submission master thesis

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How to Submit a Master's Thesis

•  /  Complete Your Degree
•  /  Thesis and Dissertation Information
•  /  How to Submit a Master's Thesis
• Become familiar with the format requirements by reading the  Thesis and Dissertation Handbook .
• Apply to graduate on LionPATH during the semester in which you plan to graduate. Deadlines for submitting your thesis can be viewed on the Thesis, Dissertation, Performance, and Oral Presentation Calendar.
• Upload a draft of your thesis for format review (PDF only) to the eTD website by the specified deadline. Corrections and detailed instructions will be returned to you by email.
• Make any changes required by adviser and/or readers.
• Review the thesis one final time to be sure that no further changes are needed. It will not be possible to make corrections after final approval by the Office of Theses and Dissertations. Convert the file into a PDF for eTD submission. If you cannot do this, contact the Office of Theses and Dissertations for assistance.
• Go to the eTD website and upload the final eTD; and pay $10 thesis fee. The fee can be paid at the Payment Section of the Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Information webpage.
• Await notification of eTD approval by email. If changes are required, you will be notified. Your eTD will be accessible on the eTD website immediately after graduation, unless you have chosen restricted access.

If bound copies are needed, contact any Multimedia & Print Center on campus or you may use an off-campus source. All copies are the author’s responsibility. The Graduate School does not provide copies.

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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Academics | Candidacy & Defense

Thesis submission.

The deadline to submit for December degree conferral has passed. The deadline to submit for the May degree conferral is noon CDT on Friday, April 19, 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

/images/cornell/logo35pt_cornell_white.svg" alt="submission master thesis"> Cornell University --> Graduate School

Submitting your thesis/dissertation.

Submission of the final thesis/dissertation must be within 60 days of the final exam. Students who miss the 60 day submission deadline are ineligible to register in future terms.

The Graduate School uses ProQuest to administer the electronic thesis/dissertation (ETD) submission and committee approval process that results in publication in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database and Cornell’s Library Repository, eCommons. Before initiating the electronic process, students are required to complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (for doctoral students only). A SED Certification of Completion is provided to the student when the survey has been completed. Once the survey is completed, the final ETD can then be submitted to the Graduate School using the ProQuest system. The SED Certification of Completion is required for submission to ProQuest.

ProQuest Submission Steps

In order to complete the submission process, you will need to have the following:

• A single PDF file of your thesis or dissertation
• Your abstract
• Supplemental material
• SED Certification of Completion 

Step 1: Begin Submission Process

Master’s students go to  Cornell Master’s ProQuest site, doctoral students go to  Cornell Doctoral ProQuest site. Click on the “sign up and get started today” button and follow instructions to begin the submission process.

Submission Process: Submission steps are outlined on the left menu. You will see the items checked off as you progress through the submission steps. You must click “Save & Continue” at the bottom of each page, even pages on which you do not enter any information. Using the left menu, you can return to any page and make changes until the point of final submission.

Step 2: Publishing Options

Traditional Publishing:  “Traditional Publishing” is automatically selected and is included in the Cornell Thesis and Dissertation filing fees.

Delayed Release:  ProQuest provides six months, and one and two year embargoes. The Graduate School recommends you discuss the publishing options with your advisor. If your advisor is unavailable or has no opinion, the conservative approach is to choose a two-year embargo.

Step 3: Read and Agree to ProQuest and University Distribution License

Both ProQuest and Cornell University distribution licenses will be presented for your acceptance.

Step 4: Enter Thesis/Dissertation Information

In addition to the mandatory information, such as title and abstract, you will have the opportunity to select up to three categories (subject areas) and six key words that describe your ETD. This information will make it easier for others to find your work when searching the web.

Step 5: Upload PDF and Supplemental Files

Upload PDF: Whether you use the PDF conversion tool provided by ProQuest or you convert your document to PDF yourself, review your PDF to ensure your formatting remains as you intended after conversion.

Supplementary Materials: If supplementary materials – such as audio, video, and spreadsheets – are an integral part of your ETD, you can submit them as supplementary files during the online submission process.

Step 6: Upload Required Documents

The SED Certification of Completion if you are a Ph.D. candidate is required for submission to ProQuest.

Step 7: Register for Copyright

You can complete this process through ProQuest for a fee, or you complete the process independently through the U.S. Copyright Office.

Step 8: Order Copies

If you would like to purchase additional copies of your thesis/dissertation for yourself, your field, or your committee members, you may order bound copies through ProQuest (Order Copies page). The required bound archival copy for the library is automatically ordered for you and included in the Cornell thesis and dissertation filing fees.

Select the “Decline – do not order” option if you don’t wish to order additional copies.

Bound copies can also be ordered through Cornell Print Services .

Step 9: Review and Submit

Once the thesis editor has reviewed the formatting of your thesis/dissertation, you will receive an email to let you know whether any corrections are required. You will then have five days to make the changes and upload the revised PDF. You will not be certified for graduation until the formatting of your ETD has been fully approved by the Graduate School. You will receive a confirmation email of final acceptance.

Step 10: Submitting Revised PDF (if needed)

You will receive an email describing the formatting changes needed with instructions and a link for resubmission.

The Graduate School

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Formal Submissions

Formal submissions must be completed by 5:00 p.m. on the date of the submission deadline (see the Academic Year Deadlines for dates). See the electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) checklists below ( Doctoral Dissertations or Master's Theses ) for the list of required submission components.

The Graduate School editor will review all submission components in the order in which they are received, and will contact the student at their Notre Dame email address if the editor has questions or identifies problems with any submitted materials. Depending on the number of submissions received and proximity to the deadline, final reviews may take up to three weeks. If outstanding issues are not resolved as communicated by the editor, the Graduate School reserves the right to request a dean's hold on the student's diploma or reject a submission and remove the student from the graduation list. 

If there are no issues with the components of the formal submission, the student will receive an email stating that the dissertation or thesis has been approved by the Graduate School.

If you have questions about any component of the formal submission checklist, please contact the dissertation editor:

Laura Patzschke The Graduate School 117 Bond Hall Notre Dame, Indiana 46556 E-mail:  [email protected]

Quick Links:

Preparing to Submit

Note: There is no “save” function on the formal submission form. Please allow at least 15-20 minutes once you begin; you will need to complete all items on the checklist to retain your work. We recommend you prepare the following items in advance.

Title and Abstract

Due to system limitations, the submission form is not currently able to accept italics, superscript/subscript, and some special characters (though most standard Western accented characters should be fine). Please have a plain-text, reader-friendly copy of your title and abstract prepared for this form. 

Research Directors and Committee Information

A list of the names and NetIDs of all Notre Dame faculty serving on your committee.

A list of the names, email addresses, and associated institutions for all research co-directors or committee members external to the University.

File Attachments

The primary file attached to your ETD record must be a PDF. Other file types may be submitted as supporting or supplementary files.

Future Patent/Publication Plans and File Access

The title, abstract, and other descriptive metadata will be public by default. Please review the questions below prior to beginning your submission and discuss with your research director(s) as needed.

STEM disciplines: Does this work contain patentable material (i.e. a novel, unique, and useful process, compound, or manufacture)? If yes, please select the option that best describes the patent status of this work.

Patentable material has already been publicly disclosed in another form (journal article, pre-print, presentation, poster, etc.)

Patentable material has already been disclosed to the IDEA Center via an Invention Disclosure Form

Unsure—I would like to talk with the IDEA Center about my options.

All disciplines: What are your publication plans for this work?

I plan to publish all or some of this work in the future.

I have already published portions of this work.

I do not plan to publish this work.

All disciplines: What copyright or Creative Commons license should be applied to your work?

All Rights Reserved - https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/106

CC BY 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

CC BY-NC 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

CC BY-ND 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

CC BY-SA 4.0 - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

CC0 1.0 Universal - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Copyright Controlled by External Host - https://doi.org/10.7274/HOSTED_EXTERNALLY

Public Domain Mark 1.0 (No Copyright) - https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

All disciplines: Who should be able to access your attached files? (Please discuss with your research director(s) what access is appropriate for your file attachments.)

Open access: Publicly available for download

Restricted: Viewable only by those with an active Notre Dame NetID

Private: Only Graduate School and Library administrators can access the files

Embargoed: Private until a date you select, then released publicly

What to Expect

When you have submitted your metadata and attachments through this portal, please watch your Notre Dame email for any follow-up questions or confirmations sent by [email protected] . It is your responsibility to respond to questions and requests in a timely manner. If you do not address reviewer concerns by the date requested, the Graduate School has the right to place a hold on your diploma, or reject the submission and remove you from the graduation list until all degree requirements are fulfilled.

Review Cycle

• Any faculty you have designated as a research director or co-director will receive an email from  [email protected] prompting them to review and approve your submission. If a research director wants you to correct/update something on the record or in the attached PDF, they will be able to send a correction request through the submission platform. You will receive a confirmation when all research directors have approved the submission. (Other committee members should be included on the form, bit do not have an active role in the formal submission process.)
• Once all directors/co-directors have approved your submission, the record will move to the Graduate School’s dissertation editor for review. Again, if the editor has a quesiton or change request, they will send you a message through the submission platform. You will receive a confirmation when the editor has finished their review.
• After the Graduate School approves your submission, the record will be added to the Hesburgh Library catalog and WorldCAT.
• On completion of all review steps, you will receive a final confirmation, and your ETD record will move to the CurateND repository.

Formal Submission Components

These checklists apply to formal submissions only. Do not submit  formatting checks  to the CurateND intake site. If the formatting of your formal submission does not match the requirements set by UMI/ProQuest and the Graduate School, your dissertation or thesis may be rejected. It is the student's responsibility to ensure compliance with formatting guidelines.

All checklist items for the listed submission type are required unless specified as “optional.”

Doctoral Dissertation Checklist

Note: This checklist assumes you have already defended the dissertation and received the results of a preliminary formatting check.

• Formal Submission Portal: Log in with  your Notre Dame NetID and password. The portal will guide you through the submission steps. If you have any questions about the portal not answered by the Preparing to Submit and What to Expect sections of this page, please contact the dissertation editor at [email protected] for assistance.  
• Notre Dame Faculty: All ND faculty must be added by NetID; if you enter the address correctly, the portal will add the user's name. If you don't know your dissertation director's NetID,  consult the directory . Do not add an email address or institution for these faculty. 
• External Faculty: All committee members and co-directors who do not have an active NetID should be added to the record by name, email, and their affiliated institution.
• Both the agreement form and the payment are now collected through the ProQuest website. You will not need to upload your dissertation file; we will transfer the approved files when we close out each graduation cycle.
• Refer to the National Archives website to find out why we still require microfilming for doctoral dissertations.
• The  Survey of Earned Doctorates  ( SED ): This survey, conducted on behalf of the  NSF ,  NEH , and four other federal research agencies, will send a confirmation email to you and to the Graduate School when you press the Submit button at the very end. For more information about the SED  and how the data is used, please see the  NSF’s  SED  description .
• Graduate Outcomes Survey :  All doctoral level graduates will receive an email invitation to take this survey approximately 1 month prior to their graduation date.  Please be on the lookout for an email being sent on behalf of Graduate Career Services from the Institutional Research, Innovation, & Strategy . If you have any questions regarding this survey, please contact Graduate Career Services at [email protected] . This survey does not need to be completed by the formal submission deadline date.

Master's Thesis Checklist

Note: This checklist assumes you have received the results of a preliminary formatting check.

• Formal Submission Portal: Log in with your Notre Dame NetID and password. The portal will guide you through the submission steps. If you have any questions about the portal not answered by the Preparing to Submit and What to Expect sections of this page, please contact the dissertation editor at [email protected] for assistance.
• Notre Dame Faculty: All ND faculty must be added by NetID; if you enter the address correctly, the portal will add the user's name. If you don't know your dissertation director's NetID, consult the directory . Do not add an email address or institution for these faculty.
• Both the agreement form and the payment are now collected through the ProQuest website. You will not need to upload your thesis file; we will transfer the approved files when we close out each graduation cycle.
• Graduate Outcomes Survey :  All master's level graduates will receive an email invitation to take this survey  approximately 1 month prior to their graduation date.  Please be on the lookout for an email being sent on behalf of Graduate Career Services from the Institutional Research, Innovation, & Strategy . If you have any questions regarding this survey, please contact Graduate Career Services at [email protected] . This survey does not need to be completed by the formal submission deadline date.

The formal review, approval, cataloging, and microfilming processes take time, so it may be several weeks before the dissertation or thesis becomes available in the University library system or on the  UMI/ProQuest  website.

After the Submission

Etd access changes and patron requests.

All author requests concerning extending or lifting embargoes, or updates to dissertation and thesis records on CurateND or ProQuest should be directed to [email protected] .

If a library patron submits a request to access a restricted, embargoed, or private ETD, the dissertation editor will reach out to the author to request permission to release the file to that patron specifically. If you would like to review all such requests on a case-by-case basis, directr patrons to an updated book edition of your work, or deny all requests for access, please let the dissertation editor know and we will update our records.

Letter of Completion

Students who submit early in the semester and plan to begin a new job shortly after submission can  request a Letter of Completion for their employer. Refer to the Active Student Registration & Student Records page for details. 

Personal Copies

Although the Graduate School only accepts ETDs, we have compiled a resource PDF of independent binderies who are happy to work with students directly:  Dissertation and Thesis Personal Copies: Bindery Contact Information .

ProQuest Amendments

Once a work is published to the ProQuest catalog, a $47 Vault Repair Fee is required to update the ProQuest record or PDF. Please contact  [email protected]  to initiate this process if an amendment is needed. The Acknowledgments page is the most commonly corrected page; be sure to double check it for accuracy and inclusion of all required acknowledgments, especially if your work was sponsored by an external grant or governmental office.

Publication Information

If you have published a book based on your thesis or dissertation, we encourage you to contact the dissertation editor at [email protected] with any book publication information. This information will be included on their CurateND record and will direct patrons to their published 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

• Resources & Policies for Students

Submission of Thesis

All master’s students who are required or have chosen to write a thesis must follow the steps outlined below. As of April 2020, many departments are using DocuSign for the forms linked below. You may want to check with your department.

Thesis Proposal Filing

• File a Thesis Proposal using the Thesis, Doctoral Project or Dissertation Proposal Form ( MS Word ).
• If required, ensure that you have an IRB approval number. Consult the IRB website for additional information and forms. This form must be signed and approved by your advisor, committee and Director of Graduate Studies.
• After the form is fully completed with all signatures, submit it to the Academic Affairs team in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office.
• Once your proposal has been approved by your advisor, committee and Director of Graduate Studies, you may proceed with writing your thesis.
• Some programs require master’s students to defend their theses, while others do not. Follow your program’s policies and procedures for defending and/or submitting your thesis.

Formatting Requirements

• You should also consult the Guidelines for Dissertation, Doctoral Project and Thesis Writers formatting requirements before beginning your thesis.

Pre-Defense Forms

• If your program includes a defense, check with your administrative contact on whether you should submit a Master’s Thesis Reviewers Report ( PDF ) signed by your committee and advisor to [email protected] .

Post-Defense Forms

• After you have defended and/or submitted your thesis and it has been accepted by your committee, submit the Cover Sheet ( MS Word ) ( PDF ) with all the appropriate signatures to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Academic Affairs team in the Car Barn or [email protected] .
• Send a completed Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Release Form ( MS Word ) ( PDF ) to [email protected] .
• April 19, 2024 for spring graduation
• August 19, 2024 for summer graduation
• December 11, 2023 for fall graduation

ProQuest Profile

• Setting up the ProQuest profile and submission requires a number of decisions. The Library has information about uploading Dissertations, Doctoral Projects, and Theses into ProQuest.
• You will receive an email from [email protected] detailing the required formatting edits: there will likely be more than one round of edits. Complete the edits and upload the new version of the PDF to ProQuest. The best approach to streamlining the review process is to read the formatting requirements and modify your document accordingly before uploading it.
• These edits must be completed and the thesis accepted by the Graduate School by the following dates for each graduation month. If it is not accepted, your thesis will not be approved and you will not be eligible to graduate in that month.

Deadline dates for each graduation term:

• May 2024:  The initial deadline to upload your thesis is April 19, 2024 . The PDF of your thesis must be accepted by the Graduate School by close of business on May 1, 2024.
• August 2024: The deadline to upload your thesis to the ProQuest site is August 19, 2024 . PDFs uploaded after this date cannot be guaranteed to be reviewed and accepted in time for August graduation. All above steps must be completed and your thesis accepted by the Graduate School by close of business on August 23, 2024 .
• December 2023: The deadline to upload your thesis to the ProQuest site is December 11, 2023. PDFs uploaded after this date cannot be guaranteed to be reviewed and accepted in time for December graduation. All above steps must be completed and your thesis accepted by the Graduate School by close of business on December 15, 2023.

Guidelines for Thesis Preparation and Submission

A thesis should be prepared in accordance with the standards of the discipline for which the thesis is being written. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , The Chicago Manual of Style , and the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (among others) all provide discipline-specific guidelines for preparing a master’s thesis (or similar culminating experience). These guidelines should not be construed to replace or contradict those style guides.

Students should work with their graduate deputy to identify an appropriate faculty mentor who will assist them in the research, writing, and submission of their master’s thesis. Students must meet with their graduate deputy prior to registering for the appropriate thesis writing course. Once registered for the thesis writing course, a student will be assigned a grade of SP until their thesis has been approved by their faculty mentor, their graduate deputy, and the school dean. Upon approval of the thesis, the SP grade will be changed to a P grade (a letter grade is generally not assigned for the thesis writing course).

Students whose research involves human subjects may require Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Projects involving vertebrate animal subjects must secure the approval of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC). Prior to beginning any thesis related research that includes these subjects, contact the Office of Research Compliance (1306 James Hall, 718.951.5000, ext. 3829) for guidance.

Note: Some graduate programs offer a choice between writing a thesis or taking a comprehensive exam. Once a student has elected the thesis option, he or she may not elect to take the comprehensive exam if he or she is unable to complete a thesis.

Thesis Title Submission

The first step in the thesis writing process is for the student to submit his or her approved thesis title through the Thesis Submission Online application in BC WebCentral (E-Services > Graduate Student Transactions > Thesis Submission Online). Once students submit their thesis title, it will be reviewed and approved by the program’s graduate deputy.

Final Submission and Approval

Once the student has completed the thesis, it should be submitted to his or her faculty mentor along with the Thesis Approval Form (pdf) for initial approval. Once approved by the faculty mentor, the student must upload the thesis through the Thesis Submission Online application in BC WebCentral. The graduate deputy and the appropriate school dean will then review the thesis. Following approval by the school dean, the Registrar’s Office will update the student’s record and the thesis will be archived in the library.

Deadlines for Submission

Thesis titles approved by the faculty mentor shall be uploaded through the Thesis Submission Online application in BC WebCentral by the following deadlines:

• Fall Semester (and Winter Intersession)—last Friday in September
• Spring Semester—last Friday in February
• Summer Semester—first Friday in July

Theses approved by the faculty mentor shall be uploaded through the Thesis Submission Online application in BC WebCentral by the following deadlines:

• Fall Semester (December 31 graduate)—first Friday in December
• Winter Intersession (February 1 graduate)—first Friday in January
• Spring Semester (June 1 graduate)—first Friday in May
• Summer Semester (September 1 graduate)—first Thursday in August

College-Wide Requirements

• Theses must include a title page that conforms to the style guide of the academic discipline for which the thesis is being submitted.
• Theses must be uploaded to the Thesis Submission Online application in BC WebCentral for final review and approval.

Institutional Resources

• The primary resource for the preparation and completion of your master’s thesis is your faculty advisor and your graduate deputy.
• The Learning Center has a graduate writing tutor on staff who will be able to assist you with writing your thesis (1300 Boylan Hall, 718.951.5821).
• The Office of the Associate Provost for Faculty and Administration (3208 Boylan Hall, 718.951.5771) can help you navigate other institutional resources  that may be helpful in the preparation of your thesis.

Instructions for using Thesis Submission Online

• Student submits approved thesis title through the Thesis Submission Online application in BC WebCentral (E-Services > Graduate Student Transactions > Thesis Submission Online).
• Graduate deputy receives notice that student has submitted thesis title online.
• Graduate deputy confirms that thesis adviser has approved the title. Note: Due to the large number of thesis advisers, only graduate deputies have access to the online review and approval system.
• Graduate deputy approves thesis title.
• Student uploads a PDF copy of his or her thesis through the Thesis Submission Online application following approval by his or her thesis adviser (E-Services > Graduate Student Transactions > Thesis Submission Online),
• Graduate deputy confirms that thesis adviser has approved the thesis.
• Graduate deputy reviews and approves the thesis.

Once the graduate deputy approves the thesis, the school dean is notified that there is a thesis to review and approve. Once approved by the school dean, the Registrar’s Office is notified and updates the student’s transcript. Once the student’s transcript has been updated, the library receives a digital copy of the student’s thesis.

Brooklyn. All in.

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

Learn more about dissertation and thesis submission

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

Learn how to use the Dissertation and Thesis Center

Who is eligible?

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

What to expect

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

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

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

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

Questions about the dissertation and thesis submission service? 

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

• Dean of the Graduate School
• PhD Program Characteristics
• Graduate Events
• Graduate Degrees awarded at USC
• Fellowships
• Guidelines and Forms
• Student Resources

Required Documents

Submission deadlines, guidelines to submission, manuscript formatting guidelines.

• Fellowships for PhD Students
• Scholarships for Masters Students
• Academic Support, Professional Development and Diversity Inclusion Programs

Thesis & Dissertation Submission

Thesis / dissertation submission.

Information about the thesis and dissertation submission process can be found by navigating the topics below. The Academic Services Coordinator can be contacted via email at: [email protected]

Thesis/Dissertation Submission

The PhD dissertation represents independent scholarly work that makes an original contribution to knowledge. It is a demonstration that the PhD candidate has achieved  sufficient mastery in the field to pursue independent research and scholarship. A dissertation for a professional doctorate or a master’s thesis represents advanced scholarly work in keeping with the standards of the field.

Continuous Enrollment

When a program requires a dissertation or thesis, registration in dissertation or thesis coursework is required for at least two semesters. Enrollment in 594 Master’s Thesis or 794 Doctoral Dissertation ensures continuous enrollment until the thesis or dissertation has been submitted to the Graduate School. Degrees will be awarded in the semester in which all requirements have been met, including approval of the final version of the thesis or dissertation and submission of supporting documents with authorized signatures. Documents are processed and manuscripts are read in the order received.

Master's Thesis Submission

Completing and submitting your master’s thesis is an important part of completing your master’s degree. Your thesis must be formatted as prescribed by the Graduate School in the  Guidelines for Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations  (pdf) and electronically submitted through ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, the university's permanent digital archive for scholarly materials.

• ScholarWorks : Master’s students at UMass Amherst use ScholarWorks— the UMass Libraries’ permanent digital repository for faculty and student research—to submit theses in accordance with master’s degree requirements. ScholarWorks is indexed by major search engines and is used globally by those who wish to reference scholarship produced by members of the UMass community.
• You will select a Document Type in ScholarWorks. “Open Access” means that anyone who has Internet access can view, cite, and download your work. “Campus Only Access” restricts the audience to those who have a UMass Amherst NetID and password or who use the Interlibrary Loan service.
• The Campus Access option will expire after a period of either one year or five years, depending on the term you select. The manuscript will become available automatically via Open Access in ScholarWorks after the Campus Access period has expired.
• Doctoral candidates and master’s students typically use an Embargo Period only if patent applications or publication contracts are pending.
• There are three choices for embargo term lengths: six months, one year or five years.
• If you need an Embargo Period that is longer than one year, you must request a memo from your Graduate Program Director stating that person’s approval for the extension. The memo must be submitted to the Graduate Student Service Center prior to your degree date.
• Campus Only Access and Embargo Periods are both time-limited. The start date for either or both types of protection is the same as your degree date. If you invoke both, the embargo will supersede the Campus Access control.
• Document Accessibility:  Consider the global nature of your readership. People who cannot distinguish colors accurately on screen or who have more severe visual impairments need to be able to understand all of your content. Do not let simple formatting choices create barriers for some members of your audience. Producing accessible works for online publication adds to your professionalism and begins with a few simple techniques to apply as you compose your document. Review  six quick tips for making your document accessible .
• A non-UMass email address that you will continue to use indefinitely after you graduate from UMass Amherst.
• Your manuscript in PDF format. Be sure to proofread your work before converting to PDF and recheck formatting after converting to ensure that all images and tables are properly positioned. For help with PDF conversions, visit the Learning Commons in the DuBois Library.
• Any supporting files that you wish to provide as supplemental content, e.g. pictures, audio, video, animations, simulations, etc. Tip: name the files according to how you have referenced them in your manuscript and store them in the same location with your manuscript.
• Your selection of up to six keywords or phrases to ensure that your work appears in relevant searches.

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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 for Preparation and Submission of a Master’s Thesis

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The following guidelines are intended to assist students in the preparation of theses, to establish a University-wide consistency of form, and to ensure high standards of quality. Students are responsible for submitting theses that adhere to general University requirements. Students should prepare their manuscripts, including all documentation, in accordance with an accepted manual of style approved by the appropriate school or department.

Paper Quality

The original copy of the thesis must be on white 8-1/2 x 11 bond paper of at least 20 pound weight containing 25% or more rag content (e.g. Southworth Cotton Business Paper). Submissions printed on standard copy paper will not be accepted.

All copies of the thesis must be produced with text that is dark enough and clear enough to be easily readable. The thesis must be double-spaced throughout, with the exception of quotations, footnotes, illustrations, bibliographies, and appendices which may be single spaced. Additionally, poems for a Stonecoast MFA thesis may remain single-spaced.

Corrections

The final copy must be clean and neat without visible corrections.

The margins of the thesis must be at least 1.5 inches from the left edge of the paper and at least one inch from the other three edges, leaving a maximum copy area of 5.75 x 9.

Required/Optional Items and Arrangement of the Thesis

The final copy of the thesis must include certain items; other items are optional. Items should be arranged in the order listed below:

• Title Page (required) ( sample )
• Acknowledgments (optional)
• Preface (optional)
• Abstract (required) (for MFA thesis, 200 word limit)
• Table of Contents (required)
• List of Tables (required)
• List of Figures (required)
• Text of Thesis (required)
• References (required)
• Appendix B – Final Approval (required)   ( sample )

A thesis contains two sets of numbers. The preliminary pages (items 1-8 of the thesis) should be numbered consecutively in small Roman numerals. The title page should be considered “i” but should not be numbered. Beginning with the text, all pages must be numbered consecutively in Arabic numerals (items 9-11 of the thesis).

Illustrations and Inserted Material

Graphs, diagrams, photographs, and other material included in a thesis must be on paper that meets the specifications described above.

Copies and Binding

The library accepts prepared theses and dissertations for binding. Students should prepare their manuscripts, including all documentation, in accordance with the accepted manual of style approved by the appropriate school or department.  All students are required to use the binding service provided through USM’s Glickman Library. Students must submit payment for binding services in the form of a check or money order (payable to USM).  Binding costs are as follows: first copy, for the USM Library, is free; second copy, for academic department (if required), $25.00; any additional copies, for the student, $25.00 each. (Please note, Stonecoast MFA students will not have to pay this fee separately, as it is built into their final semester fees as part of their low-residency program.)

Find more information on the Thesis and Dissertation Binding page.

For binding questions only, please contact: Shiloh Parker at 780-5417 or  [email protected] .

For all other questions please contact your faculty advisor.

Additional Policies

• Students should prepare the manuscript for a thesis or project in accordance with the APA Manual of Style (unless their program requires another citation style).
• In general, the preceding University policies also apply to the preparation of project reports.
• Unless the department has a policy forbidding it, students having only the project or thesis to finish may still participate in graduation. Diplomas will be mailed when work is complete.

Bindery & Content Release Form For USM Digital Commons

Print and complete this  content release form  to submit with your thesis.

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

Watch the video of our Common Formatting Errors Workshop via Zoom.

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.

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Electronic Thesis & Dissertation (ETD) Guidelines

As a requirement for graduation, master’s students who complete a thesis and all PhD and EdD students must electronically submit their thesis/dissertation to the Graduate School via the ETD Administrator site . Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations are stored electronically and accessible in perpetuity through the UB Institutional Repository (UBIR) and ProQuest's dissertations and theses database .

Deadlines and Required Documents

In addition to your master’s thesis/doctoral dissertation, submit the following:

• Doctoral degree recipients surveys  (two surveys required for PhD students only).
• Embargo form (if requesting delayed release).

Visit the ETD Administrator website to begin.

Required Format for Electronic Thesis & Dissertation

Your thesis/dissertation must adhere to the formatting guidelines detailed below.   Using the ETD Template (although not required) is an easy way to ensure your document is formatted correctly.

Choosing a Style Manual

When beginning to construct your thesis or dissertation, the very first step is to choose the style appropriate to your specific discipline. If you are unsure what style is appropriate, confer with your advisor and/or department. Be sure to follow the chosen style consistently throughout the document. Listed below are websites of a few widely recognized style manuals:

• American Psychological Association
• Modern Language Association
• University of Chicago, Chicago Manual of Style

Creating an Accessible Document

The University at Buffalo is committed to ensuring equal access to information that is presented online as per UB's Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) Accessibility Policy . As part of this commitment, university web content must be accessible to everyone, including individuals with physical, sensory, or cognitive impairments, with or without the use of assistive technology.

Refer to Microsoft's Accessibility Guide and the UB's ETD Template to help create an accessible document that includes:

• Alternative text for all visuals, including pictures, graphics and charts.
• Meaningful hyperlinked text.
• Logical semantic (heading) structure.
• Logical table structure with proper table headings.

Formatting the Document

The ETD Template can be used to help format your document. Keep in mind the following:

• Font Size:  Select fonts between 10 and 12 characters per inch. Smaller or larger fonts are generally too hard to read and should be avoided. Use the same font style and print size throughout the document.
• Pagination:  The title page is to be  unnumbered,  but should be counted as “page 1”. With the exception of the title page, all of the pages in your document should be numbered, including the principal text, all tables, diagrams, maps, etc. Roman numerals (I, II, III) should be used on the preliminary pages and Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) are used on the pages that follow the abstract.
• Page Numbering Placement:  Generally the page number is placed in the upper right, lower right or bottom center of the page. Regardless of where you place the page numbers, be sure they are consistent throughout the document.
• Spacing:  Use double-spacing consistently throughout the document, except for long quotations, footnotes and endnotes, which are typically single-spaced. Check your selected style manual for further details on spacing.
• Blank Pages:  There should be no blank pages in your PDF. If you wish to leave a blank page, it must be labeled as follows: “This Page Intentionally Left Blank”.

The Title Page

The  ETD Template can be used to help format your (required) title page. Keep in mind the following:

• Do not number the title page. While it is technically Roman numeral i, the number is not displayed on the page itself. 
• The title page must follow the format in the ETD Template.
• Be sure to use your department's official name and your full legal name.
• The title on your manuscript must match the approved title on your M-form.
• When possible, incorporate word substitutes for formulae and symbols.

Page Order and Page Numbering

The ETD Template can be used to help format your document. Your document should adhere the following prescribed order.

• Title page (required).
• Copyright page (required).  The copyright page is required but you are not mandated to file or pay for a copyright. The date of your defense should be listed on the title page and a copyright page follows the title page in the following format. In the center lower third of the page, just above the bottom margin, type the following (*the Roman numeral ii is to be centered at the bottom of the page).

                        Copyright                   Center your name             Center the conferral year                  All Rights Reserved

                              (ii)*

        For reference, a visual of the Copyright page can be found on page ii of the ETD template.

• Dedication and/or acknowledgments pages (optional).  If you decide to have an acknowledgment section, be sure not to omit any members of your committee. While this section is optional, if included, it should be numbered with Roman numerals.
• Table of contents (required).  The table of contents (TOC) page(s) should also be numbered with Roman numerals. Include the dedication/acknowledgment, abstract and any lists within the TOC. Do not include the title page, the copyright page or the TOC page(s). While a TOC is required, it may follow any format acceptable to your advisor and committee as long as it includes all main divisions and subdivisions within your text and the format is consistent.
• Lists of tables, figures, illustrations, charts and graphs (optional).  Follow the format used for your TOC. Use a separate page for each type of list. Be sure to number with the appropriate Roman numerals.
• Abstract (required).  The abstract page should be numbered with the appropriate Roman numeral. An abstract of your thesis or dissertation is required. It should be a succinct and concise narrative description of your work. Briefly state your topic or problem, describe the procedures and methods you used and summarize your findings or conclusions. Do not use tables, graphs or figures in your abstract.
• Chapters or main divisions of the document (required).  The text should be double-spaced and each page must be numbered consecutively beginning with the number 1. As you turn the content of your research into a professional document, be sure to use a writing style appropriate to your subject and discipline. The document also needs to consistently follow acceptable standards of punctuation, spelling and format. See the "Choose a Style Manual" of this guide for a listing of familiar style manuals. Check with your advisor and department for their recommendation. Be sure chapter titles and subheadings follow your style manual. It is best to include tables or other illustrative materials as necessary in the main body of the document when they are essential to the text.
• Subheadings.  For clarity and flow, it is best not to begin any subheadings or other divisions on separate pages unless the preceding page is filled. If the subheading falls at the very end of a page, move it to the next page unless at least two lines of text can follow the subheading on that page. Be sure to keep subheadings consistent in position and style throughout the document.
• Footnotes/Endnotes.  Place footnotes, if used, at the bottom of the appropriate page, at the end of each chapter or at the end of the document. Refer to the style manual you have chosen. Notes are usually single-spaced. If you group your notes at the end of each chapter, begin them on the first page following the text of that chapter. Also begin the first page in each note section with the heading “Endnotes to Chapter___” or “Notes to Chapter___.”
• Appendix (if applicable).  Appendices are used when you wish to add materials (such as charts, graphs, surveys, etc.) not essential to the text. The appendix is generally placed before the bibliography or references section, and after the last page of the last chapter of text. These pages also need to be numbered. Remember to include a list of appendices in your preliminary pages if you have more than one appendix.
• Bibliography or references (required).  The bibliography or list of references should be single-spaced for each entry and then double-spaced between entries. Group all entries in strict alphabetical order or in another way that seems appropriate to your research and helpful to your readers. Be sure to use the format that is consistent with the format style approved by your advisor and committee. These pages must be numbered as well.

Final Check:  Review your document carefully to be sure it is correctly formatted, that all spelling and grammar is correct, and that the document is totally free of errors. Check that there are no blank pages, omitted paragraphs or missing sections. Be sure the preliminary pages of your document are in the proper order and the pagination is correct.

Converting the Document to a PDF

Electronic submission of your thesis or dissertation in PDF format is mandatory. When you are ready to submit your PDF document, go to the ETD Administrator website .

Write your document as you normally would any other research paper while keeping in mind the following tips on how to format your thesis or dissertation in a PDF-friendly manner, to ensure that your later conversion from MS Word, LaTeX, etc., will go smoothly. Refer to the  ProQuest Support Center  for more tips and helpful hints.

• Spacing and pagination:  Use tabs instead of a series of spaces to align text. Insert page breaks instead of a series of paragraphs to start a new page. Use section breaks to change the format between pages in the document. Use your preferred software for creating tables of contents and cross-references to ensure that pagination is consistent even if the generation of the PDF file causes the pages to shift slightly. 
• Fonts:  We recommend using standard fonts such as Times New Roman or Arial. If using unusual fonts, be sure to use embeddable Type 1 or TrueType fonts. 
• Graphics:  JPEG, TIFF, PNG or other appropriate file formats can be added. When possible, it is best to use a high resolution such as 600 dpi. Avoid using graphic editors that are part of a word processor. 
• Equations:  Microsoft Word users should not use Word's Equation Editor. Instead, use italic Times Roman font and Symbol font, along with superscripts and subscripts to create equations.
• Orientation:  Portrait, rather than landscape, orientation is preferred. Utilize standard 8 ½” x 11” page size. Avoid including multiple book pages on one single PDF page, as this will diminish appearance and printing quality.
• Supplemental files (optional):  Supplemental files (images, data, etc.) that are an integral part of the thesis or dissertation, but not part of the full-text should be uploaded along with your PDF during the submission process. Supplemental files should be titled according to the following naming convention: Supplemental_File_Title (i.e., no spaces or punctuation marks in the file name. You may use dashes or underscores).

Need more help?

The ETD Preparation Workshop explains how to properly format your ETD, how to use the ETD Template, tips for creating an accessible document and more.

I submitted my ETD, what's next?

The Graduate School reviews submissions in the order they are received. You'll receive a decision email from [email protected] within one to two weeks.

Decisions  include "accepted" (which requires no additional action by you) or "minor revisions required" (which requires you to complete the outlined revisions). As long as you have submitted your ETD by the published deadline, you have met the deadline.

Approved ETDs are viewable on ProQuest and in the UBIR approximately 10 to 12 weeks after degree conferral (unless an embargo was approved).

Additional Resources

Etd public access and embargo policies.

Per UB's  Public Access of Theses and Dissertations policy , after your degree is awarded, your thesis or dissertation will be delivered to and available in perpetuity through the  UB Institutional Repository (UBIR)  and to ProQuest, where your document will be microfilmed, indexed and stored in  ProQuest’s dissertations and theses database , the world’s largest recognized repository of graduate student research. When you submit your thesis or dissertation as a requirement for conferral of your degree, you are granting a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty-free perpetual license to the University at Buffalo, as set forth in the Public Access Agreement, which you will sign during the ETD submission process.

If you wish to delay the release of your thesis or dissertation because it contains proprietary data or has patents pending, you must submit an  Request for Embargo (Delayed Release) of Thesis or Dissertation  to the Graduate School at the time of your ETD submission. Please review the Graduate School's  Embargo (Delayed Release) of Thesis and Dissertation policy  for more information.

Fees Associated With the ETD Submission Process

There is no fee for ETD submission and cataloging through the UBIR.

Traditional publishing through ProQuest is free. If you select the ProQuest Open Access publishing option and/or request that ProQuest file copyright on your behalf, there will be associated fees. Open access publishing is $95, copyright filing is $75. Payments will be made via credit card directly to ProQuest during the online ETD submission process.

ProQuest Publishing Options

For publishing with ProQuest, you may choose traditional publishing or open access publishing.

• Traditional publishing  gives ProQuest the right to sell copies of your published thesis and to provide you (the author) with royalties from such sales.
• Open access publishing  provides the broadest means of free and complete access of the thesis or dissertation to students and scholars worldwide. For a comparison of these options, see the  ProQuest Publishing Options Guide .

Copyrighting:  You can choose whether or not to copyright your thesis or dissertation. Copyrighting protects your rights as the author. These rights include the ability to make copies of the work, to distribute them, to make derivative works or to perform or display the work. By copyrighting your thesis or dissertation, you can control the rights to it or may authorize others (i.e., a publisher) to exercise those rights. The copyright will be in effect for your lifetime plus an additional 50 years. You should consult with your advisor and discuss this issue before making your decision.

ProQuest can act as your agent with the Library of Congress Copyright office when your thesis or dissertation is submitted. This is done only if you specifically request such services from ProQuest when you submit your ETD. Please note that it is only mandatory to digitize your thesis or dissertation, while copyrighting is optional. Alternatively, you may apply for copyright registration by filing directly through the  U.S. Copyright Office .

Since theses and dissertations involve considerable effort on the part of the major professor (and sometimes other faculty members) as well as the student, you should make arrangements for publication and/or copyrighting only after consulting with your major professor and committee members.

If you have questions about the ETD submission process or the ETD template, please contact us by phone at 716-645-2939 or by email at [email protected] .

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Thesis Dissertation Electronic Submission

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The electronic version of the master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation must follow all formatting requirements set forth in the manual. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that the thesis/dissertation appears as originally intended when it is accessed or printed.

The thesis/dissertation must be submitted as a single electronic Portable Document Format (PDF) file. If the original thesis/dissertation is a Microsoft Word or RTF file, you will be able to convert the thesis/dissertation to a PDF at the UCI Thesis/Dissertation Submission Site . If the doctoral dissertation is not in Microsoft Word, RTF, or PDF – e.g. LaTeX or WordPerfect – it must be converted to PDF before the student uses the Submission Site. Certain types of fonts and graphics work better with PDF, and special attention should be paid to creating equations for PDF conversions. Optional supplemental files (images, video, audio) that are an integral part of the thesis/dissertation but not part of the full text may also be submitted electronically

OTHER HELPFUL RESOURCES INCLUDE: UCI Thesis and Dissertation Manual Graduate Student Filing Deadlines Ph.D. Dissertation Checklist/final degree paperwork packet-DocuSign link Master’s Thesis checklist/final degree paperwork packet-DocuSign link Forms How can we help?

If you need additional information, please contact:

Graduate Division [email protected]

Instructions for Electronic Submission

*Please check in with your individual program before starting the submission process as they may have additional program specific guidelines

Student submits final PDF version of thesis/dissertation to the ProQuest*/ETD website (see information on ProQuest website below) and completes entire on-line submission process at the link provided below. The UCI Libraries staff will send a verification e-mail stating your submission has been received and is under review. This e-mail confirms the initial submission has been received, it is not the final approval. Once the submission has been reviewed by UCI Libraries staff, the student will either receive the final confirmation e-mail that their submission has been accepted or an e-mail noting revisions that are needed before it can be accepted.

www.etdadmin.com/uci

* When creating your ProQuest account and completing the submission process, please note there are no required fees for UCI students to pay. There is no need to pay for open access or copy right. Any fees for services provided by ProQuest are optional.   

Submit your complete final degree packet to the Graduate Division, using the official Graduate Division DocuSign form link:

Ph.D. Dissertation Checklist/final degree paperwork packet

Master’s Thesis checklist/final degree paperwork packet

Ph.D. Dissertation Required Items-(all items listed below are incorporated into the official Graduate Division DocuSign forms)

Ph.D. Submission Checklist

Ph.D. Form II/Signature Page – Report on Final Examination for the Ph.D. Degree serves as the official signature page.

Final confirmation e-mail from the Proquest/ETD website

The student will attach the confirmation e-mail to their DocuSign final degree paperwork.

Survey of Earned Doctorates

Upon completing the survey, students are given the opportunity to enter their e-mail address to which a confirmation e-mail will be sent. The student will attach the confirmation e-mail to their DocuSign final degree paperwork.

UCI Exit Survey

Upon completing the survey, students will receive a confirmation e-mail. The student will attach the confirmation e-mail to their DocuSign final degree paperwork.

Master’s Thesis Required Forms-(all items listed below are incorporated into the official Graduate Division DocuSign forms)

Master’s Thesis Submission Checklist

Master’s Thesis/Signature Page Report on Final Examination for the Master’s Degree

$55 Master’s Thesis Submission Fee must be paid with the proof of payment uploaded as an attachment to the DocuSign final degree packet before submitting the form to Graduate Division

Step Three:

Graduate Division

Completed DocuSign final degree packet is routed to Graduate Division for review and degree processing, a staff member will:

Verify all required items have been submitted.

If all the required items are present:

Graduate Division staff will begin the degree audit to confer the degree

Please note during peak business time of the quarter, degree processing may take 14 business days or more

If any of the required items are missing, the staff member will hault the degree audit and contact the student and/or department to submit the missing required items. If the required items are not submitting, Graduate Division staff will void or decline to sign the DocuSign form

UCI Libraries

Approves ETD submission to be sent to Proquest/UMI

[email protected]

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Dissertation/Thesis Instructions

Students completing their degree with a Dissertation or an MS Thesis must adhere to the deadlines below for final MS Thesis/Dissertation submission to the Graduate School of Engineering for the intended date of degree conferral. Northeastern University requires that students publish their Dissertation or Thesis with Proquest Dissertation Publishing. Whereas students previously completed this task by submitting a hard copy of the Dissertation or Thesis to Snell Library, you must now self-publish using the Northeastern University Proquest/ETD Administrator Site.

Please click the link for the Guidelines below.

• COE Guide to the Preparation and Submission of Theses and Dissertations
• COE Style Guide for Theses and Dissertations
• Publishing Guidelines
• LaTex Templates

Due to COVID-19, the Graduate School of Engineering is not currently requiring students to submit a physical hard copy document of their PhD Dissertation of MS Thesis to our office.

Students should initiate the submission process only after they have successfully defended the PhD Dissertation or MS Thesis and made all necessary changes as deemed by the Committee members.  Once complete, students can begin obtaining Committee and Graduate School of Engineering signatures by using one of the “initiate you signature page” links below.  Students will be notified by the Graduate School of Engineering once all signatures have been gathered and when to submit an electronic copy of their PhD Dissertation or MS Thesis to Proquest .

If there are any questions about this process, please email  [email protected] and your advisor can assist.

Initiate Your MS Thesis Signature Page

Initiate Your PhD Dissertation Signature Page

Dissertation/Thesis Deadlines

• April 22, 2024 : MS Thesis/PhD Dissertation Signature Page is due to the Graduate School by 5pm Students submitting after this date will be required to register for an appropriate course in the following semester and are responsible for any tuition incurred.
• April 27, 2024 : Submission to Proquest due and SED survey (PhD Only) The final MS Thesis or PhD Dissertation document should not be uploaded until the student has been notified of final approval by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School of Engineering.  Please do not upload the committee signature page with your document to Proquest . Instructions to complete the SED survey (PhD Only) will be emailed when the PhD Dissertation has been approved by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School of Engineering.
• April 27, 2024 : Degree Conferral
• August 19, 2024 : MS Thesis/PhD Dissertation Signature Page is due to the Graduate School by 5pm Students submitting after this date will be required to register for an appropriate course in the following semester and are responsible for any tuition incurred.
• August 24, 2024 : Submission to Proquest due and SED survey (PhD Only) The final MS Thesis or PhD Dissertation document should not be uploaded until the student has been notified of final approval by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School of Engineering.  Please do not upload the committee signature page with your document to Proquest . Instructions to complete the SED survey (PhD Only) will be emailed when the PhD Dissertation has been approved by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School of Engineering.
• August 23, 2024 : Degree Conferral
• December 9, 2024 : Thesis and Dissertations due to the Graduate School by 5pm Students submitting after this date will be required to register for Thesis/Dissertation Continuation in the following term. Tuition is billed at 1 semester hour for this course.
• December 14, 2024 : Submission to Proquest due and SED survey (PhD Only) The final MS Thesis or PhD Dissertation document should not be uploaded until the student has been notified of final approval by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School of Engineering.  Please do not upload the committee signature page with your document to Proquest . Instructions to complete the SED survey (PhD Only) will be emailed when the PhD Dissertation has been approved by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School of Engineering.
• December 14, 2024 : Degree Conferral

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• Summer 2024

DESIGN 700 A: Master's Thesis

Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering

College of engineering, master's thesis defense: anna gulan.

Location URL

Master's Thesis Defense

(Advisor: Prof. Mavris)

"Conceptual, Trajectory-Based Structural Sizing Method for Hypersonic Glide Vehicles"

Monday, April 22

Collaborative Visualization Environment (CoVE)

Weber Space and Technology Building (SST II)

Microsoft Teams

In recent years, interest in hypersonic vehicles has rapidly developed resulting in an increase in hypersonic research and funding. This push is motivated by the hope that hypersonic vehicles will improve mission performance including velocity, range, and maneuverability. These vehicles are considered highly sensitive to weight though the specific relationship between weight and performance of hypersonic glide vehicles has not been well defined. The first research question will explore this relationship assessing the effects mass on performance parameters including terminal velocity, range, heat load, and mission time. The maximum heat load and terminal velocity were found to be the most sensitive to mass changes and when maneuvers are included in the flight path the total distance becomes increasingly more sensitive to mass.

During the conceptual design phase, engineers rely on weight estimations to ensure the vehicle will meet performance requirements. Current launch weight estimations typically rely on historical regressions. While useful, these regressions are outdated as they do not incorporate hypersonic vehicles and novel technology. This practice results in several gaps as the regressions lack background context reducing opportunities for pinpointing the driving loads and optimization. Additionally, they do not rely on the trajectory or performance parameters of the specific mission requirements. The second research question seeks to address these gaps by introducing a trajectory-based sizing tool to be utilized early in the design process. This tool will produce a more accurate initial weight estimation capable of identifying driving weight parameters. The results showed that for most cases the external pressure was the driving loading condition with the secondary driver being buckling due to bending moment. The peak load typically occurred in the terminal phase during the final dive. Additionally, the sensitivity of structural sizing by aerodynamic parameters was assessed. It was found that the initial height, terminal flight path angle, mission time, and range were the most significant contributors.

When traveling at hypersonic speeds, the load bearing structure will experience high temperatures. These temperatures are caused by both surface heat transfer and skin friction heating. This thermal energy heats the vehicle structure and causes material strength degradation. To reduce this effect a robust thermal protection system (TPS) is needed to shield the structure from the intense thermal energy. The TPS is typically sized to ensure the structural material does not heat beyond its maximum allowable temperature but could be increased in size to reduce the temperature felt by the structure. In attempt to explore the relationship between structural heating and strength degradation, the third research question will explore this relationship and the structural weight reduction that will occur from a reduced operating temperature. The model found that the structural weight increased exponentially with increasing temperature.

·         Prof. Dimitri Mavris – School of Aerospace Engineering (advisor)

·         Dr. Adam Cox– School of Aerospace Engineering

·         Dr. Kenneth Decker – SpaceWorks Enterprise