The Graduate School
Requirement of electronic submission of dissertation
If you are a graduating doctoral student, you are required to publish a copy of your dissertation in electronic format. Here are some important things to think about and steps to be taken as you develop your dissertation, just to get you started.
If you are a master's student preparing a thesis or report, you may elect to submit your thesis or report in electronic format instead of paper format to the Graduate School. Final submission requirements for doctoral dissertations do not apply to master's thesis.
Before you start:
- Consider the structure and formatting of your dissertation. Will you be incorporating audio and/or video files? Are you using any unusual or proprietary fonts? Will you include graphics? How will the various parts of the dissertation (text, graphics, other types of files) fit together? For information on acceptable file formats, go to http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/etd/formats.html. The preferred format for submitting your electronic dissertation is PDF. For a list of places on campus that can help with this task, go to http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/etd/labs.html.
- Take the online Copyright Tutorial at http://www.lib.utsystem.edu/copyright/.
After taking the tutorial, print out a certification of completion.
You must turn this in to the Office of Graduate Studies. Intellectual
Property is an important issue for you to consider as you plan
and write your dissertation. Taking the Copyright Tutorial is a
requirement for graduation. For further information on the tutorial,
go to http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/student_services/academic_policies/int_prop_tutorial.html.
For very useful information on Fair Use guidelines for dissertations, go to http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/etd/fair_use.html.
Before you submit
- The current approved publishing option for doctoral students at The University of Texas can be found online at http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/etd/submit.html.
- Please make sure that you check over the final PDF document before you submit it. Do not assume that if the final Word document was fine, the PDF will be fine. In particular, look at charts, graphs, and any graphics files you imported into your document, and look for correct conversions of unusual fonts and diacritical marks such as accents.