Steps in Submitting Your Dissertation
These are the steps you will pursue as you finish your dissertation, prepare to graduate, and, at last, submit your final, approved dissertation to Proquest.
- Write the dissertation, using your preferred word processing program and either using GW’s ETD Word Guidelines or following the format rules embodied in it, and following any additional guidelines put forward by your school or college [link to page with the school dissertation sites].
- Be Sure to Put the Correct Dates on the Title Page of Your Manuscript. In completing the date degree conferred on the title page of your manuscript, use August 31 for summer graduation, January 31 for fall graduation, and the date of the May graduation ceremony (consult the GW Academic Calendar ) for spring graduation.
- Familiarize yourself with the material at this website and at the GW Proquest/UMI ETD website so that you can start thinking about what is involved in preparing and submitting an electronic dissertation. You can establish a login and password at the Proquest submission site if you wish, but we recommend that you not submit anything there except your final, approved dissertation.
- Defend the dissertation and make any changes requested by your committee after the defense.
- Obtain final signoffs: Show the final version with the last changes to your dissertation director, obtain his or her approval of the final version, and ensure that school or college procedures are followed. Both you and your director should also sign the ETD Approval Form and you should submit it to the ETD Administrator in your college or school.
- Complete the School Approval Page, which is included in the ETD Word guidelines and goes in your electronic dissertation right after the title page; fill in the date of your dissertation defense and the names and titles of the members of your research committee (correctly spelled—Please use the faculty directory at the end of the [Graduate Bulletin at GW website] for names and titles).
- Take care of other preparation for graduation tasks: Be sure you have (a) completed all course work required for graduation, (b) applied for graduation, (c) registered for the semester in which you will graduate, (d) paid any unpaid GW bills, (e) updated the address to which your diploma is to be sent on GWeb, and (f) completed the Survey of Earned Doctorates (available in your school’s graduate studies or doctoral program office).
- Convert your dissertation to pdf: You need to convert your dissertation to an Adobe pdf file (or possibly multiple files).
If you do not already know a method for doing so, there is an easy to use converter at the ETD Administrator site that you can use once you log in, if the text of your dissertation is in Microsoft Word or RTF format. You can just upload your file(s) to the converter utility , and you will receive an email with a link to the pdf file(s), which you can then save to your computer. The converter can accept files that are huge—up to 100 MBs in size. Please note that there can be a considerable delay in the email with the link to the PDF being sent to you during periods of peak activity.
If your dissertation is not in Microsoft Word or RTF format, the ProQuest page entitled Creating PDFs provides options for converting Native, Postscript, and TeX/LaTeX files to PDF format.
In addition, the computer labs on both the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses have Adobe Acrobat 7, Professional edition, available for students to use to convert their manuscripts in Adobe PDF format. For more information on the availability of the student computer labs, please go to the Academic Support Services page describing the facilities.
For additional information on converting documents into PDF, see the ETD Tutorial.
- Carefully check the pdf file: Strange things can happen when a document is converted to pdf (strange formatting, missing pages), so it is important to check the pdf page by page before you submit it.
- Prepare for going to the submission site: Have your pdf file and any supplementary files you want to upload, your 350 word Abstract in Word or another word processing program, your thoughts about keywords for your dissertation, forwarding address information, and your credit card when you go to submission site.
- Submit the final, approved copy of the dissertation: Go to the GW Proquest/UMI ETD website and follow the instructions there for submitting a dissertation, clicking the red Start Submission button, completing the forms there, and uploading your Abstract and pdf file(s). You should have your credit card handy so that you can pay Proquest online. You can start the process, logout, and login again later; your work will be saved. If you have any questions or encounter problems, contact Proquest electronically or by phone: 1.877.408.5027 (9am-6 pm E.S.T.). You may also check the Best Practices or FAQs pages on this website. If that does not work, try the ETD Administrator in Gelman Library.
- After you have submitted: You will receive an email acknowledging receipt of the dissertation. The document will then be reviewed by the ETD administrator in Gelman Library and by your college or school’s graduate studies or doctoral program office before it is approved and transmitted to Proquest/UMI. If there is something wrong with the file(s), someone will email you. Once all is OK, expect Proquest to take a few months to complete its checks, convert the document to microfilm to ensure long-term storage, and make the dissertation available through its Proquest Dissertations and Theses database.
Note that you do not need to give the library or the graduate studies/doctoral office in your school or college paper copies of the dissertation, as used to be required.