Preparing to Submit
What is ProQuest?
Graduate and post-graduate students must use ETD system, ProQuest, to submit theses, dissertations, or doctoral research projects to the Graduate School for approval. ProQuest ETD publishes and archives your thesis to make it a part of the research community.
What You Need In Order To Submit & ProQuest Options
- A PDF copy of your dissertation/thesis. This must be a single file. If your manuscript is in Word or RTF format, please convert it into a PDF.
- Abstract. The Graduate School does not require an Abstract as part of your thesis file but you will need one as part of your ProQuest submission. See page 5 of the Graduate School thesis guidelines for more info.
- Advisory committee names.
- Know if you need to request a delayed release, known as an embargo. Consult with your thesis committee before submission to see if the release of your thesis should be delayed and if so, for how long. Reasons authors may delay release:
- They are seeking patents.
- They want to publish their work through a traditional press that considers open access publication to be equivalent to prior publication.
- They have published material from their work with a publisher that does not allow open access release for a certain period of time.
- They need to protect sensitive data or information.
- Know if you wish to pay for the option for ProQuest to file for copyright on your behalf. This is optional and students should know that as the author, you already retain full authorship and copyright of your work without paying this fee and registering for copyright. However, registering for copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is required if you would find that someone has infringed on your copyright and you want to pursue a lawsuit for monetary damages.
- Subject categories that best describe your paper's subject area. See this list for more info.
- $95 submission fee. Your fee could be higher if you order additional copies of your thesis.
Other Considerations
- Make sure the email account you use when registering with ProQuest is an account you check often. All communications related to your thesis formatting review will be sent to that address.
- All theses must be submitted electronically to ProQuest; there is no paper or email submission option.
- External funding acknowledgement. If your research is funded by an external funding source, check with your thesis advisor on the proper language and placement to ensure the funding agency is acknowledged in your thesis document.
- You will receive an email at your ProQuest email account once your thesis is reviewed for formatting compliance by the Graduate School. Please allow at least 5 business days from submission for your first review.
- The submission deadline is a firm deadline. If your thesis is not submitted by 11:59 PM the day of the deadline your graduation will automatically be deferred to the next term.
