Electronic Thesis - Dissertation Guidelines

Main Content

Graduate students at Southern Illinois University who are required to submit a Thesis or Dissertation must follow the Graduate School formatting guidelines and submit through the ProQuest submission website. Review the guidelines for formatting and submission on this website and/or download Guidelines for the Preparation of Dissertations, Theses, and Research Papers. Two submission deadlines must be met: Initial Submission and Final Submission. Deadlines are posted at https://gradschool.siu.edu/about-us/dates-deadlines.php.

Initial Submission – Upload your ETD (Electronic Thesis or Dissertation) in one PDF file to the ProQuest submission website. Your ETD does not have to be perfect for this first upload, but it must be close enough to being complete that your committee chair has approved you sending it to your committee members. The initial submission will take several minutes, since you must respond to several questions. (See below). Within 1-3 days after submission, you will receive an email from the ETD Administrator with a list of corrections that must be made to meet formatting requirements. Make those changes and upload your ETD again, using the same ProQuest login. There is a charge for the first upload, and no charge for subsequent uploads. Upload as many times as needed to meet all formatting requirements.

Initial Submission Questions – Before you can upload your thesis or dissertation for the initial submission, the following questions must be answered on the ProQuest website. Look in the Guidelines for more information about initial submission questions.

  1. In which primary subject category and additional subject categories does your paper topic belong?
  2. What are the keywords that fit with your paper topic (up to 6)?
  3. What are the names of your committee chair and committee members?
  4. Which type of publishing, traditional or open access? (Choose traditional, since OpenSIUC offers open access free of charge.)
  5. Do you want to delay the release of your paper after graduation? (Optional. Some choose to delay due to pending publication, pending patent, or sensitive content.)
  6. Do you want search engines to have access to your paper?
  7. Do you want ProQuest to file for copyright registration on your behalf? (Optional. You will own the copyright of your paper, but ProQuest is offering to register it, for a fee.)
  8. Do you want to purchase bound copies of your paper? (One bound copy is required, $30. This is the library copy and will be stored in special collections at Morris Library. You have the option of purchasing additional bound copies through ProQuest. You also have the option of purchasing bound copies through another vendor, including the University Bookstore in the Student Center.)

Final Submission – All corrections to content (based on your committee’s feedback) and formatting (based on ETD Support feedback) must be completed by the final submission deadline.

Questions should be directed to etdsupport@siu.edu.

Note: Students who will submit a Research Paper should visit https://gradschool.siu.edu/current-students/thesis-dissertation-researchpaper/research-paper-guidelines.php for instructions.

These links will help guide you through the process of preparing and submitting your Thesis or Dissertation.

Submission site

ProQuest

Questions / Concerns

For any questions or concerns regarding ETDs, please contact ETD support at etdsupport@siu.edu.

For technical help, please contact ETD Support at 453-4514.

The ETD provides a technologically advanced medium for expressing your ideas by incorporating multimedia objects. You may prepare your ETD using nearly any word processor or document preparation system. Electronic Theses and Dissertations must be submitted as a PDF file and be ONE document. 

ETDs may include color diagrams, color images, hypertext links, audio, video, animations, spreadsheets, databases, simulations, and virtual reality worlds. The inclusion of new multimedia can allow students to better express ideas.

Why ETD?

  • Improves graduate education through more effective sharing
  • Opportunity to better express ideas
  • Worldwide access to scholars
  • Timely sharing of technology, knowledge, and peer review
  • Economical

Copyright and Intellectual Property

Compliance with copyright law is imperative. Information on copyright issues is available from the following website:  

Submitting Dissertations and Theses in Digital Format

For electronic submission of your thesis or dissertation, please go to dissertations.umi.com/siu. Here you will find a detailed FAQ, as well as information from UMI regarding ETD submission requirements.