registration waiver fee and graduate in the following quarter?

If you encounter these types of situations, contact Graduate Enrollment Management Services (206.685.2630 or  [email protected] ) as early as possible and no later than the last day of the quarter in which you intend to graduate.

Additional Resources

• Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) Guide  (start here!)
• Copyright and Fair Use
• Open Access
• Scholarly Publishing
• ProQuest/UMI Agreement — Traditional Publishing Agreement
• University Agreement — UW Libraries Thesis and Dissertation Submission Agreement
• UW Human Subjects Division (HSD)
• UW CoMotion

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Dissertations and Theses

The dissertation is the hallmark of the research expertise demonstrated by a doctoral student. It is a scholarly contribution to knowledge in the student’s area of specialization. By researching and writing a dissertation, the student is expected to demonstrate a high level of knowledge and the capability to function as an independent scholar. 

A thesis is a hallmark of some master’s programs. It is a piece of original research, generally less comprehensive than a dissertation, and is meant to show the student’s knowledge of an area of specialization.  

Document Preparation

PhD and master’s students are responsible for meeting all requirements for preparing theses and dissertations. They are expected to confer with their advisors about disciplinary and program expectations and to follow Graduate School procedure requirements.

The Graduate School’s format review is in place to help the document submission process go smoothly for the student. Format reviews for PhD dissertations and master’s theses can be done remotely or in-person. The format review is required at or before the two-week notice of the final defense. 

Access and Distribution

Ohio State has agreements with two organizations— OhioLINK   and   ProQuest/UMI Dissertation Publishing —that store and provide access to Ohio State theses and dissertations.  

Examinations

Graduate degree examinations are a major milestone in all graduate students’ pursuit of their graduate degree. Much hinges on the successful completion of these examinations, including the ability to continue in a graduate program. 

The rules and processes set by the Graduate School ensure the integrity of these examinations for graduate students, the graduate faculty, and for Ohio State. 

Final Semester

During your final semester as a graduate student there are many activities that lead up to commencement and receiving your degree. Complete the final semester checklist and learn more about commencement activities.

Graduation Calendar

Select your expected graduation term below to see specific dates concerning when to apply for graduation, complete your examinations and reports, submit approved thesis and dissertation, commencement, and the end-of semester deadline.

Applications to Graduate Due 1  : January 26, 2024

Examinations and Reports completed by 2  : April 12, 2024

Approved thesis and dissertation submitted and accepted by 3  : April 19, 2024

Commencement 4  : May 5, 2024

End of Semester Deadline 5  : May 6, 2024

Applications to Graduate Due 1  : May 24, 2024

Examinations and Reports completed by 2  : July 12, 2024

Approved thesis and dissertation submitted and accepted by 3  : July 19, 2024

Commencement 4  : August 4, 2024

End of Semester Deadline 5  : August 19, 2024

Applications to Graduate Due 1  : September 6, 2024

Examinations and Reports completed by 2  : November 22, 2024

Approved thesis and dissertation submitted and accepted by 3  : November 27, 2024

Commencement 4  : December 15, 2024

End of Semester Deadline 5  : January 3, 2025

Applications to Graduate Due 1  : January 24, 2025

Examinations and Reports completed by 2  : April 11, 2025

Approved thesis and dissertation submitted and accepted by 3  : April 18, 2025

Commencement 4  : May 4, 2025

End of Semester Deadline 5  : May 5, 2025

1  Applications to graduate include current semester or End-of-Semester deadline. Applications must be received by close of business.

2 Format reviews may occur electronically or in person at the Graduate School during announced business hours.  Both options require submitting a digital version of the dissertation or DMA document draft in a PDF format to  [email protected] .  

3  Approved documents must be submitted via OhioLINK and accepted by the Graduate School by the close of business before the Report on Final Document will be processed.

4  Students not attending commencement must complete the commencement section on the Application to Graduate to indicate how their diploma should be disbursed.

5  A degree applicant who does not meet published graduation deadlines but who does complete all degree requirements by the last business day prior to the first day of classes for the following semester or summer term will graduate the following semester or summer term without registering or paying fees

Still Have Questions?

Dissertations & Theses 614-292-6031 [email protected]

Doctoral Exams, Master's Examination, Graduation Requirements 614-292-6031 [email protected]

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Guidelines to Submission

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Thesis Center: Guidelines to Submission (Steps 1 to 7)

Finalize your committee

• Download the  Appointment/Change of Committee form
• Complete this form well in advance of your defense date, as it requires the signature of the school dean, department chair, and committee members. At the time of submission to Thesis Center, all applicable fields on the form must be complete and current
• Save a PDF of your completed Appointment/Change of Committee form

Create a profile in Thesis Center

• After clicking “Register”, a verification email will be sent. Click the link to verify the registration. This will activate your Thesis Center profile
• Click ‘Create a new profile’
• Fill out the “New Manuscript Submission Profile” in Thesis Center with your information. Refer to your Appointment/Change of Committee form to complete the Committee Information section. They  must  match
• Click “Create”
• Upload a PDF of the Appointment/Change of Committee form to the Checklist page in Thesis Center

**PhD students only**:  Complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). You are only required to complete the first section. Save a PDF of the completion certificate. Upload the PDF to the Checklist page. The survey is available here:  https://sed-ncses.org

The morning of your defense, you may go to the Checklist page in Thesis Center to generate the electronic  Approval to Submit  form. Your action will prompt Thesis Center to send an email containing a link to the form to all of your committee members.

Your committee members must indicate their approval by the  Checklist Submission Deadline.

• Defend your dissertation or thesis, and make any changes to your manuscript that your committee requires
• Monitor the progress of the electronic  Approval to Submit  form through the Checklist page of your Thesis Center profile

No further changes to the manuscript are allowed, with the exception of revisions to the formatting required by the Thesis Coordinator.

• A PDF of the completed  Appointment/Change of Committee form
• All committee members must have indicated their approval on the  Approval to Submit  form
• PhD students only:  a PDF of the completion certificate from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)
• Checklist verification will begin once your expected semester of degree conferral starts.
• All Checklists are reviewed in the order received.
• If you miss the Checklist deadline, your submission will automatically update to be reviewed for the following semester.
• In the submissions page of the Thesis Center profile, upload a single PDF file of the manuscript that was approved by your committee. Be sure to upload by the Manuscript Submission Deadline . This deadline pertains to the initial upload of the manuscript
• Confirmation of your submission will be sent to the email address you’ve entered in Thesis Center. The subject will read: “Manuscript Received”
• The Thesis Coordinator will review the manuscript for format and presentation and, should any changes be required, send a notification email. Normally this takes place within 3 weeks during peak submission times and sooner during off-peak times. The subject of the notification email will read: “Formatting Changes Available”

Submissions made past the deadline will not be processed until the beginning of the following semester.

• If you receive an email with the subject “Formatting Changes Available”, follow the instructions in the email and return to the Submissions page in Thesis Center to view the corrections listed there
• Address the corrections, and upload the revised manuscript to the Submissions Page as a single PDF
• The Thesis Coordinator will review the manuscript for format and presentation and send a notification email, should any additional changes be required
• After all corrections have been addressed, an email confirmation will be sent

Monitor your email for a message from the USC Digital Library. You will confirm the thesis or dissertation publishing information with the USC Digital Library. At this point, you will be able to upload any necessary supplemental media files to accompany the PDF thesis or dissertation manuscript. You  must respond to the email to finalize publishing information with the USC Digital Library. The deadline for finalizing publishing information is the degree conferral date of the given term. This is the final step required for degree conferral.  At this time, the manuscript processing fee will be applied to your student fee bill. The fee is $115 for doctoral students and $105 for master’s students.

The Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Submit your thesis for graduate college review and deposit.

Your thesis deposit is not complete until you have made all corrections requested by the Graduate College Thesis Office and have submitted all supporting items required for the deposit . All corrections and additional materials must be received in satisfactory condition by the Thesis Office no later than 5:00 p.m. on the day of the deposit deadline for your intended graduation period. Once the thesis or dissertation has been approved for deposit by the Graduate College, no additional changes to the document will be allowed. Note: The Graduate College does not accept emailed or hard copy thesis submissions for review or deposit.

Prepare your submission

To begin your submission, your thesis should be formatted according to Graduate College thesis requirements and approved by your department .

Prepare your PDF

• The thesis must be submitted as a single Portable Document Format (PDF) file. See the Thesis Office FAQ for a few tips on the PDF conversion process.*
• Security settings should not be applied to the PDF file.
• The PDF file should not contain embedded multimedia.
• Do not include  required supporting items for the deposit  in the PDF file.
• Verify/remove inaccurate metadata by opening the file in Adobe Reader and selecting "Properties" from the File menu. On the "Description" tab, verify that the title, author name, and so on are correct.

*Note: The Thesis Office will not assist with the conversion of thesis files to PDF.

SUPPLEMENTAL APPENDIX FILES (Optional)

If you have supplemental appendix files for your thesis (video, audio, data sets, etc.), you will upload those files one at a time during the submission process. An appendix page with a brief description of the content of the supplemental file must be included in the main PDF file of the thesis. See the Graduate College thesis requirements for further information. Also note that any supplemental appendix files must be reviewed and approved by your director of research and committee, and those files will also be available in IDEALS according to the release option you choose.

ideals DEPOSIT agreement and release options

In step 2 of your submission profile, you will be asked to agree to the IDEALS license and choose an IDEALS release option. See the Release Options page for detailed information about those choices.

(OPTIONAL) ProQuest publishing agreement - Doctoral students only

In step 2 of the submission profile, doctoral students will be given the option to have the Graduate College send their dissertation to ProQuest for inclusion in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global and Dissertation Abstracts International databases . If you wish to send your dissertation to ProQuest, agree to the ProQuest publishing agreement during step 2. See the Release Options page for detailed information about the agreement and how your IDEALS release option will determine your ProQuest release option.

Submit your thesis

To create your thesis submission profile and submit your thesis to the Graduate College Thesis Office for review, click on the link below. (If your NetID is no longer active, you will be able to create your own temporary password once you begin the submission process.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you receive an error message as you are trying to submit your thesis, please either clear your cache or try a different browser (Google Chrome usually works well).

SUBMIT your thesis

After you have submitted your thesis for review, you will receive a series of emails from the Graduate College Thesis Office that will notify you that we have received your thesis and alert you to any required corrections or other steps you will need to take to complete your thesis deposit. You may also check the status of our review of your thesis at any time by returning to your submission profile via the link provided above.  

Complete your deposit

Your thesis deposit is not complete until you have made all corrections requested by the Graduate College Thesis Office and have submitted all supporting items required for the deposit . All corrections and additional materials must be received in satisfactory condition by the Thesis Office no later than 5:00 p.m. on the day of the deposit deadline for your intended graduation period.

After your deposit is complete, review our Post-deposit Considerations .

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Thesis/Dissertation

Vireo Thesis and Dissertation LibGuide with Instructions

Direct Link to Vireo for Document Submission

Students must upload the thesis or dissertation electronic document into Vireo by the published deadline for the term in which they would like to graduate. The deadlines are found in the Processing Calendar housed within the Academic Calendar. They are also posted to the Vireo website.

If the document was uploaded after the deadline, the student should assume they will graduate in the following semester and should register for at least 1 credit of 7000 or 9000. Students on an F1 visa must enroll in face-to-face courses in the term of graduation. Summer registration is not required for graduation unless the student is on an F1 visa or additional credits are needed for degree requirements. Deadlines for future semesters are published in the Academic Calendar for the term. Open the calendar for the semester of interest, then click the link at the top right corner to go to the Student Application and Processing Calendar for that term.            

For a graduation in Spring 2024: April 12, 2024 For a graduation in Summer 2024:  July 15, 2024 For a graduation in Fall 2024:  November 22, 2024 For a graduation in Spring 2025:  April 18, 2025

The Graduate Catalog has the policy for the deadline:

The thesis or dissertation must be submitted at least ten days prior to the last day of classes of the student’s intended semester of graduation.

Once a document is uploaded, the Graduate School begins its review and the student is obligated to check ECU email daily to ensure communication about requested edits is acted upon quickly. Graduation can be moved to the next semester (with required enrollment) if edits are not made quickly. If all edits are made and the Graduate School sends its approval to the Registrar by the day before the next semester’s first day of classes, the student will graduate in the intended term. If edits and approval are not final until after classes have started in a subsequent term, then the student will graduate in that new term and enrollment may be required.

Questions about continuous enrollment for graduating students or the thesis/dissertation approval process can be directed to Dr. Michelle Eble ( [email protected] ).

Thesis-Dissertation Forms

NOTE: Docusign forms have a 45-day expiration.  If all signatures are not obtained within 45 days, the form expires and a new one must be completed.  Please encourage students and committee members to monitor their email daily once a student has generated a Docusign form from the list below. 

• Thesis to Non-Thesis Change Form (PDF)
• Master’s Thesis Pre-Thesis Research Approval INSTRUCTIONS (PDF)
• Master’s Thesis Pre-Thesis Research Approval FORM (Docusign)
• Co-Directors Master’s Thesis Pre-Thesis Research Approval (Docusign; use this form when there are co-directors for the thesis)
• Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy INSTRUCTIONS (PDF)
• Advancement to Doctoral Candidacy FORM (Docusign)
• Instructions for using Docusign Signature Pages
• Dissertation Signature Page (Docusign)
• Thesis Signature Page (Docusign)
• LibGuide for instructions on uploading theses and dissertations
• Direct link to VIREO submission portal for theses and dissertations

Digital Submission Requirement

Graduating students earning either master’s or doctoral degrees are required to publish their thesis, report, dissertation or treatise digitally and in accordance with certain formatting rules. Students can also request to delay the publication of their thesis, report, dissertation or treatise.

Texas Digital Library (TDL)

Graduating students are required to publish their thesis, report, dissertation or treatise digitally by uploading it to tdl..

The document must be uploaded as a single PDF. Because electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) must be published, if any material contained in your document might require permission from another party for publication, all such permissions must be obtained prior to the submission of the ETD.

It is critical that your submission be complete and correct.

After submission, no revisions or corrections will be allowed except for those required by the graduate dean.

Thesis & Dissertation Submission System

Click the link above to begin your submission.

Technical Support

Texas Digital Library provides support to our members through training, documentation, and a Helpdesk.

ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global

To further promote and preserve the intellectual contributions of its degree recipients, UT Austin is partnering with ProQuest to disseminate its master’s theses/reports and doctoral dissertations through the ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global database, which reaches thousands of institutions and millions of academic researchers worldwide. ProQuest also partners with major search and discipline-specific indexes for additional amplification and provides all of these services free of charge.

By distributing your work with ProQuest, you will increase its visibility and impact within the global research community. ProQuest recognizes the critical importance of embargoes and will never publish a thesis until it has been released for dissemination by UT Austin.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Information

Further information can be found at this link. If you prefer not to have the full-text version of your thesis disseminated by ProQuest, please contact [email protected] .

The Graduate School offers Microsoft Word templates to assist you in formatting your thesis or dissertation.

Using the Thesis and Dissertation Templates User Guide

Before using a template, review this user guide.

Thesis Templates

Dissertation templates, format guidelines for dissertations, treatises, theses, and reports.

Theses, reports, dissertations, and treatises must follow the guidelines of the Graduate School booklet Format Guidelines for Dissertations, Treatises, Theses, and Reports. A format check is recommended before you submit your completed work. If the format has not been checked prior to submission, it will be checked at the time of submission.

LaTex Document Preparation & Overleaf

LaTex Document Preparation is an approved formatting option by the Graduate School, and Overleaf is designed to make the process of writing, editing and producing scientific papers faster for authors by providing an online LaTeX/Rich Text editor for their projects.

Petition to Write a Thesis, Report or in a Language Other than English

Those who wish to write a thesis, report, dissertation or treatise in a language other than English must petition to do so.

Contact Student Services at [email protected]

Students may request a format check via email.

Additional Formatting Resources

Template workshop.

Watch the video of our Template Workshop via Zoom.

Common Formatting Errors Workshop

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iThenticate by Turnitin

Ithenticate.

The University has acquired access to iThenticate by Turnitin that allows you to check your report, thesis, or dissertation to help identify potential textual similarities between your document and other previously published documents.

The Graduate School strongly encourages the use of this tool while preparing drafts of your report, thesis or dissertation, along with discussion of the results of these reviews with your supervisor.

Requests to Delay Publication

Initial request for delay of publication.

If you wish to request a temporary delay of publication of your thesis, report, dissertation, or treatise, you must make this request before graduation. The request should be made by using this form. If no request to delay publication is made, the document will be freely available online.

Note that it is not appropriate to use a delay of publication to avoid securing copyright permissions required for publication. Any required publication permissions must be obtained prior to submitting the ETD. The graduate dean makes the final decision regarding delayed publication.

Restrictions and/or holds on publishing requested from ProQuest do not apply to the dissertation archived at the TDL.

Extension Request for Delay of Publication

Authors who already have an approved delay of publication, but wish to extend the time of the delay, may request an extension (up to seven years from the date of graduation).

Request to End Delay of Publication Prior to Scheduled Date

Authors who have an approved delay of publication, but wish to publish their ETD prior to the date initially requested, may request to end the delay of publication.

Publish a Dissertation Electronically

Request to migrate format of thesis/dissertation at the university of texas libraries.

If your dissertation or thesis was previously published in a printed, bound copy or on CD-ROM, you may request to have it published electronically. Complete the form above to have it uploaded to the UT Digital Repository.

The Graduate College » Current Students » Dissertation/Thesis Information

Electronic Thesis / Dissertation Information

Preparing your electronic thesis/dissertation.

Your ETD submission has specific requirements. For more information about preparing and submitting your ETD, please see the  Required Page Order ,  Formatting Guidelines  and  ETD FAQ  pages.  ETD submission deadlines are posted on the  Graduation Deadlines  page. If you miss the ETD deadline for your desired graduation term, you will not be able to graduate that term, and you will have to submit another graduation application for the following term.

Important note: Make sure to provide your chair ample time to complete the review. We recommend you to upload your ETD quite in advance of the ETD submission deadline to allow your chair time for proper review. Your chair will need to review and submit the ETD to the Graduate College by the deadline date.

A guide to complete the Graduation Checklist and ETD submission can be found below. To view these documents, you will need  Adobe Acrobat Reader , a free download.

• View Graduate Certificate Checklist Guide  (PDF)
• View Non-Thesis Checklist Guide  (PDF)
• View Thesis Checklist Guide  (PDF)
• View Dissertation Checklist Guide  (PDF)
• View Library Dissertation Checklist Guide  (PDF)

ETD Digital Accessibility

The University of Cincinnati strongly recommends making electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) accessible. You can ensure your accessibility features are established when you convert your thesis or dissertation document from Word to PDF. Please see PDF Documents and Creating accessible PDFs for tutorials and guides.

The following notice is a practice that has been established and implemented on behalf of the students; no action is required.

As part of the University of Cincinnati’s efforts to make educational content accessible and available to everyone and to meet OhioLink’s ETD minimum requirements, the Graduate College has created a feature in the Graduation Checklist to make your ETD Document of Defense (DOD) page accessible for assistive technologies , such as screen readers. The DOD is a version of the Committee Approval Form, and it includes printed names of the thesis or dissertation committee; an example of the DOD can be found in the thesis and dissertation checklist guides located above.

The DOD page includes the following accessibility components to meet the ETD OhioLink recommended minimum digital accessibility requirements:

• Title: The title of your thesis/dissertation will be included on the document as text accessible.
• Full text of DOD: The whole DOD page will be accessible, which will include student name, degree, program, title of ETD, and committee.
• DOD page accessibility permission flag is checked: The Graduate College has addressed all accessibility issues in DOD page; no further action is required.
• Text Language of the DOD is specified: The system will specify the language of the title and document you select in your graduation checklist.

The practice above has been established and implemented on behalf of the students; no action is required.

Suggested ETD Timeline 

You may need up to 6 weeks to prepare your thesis or dissertation for electronic submission. A  suggested  schedule is available below.

Format Thesis

• Week 1 of term.
• Allow 1 week to complete.
• See  Required Page Order  and  Formatting Guidelines  for instructions.

Verify Committee

• Allow 48 hours to complete.
• If your committee is not found or if there is an error, contact your  Graduate Program Coordinator . Your commitee will take  24 hours to update  once corrected in the graduation system.  Do not wait until the last minute!  Other steps in the ETD process depend on this.

Announce Defense on Graduate College Website

• Week 8 of term.
• Recommended at least 2 weeks ahead of defense.
• All doctoral students must announce their defense publicly on the Graduate College website prior to the day of defense. 
• Announce your defense by logging into the  Graduation Checklist  and entering your defense information.

Acquire Committee Signatures

• Week 9 of term.
• You may need to make changes to your document based on your defense. After completing the changes, you must get the signatures of your committee members.  Signatures must be original.  Digital signatures on the form will be accepted. Faxed copies are not acceptable. You will scan the signed Committee Approval Form as a pdf and upload it as part of your ETD submission. Scanners are available in many UC  computer labs  and  libraries .

Research Publishing Options and Copyrights

• Week 10 of term.
• Allow 24 hours to complete.
• Discuss keywords and subject headings with your advisor. Choose up to five keywords and two subject headings.
• View permissions and copyright.

Prepare ETD Submission for Chair Approval

• Make sure "Submit to Chair" is checked in the navigation bar. You may need to remind your chair for electronic approval if he/she does not respond promptly.

Obtain Electronic Chair Approval

• Your chair is alerted via email that you have submitted your ETD for approval. Your chair will login to review your submission and may request changes.  Be sure to leave time for any necessary corrections  before the ETD deadline date.

Meeting the ETD Submission Deadline

• Week 12 of term.
• The Graduate College reviews each submission manually. This takes time. Do  not  call the Graduate College to check on the status of your ETD. You can check the status of your ETD by viewing the "Check Graduation Status" step on the  checklist . If the Graduate College finds any problems with your submission, you will receive an email alert. All issues  must  be resolved by the Graduate College deadline. Comments about any issues with your submission will appear on the comment summary page when you login to the "Submit ETD" step on the checklist.

Academics | Candidacy & Defense

Thesis submission.

The deadline to submit for the May degree conferral has passed. The deadline to submit for the August degree conferral is noon CDT on Friday, August 9, 2024. Be sure to upload your Signed Title Page and Original Approval of Candidacy form at the website here after submitting your thesis through thesis.rice.edu .

Students must submit the final thesis to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies no later than six months from the date of the defense. However, in order to qualify for a specific degree conferral date, the submission deadline for that semester must be met. See the academic calendar for deadlines. The General Announcements has complete information on thesis defense .

Am I ready to submit?

If your thesis is defended but not final (e.g., changes to your thesis are required), within one week, you must follow the steps as described in Part 1 below. Once you have defended and all changes are made, you must then submit your thesis within six months of your defense. Instructions for both scenarios are listed below. If you are ready to submit your thesis within a week of your defense, you may complete all of the steps in both parts at once. If you choose to do this, you'll need to include all of your supplementary documents as described in Part 2. Do not press "submit" until you have reviewed both sets of instructions. Please contact us if you have trouble accessing the thesis site.

How will the new online thesis verification and submission generally work?

• Once your thesis defense announcement has been registered with the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies via events.rice.edu/rgs , it will be posted online by the GPS office, provided it is approved.
• Thesis Title Page through AdobeSign. Both you and your graduate program administrator will be notified when this is ready. If your committee changes prior to your defense , please ask the department chair, program director, or director of graduate study to notify GPS as soon as possible. The new committee will need to be approved, and we will need to generate a completely new Approval of Candidacy form and Thesis Title Page form to be completed via AdobeSign.
• On the day of your defense, you should fill out the electronic Original Approval of Candidacy form. It will then go to your committee for signing after your successful defense. Once the committee has signed the Original Approval of Candidacy, the AdobeSign process will come back to you for the next steps.
• Once your thesis has been approved in its final form, you will return to the AdobeSign form and complete your Thesis Title page. Once completed, it will be sent to your committee again to sign and recognize that your final thesis is approved for submission. Your committee can sign in parallel. Your graduate administrator will receive notifications for every signature and you will receive a notification when the title page has been signed in full. Please contact your graduate administrator if you would like an update on the progress of your thesis title page.
• When all of the committee members have signed the Thesis Title Page, the GPS office will receive a final copy of the form to be validated when you finalize your thesis defense.

You’ll get notifications in each phase. Once all committee members have signed both forms, you’ll receive a final PDF via email. To prep for upload to thesis.rice.edu , you will need to separate this PDF into two documents. Because the PDF is protected, you’ll follow some specific instructions here (Microsoft) or here - after opening the .pdf using a browser such as Google Chrome (Mac) to do this. To separate the pages of a protected PDF, go to print, then select "Microsoft Word to .pdf" as the printer name. Once you’ve separated the pages into the two documents, upload to thesis.rice.edu as outlined in the processes here .

Once your thesis is final and everything has been verified in thesis.rice.edu , you must fill out the webform here . This replaces what is normally a visit to GPS and Office of the Registrar for final submission.

For tips on how to approach an online thesis defense, click here .

How do I submit?

If your thesis is defended but not complete (e.g., you need to make changes), follow the instructions in Part 1 within one week of your defense.

If your thesis is defended and all changes have been made, submit your thesis using Part 2 below within six months of your defense.

If your thesis is defended and no changes were necessary, complete all of the steps in Part 1 and 2.

Questions? Email [email protected] .

Part 1: Within a week of your defense

• Navigate to thesis.rice.edu
• Click "Start your submission"
• Login with your NetID and password
• Follow the instructions on the site, using the guides for assistance

Verify that all the information is accurate before moving forward.

Assent to the terms of the agreement by checking the appropriate boxes.

• Enter your thesis title, graduation date, abstract, and keywords. The information entered here should match the information in your document.
• Supply the names of your committee members.

If you’ve used the online thesis submission process, once all your committee members have signed virtually, you will receive the PDF of the Original Approval of Candidacy form. Print this form, digitally separate the two pages and upload them to thesis.rice.edu:

• The Original Approval of Candidacy is uploaded as an administrative file, and
• The defended version of the manuscript is uploaded as the "Manuscript in PDF".
• The title page should not be signed or submitted until the advisor confirms that the thesis is in its final form and ready to submit.

For guidelines on supplemental files, please click here .

• Confirm that your information is correct and click the "Confirm and Submit Button".
• This initial submission (Part 1) is not final. Your submission will be sent to GPS for an initial review. You will still be able to edit your submission, thesis, and uploaded documents following the GPS review, typically within two business days.
• If you need to make changes to your submission at this point, do not start a new submission. Contact [email protected] to have your thesis status changed so you can make edits.
• Once GPS acknowledges your defense, your status will be changed to "Defended, Not Final." Please review the thesis format guidelines if you have not already done so prior to submitting the final copy of your thesis.
• Within six months of your defense, you must upload and submit the final copy of your thesis and all supplemental documents. This is Part 2. Once you submit a final copy of your thesis and your signatures have been received, and you’ve completed the required electronic Thesis Submission webform (see Part 2), you will not be permitted to alter your thesis.
• Please make all corrections prior to submitting your thesis. The online webform referenced above replaces the visit to GPS and the Office of the Registrar.

Part 2: Changes made, ready to submit

Please note all thesis and administrative files must be PDFs.

• Create a single PDF of your thesis, including the signed electronic Thesis Title Page form. Please review the thesis format guidelines if you have not already done so.
• Separate your electronic Original Approval of Candidacy.
• Doctoral only: complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates and create PDF of the certificate you'll receive upon completion.
• Open http://thesis.rice.edu in your web browser.
• Select "Start your submission."
• Login with your Rice NetID and password.
• If you have already started a submission previously, select the action "Edit" or "Continue" to continue a previous submission. Otherwise, select "Start a new submission."

If any of the information is incorrect or needs to be updated, email [email protected] .

• Upload defended and corrected copy of your thesis as your primary document. This action will archive the defended version.
• You must include your signed electronic Thesis Title Page form as the first page of your final version of your thesis.

Upload the following required documents as ADMINISTRATIVE FILES:

• Your signed Original Approval of Candidacy
• Survey of Earned Doctorates Certificate (Doctoral only)
• Supplemental files are optional and may include non-PDF materials, such as videos, that complement your thesis.

Add a note here if there have been any changes in your thesis submission data.

• Complete the webform here . This replaces what is normally a visit to GPS and the Office of the Registrar for final submission.
• GPS will review the thesis submission and sign the form accordingly.
• You'll receive the form back as a receipt once complete.
• GPS will also sign the Original Approval of Candidacy form, and you and your graduate program administrator will receive a copy.
• The thesis will be published with the electronic title page if there are no embargoes.

Updated November 2023

• Joyner Library
• Laupus Health Sciences Library
• Music Library
• Digital Collections
• Special Collections
• North Carolina Collection
• Teaching Resources
• The ScholarShip Institutional Repository
• Country Doctor Museum

ECU's Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Submission Service: Vireo: FAQs

• Pre-Research Approvals
• Agreements, Embargo, Copyright
• Preparation of Thesis/Dissertation
• Required Elements
• Manual of Basic Formatting
• Submission of Thesis/Dissertation
• Documents and Links

Frequently Asked Questions about ETDs

Is it required to submit an electronic thesis/dissertation?

Yes. All theses and dissertations must be submitted electronically through the Vireo submission process.

Why submit electronically rather than paper these and dissertation?

Electronic theses and dissertations are valuable for several reasons. To list a few: electronic theses and dissertations become accessible much quicker and are available to a larger audience. ECU research is accessible to the world via the Internet. The skills required to develop an electronic document are the skills needed for participation in research and publication in this era of digital publishing. In addition, ETD’s offer students the opportunity to present information in new ways by including audio, video, 3-D models, animations, simulations, and more in their papers. Students benefit from a savings on the cost of paper copies and the library benefits from space savings.

Is there anything that will be submitted on paper?

No. All documents are submitted electronically, including the signed signature page (by all except the Dean of the Graduate School).

What is the format required by the University?

Students should consult their committee chair to determine their department’s preferred manual of style. In addition, students should refer to the Graduate School’s formatting guidelines found in the  Manual of Basic Formatting Requirements for Electronic Theses and Dissertations .

When do I submit a thesis or dissertation?

Only after the student has successfully defended their thesis/dissertation and all final edits are approved by the committee. Documents will only be reviewed after a signature page bearing committee signatures is on file in Vireo. After submissions, please patiently allow sufficient time for the thesis/dissertation editor to review the document for formatting. The student will be notified if revisions are needed and/or if their document has been approved.

Which graduation date do I choose in Vireo and use on my Abstract and Title Page?

The student should use the graduation month appropriate to their semester on the abstract, title page, and when choosing the term of graduation in Vireo. Spring graduation is always May (e.g., May, 2023).  Summer graduation is always July (e.g., July, 2023).  Fall graduation is always December (e.g., December, 2023).  The graduation dates are set by the university and are not the month the student defends or uploads the document. Graduation months can only be December, May, or July. 

What is the due date for submissions of theses/dissertations?

The last day to submit a thesis or dissertation should be 10 business days prior to the last day of final exams of the semester after which graduation is desired. The dates for the last submission day for upcoming semesters can be found on the  Home Page for ETDs   . Please note that submissions close to or on the deadline may result in a delayed response from the Graduate School with the revisions needed and a shorter period of time to submit revisions to meet degree requirements for that term.

Where can a bound copy of a thesis/dissertation be obtained?

Students are not required to order a bound copy of their thesis/dissertation. However, if students wish to order bound copies of their work for personal reasons, or otherwise, they may do so without any restrictions. Some recommended companies are listed below: Proquest ( Author Copy Order Form ) Thesis on Demand   Print on Demand  

Whom is the contact for information about "in process" ETD's?

After submission of an ETD, the Graduate School asks that students practice patience and understanding when waiting to hear back concerning approval/revisions for their work. As the deadline for submissions approaches, there is a higher volume of submissions for the reviewer to go through. That being said, any questions or concerns regarding an “in process” ETD after it has been submitted can be directed to the Graduate School staff located on the  Home Page for ETDs

What formats are accepted?

PDF is the only accepted format for the text-based portions of the thesis/dissertation. This includes the body of the work, and any separately uploaded administrative forms. Scanned, signed documents must be converted to pdf format. Additional digital files may be attached including audio, video, pictures, etc for the supplementary files.

Is there a file size limit?

Yes. No individual file may exceed 512 MB, and the total of all files submitted must not exceed 4 GB. Contact the Graduate School for concerns with file size.

Is it possible to restrict the release of a thesis/dissertation to the public (due to patent publication concerns)?

Yes. The submission process provides embargo options up to two years initially and access options to limit the audience upon publication. Students should discuss all options with their committee chair. See the page  Publishing Agreements, Embargoes, and Copyright for Theses and Dissertations  linked on the right for more information.

Is a copyright page required?

Yes. A copyright page is required by ECU. This page should immediately follow the title page of the thesis/dissertation. The copyright notice should take one of the following forms (unless decided on differently with the committee chair): Copyright 2015, Jane E. Student  - Or - © 2015, Jane E. Student See the page Publishing Agreements, Embargoes, and Copyright for Theses and Dissertations linked on the right for more information on this and other copyright concerns. Also see ECU's copyright website   and the U.S. Copyright Office . 

How should a journal article be included as a chapter in a thesis/dissertation?

If the student has already published a journal article, the option to include it in the work should be discussed with their committee and the publisher. If the article is included, the student will need to cite the publication in their references. If the student wishes to use another’s journal article, or section of publication, the publisher must give the student a signed release saying the extent to which the article can be included in the work. This release must be included in the appendix of the work. If the publisher restricts access to the article, the student will need to exclude the article from the thesis/dissertation submitted to the Graduate School If the article has already been published, there are three options which should be discussed with the committee and possibly the publisher. First, the student can cite the publication in their references. Secondly, the student may be able to link to an online publication (with the permission of the publisher). Lastly, the publisher can supply a signed release allowing the student to include the publication in the thesis/dissertation.

Will printed copies of a thesis/dissertation be given to the student or to the student's department?

No. Printed copies of a thesis/dissertation will not be provided to anyone since all theses/dissertations will be available in a printable pdf format on the library website. Some departments may continue to require students to provide a bound copy to them. Students should check with their department or committee chair to see if that is required.

Where are electronic theses/dissertations stored after submission?

After approval, all theses/dissertations are stored subject to the publishing agreements (embargo and access options) in the ECU Institutional Repository The ScholarShip (within ECU Libraries) and in the Proquest database PQDT. See the page  Publishing Agreements, Embargoes, and Copyright for Theses and Dissertations  for more information.

Whom can be contacted for questions about creating an electronic document using MS Word, PDF conversion, creating supplementary files, or other document processing questions?

There are several resources located within these web pages that were created to help the student successfully create and format an ETD. It is encouraged that students thoroughly read these pages for all content. Also, be sure to see the  Workshops  page (on left) for upcoming ETD workshops and the  Documents and Links  page for examples of proper formatting. If help is still required, please call the Graduate School office 252-328-6012.

Accessing Older Theses and Dissertations

You can browse previously submitted ECU theses and dissertations through the  ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database  or the  ScholarShip, ECU's institutional repository .  You can refine your search to theses or dissertations from your department. Please Note: some theses and dissertations are restricted or embargoed and you may not be able to access the full text. Please contact the  Scholarly Communication Department  or the  Reference Desk  with questions.

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• Last Updated: Apr 11, 2024 10:41 AM
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