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Submission Process

Overview | Document Conversion | ETD Submission Steps | ETD Signature Form

OVERVIEW

The following is an outline which details the process of submitting your thesis or dissertation. For your convenience, separate submission checklists for thesis and dissertation electronic formats, have been provided.

• Students should explore the potential multimedia aspects of the final thesis or dissertation early in the planning stages.
  
• Copies of the printed draft of the thesis or dissertation should be presented to all committee members well in advance of the final examination.
  
• The student should contact his or her graduate coordinator (college/school and department levels), regarding final requirements and deadlines to be completed for graduation. The student should also consult the latest edition of the Marshall University Graduate Catalog for any details not addressed in this guide.
  
• In the semester of expected graduation, the student must obtain a packet of submission forms from the Submission Forms page, and shuttle sheets from his or her college graduate prior to submitting the thesis or dissertation.
  
• After the oral examination is passed and the thesis or dissertation is accepted by the department, the student must submit the final copy of the thesis or dissertation.
  

DOCUMENT CONVERSION

• The student produces the final electronic copy for online submission.

  • After you complete your word-processed thesis or dissertation, you must create one or more PDF or other approved electronic files.  Your word-processed thesis or dissertation is converted to an ETD using Adobe Acrobat 3.0 or higher. The Adobe Acrobat software includes drivers to print word processor documents to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file
     
• Access to software and assistance:
  
  • Technical assistance and training for file conversion or other special needs are available at the Center for Instructional Technolog on the fourth floor of the Drinko Library for those on the Huntington campus; if you are on the Charleston campus, contact Teresa Eagle t.eagle@marshall.edu.
    
  • You may also purchase and use your own copy of Adobe Acrobat if you desire.
    
  • Adobe.com offers limited free trial and fee based document conversion services.
    
  • A share-ware version of the pdf conversion script called "Aladdin Ghost Script" is available at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/.  However, students should be cautioned that conversion problems may be encountered when using this software, and that there are no editing tools available as indicated in the above Adobe Acrobat product.
    
  • Also consult the How to Create an ETD section.

STEPS OF THE ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION PROCESS

1.    Collect all the files you need to submit.

• Put all the files for your ETD in the same directory. All files should have a distinct name with an appropriate standard prefix and suffix.  The file name should be:
  
  lastname-firstname-year-degree.pdf
  
For instance: John Smith, who is submitting a dissertation for his PhD degree in 2001, would name the file smith-john-2001-phd.pdf (All lower case letters please, no caps).
If John Smith is submitting a thesis for a Masters of Arts degree, the file would be smith-john-2001-ma.pdf (All lower case letters please, no caps).
• Macintosh users especially, make sure your file has the .pdf file extension at the end. Please adhere to the naming convention; it was instituted to speed access to your work.
  
• Name any other files according to the convention for its type (e.g., name other PDF files with the ".pdf" suffix, name GIFs with a ".gif" suffix, name JPEGs with the ".jpg" suffix, etc.).
  
• Link "etd.pdf" (title page, etc.) to all the other files using the hyperlink feature of Adobe Exchange.

2. Submit Online

Using Netscape Version 3.0 or higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.0 or higher, go online, using the Online Submission Form, to submit your thesis or dissertation electronically.

The form will ask you for:

• Meta-data from the front matter of your ETD
  • title
  • author
  • degree
  • major
  • keywords
    • Keywords are often discipline specific. For assistance you can contact a librarian at the Drinko Library Reference Desk for assistance.
  • committee members
  • defense date
  • title
    • paste this in from your text file.
  • abstract
    • paste only the body from your text file (exclude header).
    • do not use non-standard symbols (i.e. use plain English equivalents).
    • special symbols will only appear under the html interface if ISO character equivalents are used.
• Your email address
• Your committee chair's name and email address
• Your committee members' names and email addresses
• Special instructions for ETD processing
  •    Note:  At this point you must make a decision regarding the Web distribution of your ETD.

Make sure the information you provided is correct (including spelling!)

• Choose "Submit" to submit the form data; then a new screen will appear, prompting you to attach your file(s).  Use the Browse button to select your file(s), then click the "Submit" button to upload the files to the ETD server.

Helpful submission hints

• Have you included your VITA?
• Have you checked your PDF file for missing pages, poor font translation, and other anomalies?
• Are all internal and external multimedia objects and files present when you submit?
• Have you included a Table of Contents and a list of each multimedia object type?
• Have you checked that all your pages are numbered correctly?
• Keywords

  List four to six keywords or short key phrases aid the catalogers who provide bibliographic access to your document through the local online catalog and an international database, OCLC. These words will be indexed in addition to all the words that appear in your title and abstract.

After you submit...

• You, your committee chair and college/school coordinator will be notified by electronic mail that your ETD has been received.
  
• If (for some reason) your ETD is rejected, you will be given instructions by email reply on how to correct it and resubmit.

3. Submit forms and fee(s)

• In addition to the electronic filing of your thesis or dissertation, a completed ETD Submission Packet (forms and fees) must be submitted in person or by mail to the Office of the Graduate College at the Huntington campus.
  
• Submission details can be found on the Submission Checklist pages.
  
• When your ETD is approved, you will be notified by email from the Office of the Graduate College.
  
• The student should also check with the college/school and department to determine whether additional printed and bound copies are required by them.
  
• Submissions should arrive not later than the deadline date indicated by his or her graduate coordinator for the semester in which graduation is anticipated.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT FORMS

ProQuest (formerly UMI) Agreement Form

UMI offers abstract, copyright, microfilming, and publishing services.

• All master's and doctoral students who submit an electronic thesis or dissertation are required to participate in the UMI Abstract publishing program.
  
• For publication purposes, a printed copy of the abstract must also be submitted in addition to the abstract included in the thesis or dissertation manuscript.
  
  • Header:  Must contain the word "Abstract", document title and author's name.
    
  • Page(s) should not be numbered.
    
  • Use single spacing.
    
  • Word limits:  350 words for dissertations, 150 words for theses.
    
    
• The additional copy of the abstract will be computer scanned by UMI, so bear in mind that the appearance of your abstract submission will remain exactly the same when published. The use of figures in your abstract entry is acceptable, but remember that keyword searching is useful only with text.
  
  
• For publication purposes, a printed copy of the title page which cites the names of the committee chair (advisor) and committee members must also be submitted; this will serve as the header for the microfilm copy.
  

ETD Signature Form

• Required for all ETD submissions.
  
• Student indicates Web distribution choice.
  
• Student and faculty committee members must sign.

Survey of Earned Doctorates

Dissertations Only: A completed National Opinion Research Center questionnaire entitled "Survey of Earned Doctorates" must be presented to the Office of Graduate College when the dissertation is submitted.  For more information about the survey, see National Science Foundation Web site.
 

• While the surveys are voluntary, the university stands to lose funding for research if we lack the information these questionnaires provide. Student responses are held in complete confidence and no individuals are identified in university reports of findings.
  
• Please note, beginning with the 1997-98 edition, the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has been awarded the federal contract for conducting this survey.  You should use the edition corresponding to the current academic year.