Thesis and Dissertation

Notice of Scheduled Defense (Copy, paste and fill in the information below email at least 2 weeks prior to your defense to Janice-Uhles@utc.edu.)

Instructions for Submitting a Thesis or Dissertation

The following is a listing of the steps required for submitting a thesis or dissertation to the Graduate School for format review and approval. Theses and dissertations are not considered complete until the document has been approved by the Graduate School; therefore, transcripts and diplomas are not released until all of the following steps are completed in the sequence provided.

 

Deadlines for submission of documents for review by Graduate School staff are published on the Graduate School web site and the Graduate School Academic Calendar; these deadlines cannot be waived. However, if the deadline falls on a weekend, the thesis or dissertation must be submitted no later than 4:30 p.m. on the following Monday. To meet the first submission deadline (the first review of the document), the following verification forms or pages must be received by the Graduate School prior to the thesis or dissertation. Links are provided to each of the forms or pages.

• A completed Graduate Degree Examination Results form with all required signatures indicating that the defense of the thesis or dissertation was passed and the thesis or dissertation has been accepted by the examining committee and reviewed and approved by the College Dean. (Signature of the academic dean verifies approval and acceptance by the college based on academic rigor, scholarly writing, and adherence to the UTC Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation Standards) http://www.utc.edu/Administration/GraduateSchool/documents/GradDegreeExamformDigSig8-29-12.pdf

• Beginning in fall 2013 a student must submit the “Verification of Standards and Bibliography Management Software form”, which allows the student to indicate that the Standards for formatting were followed, to verify that bibliography management software was used, to provide the name of the software, and to indicate the word processing software used to produce the thesis or dissertation.

• The thesis or dissertation is submitted electronically to the Graduate School Dean. The thesis or dissertation should not be submitted until all committee editorial comments and corrections are appropriately addressed. The electronic copy is submitted in the software used to produce it, not as a pdf for the first format review.

• Upon completion of the initial format review, the thesis or dissertation will be accepted or returned to the student for corrections. If the document is accepted, the student will be provided specific instructions for completing the submission process (see below). However, if the document is not accepted, the student must make the requested corrections and re-submit a revised electronic copy for review. The review process continues until the document is deemed acceptable.

• Once the thesis or dissertation is accepted (i.e., approved by the Graduate School) the student must submit the thesis or dissertation in electronic form to the UMI ETD Administration site (ProQuest).

 

Submission to ProQuest involves the following steps:

1. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga web site address to access the ETD database is www.etdadmin.com/utc.  
2. Located halfway down the page and to the right is a box labeled “Ready to begin?.”  Select “Submit my dissertation/thesis” or “View/revise existing submission.”
3. Enter the authentication information and create an account (or log in if an account has already been created). Remember the account information; the Graduate School staff cannot retrieve user IDs and/or passwords.
4. Complete the online forms using the spelling, punctuation, and capitalization that will create the desired appearance in the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation database.
5. There is no cost to submit the digitized copy of the dissertation/thesis. However, the student is responsible for paying for copyright and bound copies directly to ProQuest should he/she choose any of those options. You should have a credit card available during this process.
6. Choose “Browse” to locate the needed files, i.e., your thesis or dissertation, select one file at a time.

• Choose “Upload Files” to copy the files onto the ETD server

Any formatting or other submission errors should have been corrected prior to electronic submission to ProQuest; however, if there are formatting or other submission errors a correction list will be sent to the student via email. The student must return to the original word processing document, correct errors, recreate the PDF file, and resubmit via the ETD database. An email will be sent to the student after all requirements have been satisfied and the thesis or dissertation has been accepted for electronic submission.

ETD will register your copyright with the United States Copyright Office if you choose this option. The optional copyright fee pays for ProQuest to file an application of claim of your copyright with the United States Copyright Office. You cannot sue for copyright infringement in the United States unless you have registered. For more information about copyright, see the U.S. Copyright Office's Frequently Asked Questions About Copyright or http://www.copyright.gov/. All fees are the responsibility of the student