Electronic Submission of Theses and Dissertations Now Available Through UA Graduate School

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The University of Alabama Graduate School now accepts the submission of electronic theses and dissertations and encourages students to submit electronically rather than on paper. Students have the choice of either paper or electronic submission from now until Aug. 14, after which electronic submission is required for all theses and dissertations.

“We are excited about what electronic submission of theses and dissertations means for graduate students,” said Dr. John Schmitt, associate dean of the UA Graduate School. Submitting ETDs will save students time, will allow them to avoid submitting paper copies to the Graduate School, and will save money because they do not have to purchase expensive paper for the final document. ETDs also can include many types of video and audio files that cannot be included as part of a paper-based manuscript.

Schmitt indicated that ETD submission is considerably more efficient for the Graduate School and UA Libraries because neither will be dealing with paper as in the past. Moreover, graduate students more easily and broadly can disseminate the results of their research and scholarly activities, which will raise the visibility of UA as a research university.

Reviews from the first students to use the new system have been extremely favorable.

Alexa Chilcutt, who is receiving her doctorate in communication and information sciences, found the process to be efficient and easy to use. “While the thought of submitting electronically was a bit intimidating for me at first, the process is brilliant!” Chilcutt commented. “Obvious advantages include the huge reduction in time and money saved from the alternative route of paper submission. The ETD process was quite simple as the Graduate School’s ETD and ProQuest sites guided me step-by-step. I have already helped friends to submit their dissertations electronically as well,” she noted.

Master’s degree student Phillip Haley also had good results as one of the first to file his thesis electronically. “I was excited to participate in the Grad School’s ETD for two major reasons. First, it was incredibly easy — I can’t imagine that my thesis submission could have gone any more smoothly. Second, it required the use of much less ink and paper than a traditional submission would have required, and I am definitely in favor of conserving resources whenever possible,” said Haley.

To assist students in ETD submission, the Graduate School created an ETD Web site that is accessed from the Graduate School’s home page. The submission of ETDs is completed at a Web site developed specifically for the UA Graduate School by ProQuest/UMI. ETDs will be housed in digital archives at both ProQuest and the UA Libraries.

For more information about ETDs at UA go to http://graduate.ua.edu/etd.