The University of Tennessee  Thesis/Dissertation Website
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  1. What does the Thesis/Dissertation Consultant do?
  2. What resources are available for me to use as I format my thesis or dissertation?
  3. How do I schedule an appointment?
  4. What should I bring to a preliminary review?
  5. What is the approval sheet?
  6. What options do I have for submitting my thesis/dissertation?
  7. When I bring drafts for your review, do they have to be printed on 100% cotton, 24-pound paper?
  8. What is an ETD?
  9. What are the advantages to submitting electronically?
  10. How will people be able to access my ETD?
  11. Why should my ETD be freely available?
  12. What if I want to write a book related to my ETD?
  13. How does the ETD project relate to ProQuest?
  14. What do I need to know about signing agreements with publishers?
  15. What if I want to incorporate a journal article into my ETD?
  16. If I plan to submit my thesis/dissertation electronically, should I bring paper copies for your review or should I bring a disk with an electronic copy?
  17. Can I e-mail a draft for review?
  18. If I don’t live in Knoxville, how can I work with you?
  19. How much time should I set aside to meet with you?
  20. At what point in the thesis/dissertation-writing process should I meet with you?
  21. What should I do if I cannot schedule an appointment to meet with you?
  22. I have heard that I may have to wait in line for hours to meet with you. Is this true?
  23. Do I have to pay for your services?
  24. I have heard you are an angry, tyrannical, margin-crazy fiend! Is that true?
  1. What does the Thesis/Dissertation Consultant do?
    A: I help UT thesis and dissertation students format their documents, and I accept final copies of theses and dissertations on behalf of the Graduate Council. I work with each thesis/dissertation student at least three times: Once for a preliminary format review prior to defense, a second time for a final format review after defense, and a third time for final submission.
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  2. What resources are available for me to use as I format my thesis or dissertation?
    A: UT’s Guide to the Preparation of Theses and Dissertations is the main resource for you to use as you format your document. The Guide is available online at the Thesis/Dissertation website, http://web.utk.edu/~thesis. The Thesis/Dissertation Website is a great resource for all thesis/dissertation writers.
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  3. How do I schedule an appointment?
    A: You can call (865-974-1337) or e-mail (thesis@utk.edu) to set up an appointment. In your e-mail, you should suggest days that will work best for you.
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  4. What should I bring to a preliminary review?
    A: You should bring a paper copy of as much of the document as you have completed at that point. It is not necessary to have a complete document. A couple of chapters are sufficient for the preliminary review. It is helpful if you have an approval sheet (http://web.utk.edu/~thesis/samples.shtml), title page, and table of contents ready for the preliminary review. The important thing to remember is that you should complete your preliminary review as early in the semester as possible.
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  5. What is the approval sheet?
    A: The approval sheet is the first page of the thesis/dissertation. It is the sheet that your committee will sign, indicating that your committee finds the final copy of the document acceptable for final submission. You can find a sample approval sheet at http://web.utk.edu/~thesis/samples.shtml. You should take several copies of the approval sheet to the defense for your committee to sign. If you intend to submit paper copies, the approval sheet must be printed on 100% cotton, 24lb paper. For electronic submittal, the approval sheet should be printed on any brand of acid free paper. I must check the formatting of the approval sheet before your committee signs it.
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  6. What options do I have for submitting my thesis/dissertation?
    A: You may submit your thesis/dissertation in paper or electronic format. For paper submittal, you must submit two final paper copies of your document, double-sided (i.e., text on both sides of the page), on 100% cotton, 24-pound paper. For electronic submittal, you must submit one Adobe® Acrobat® pdf file. Students submitting theses/dissertations for fall 2007 and beyond must submit electronically.
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  7. When I bring drafts for your review, do they have to be printed on 100% cotton, 24-pound paper?
    A: No! In fact, if you plan to submit paper copies of your thesis/dissertation, only the FINAL copies should be printed on 100% cotton, 24-pound paper. Print drafts on regular printer paper, because you may have to make changes to your document after my review.
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  8. What is an ETD?
    A: An Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) is a document that explicates the research of a graduate student. It is expressed in a form simultaneously suitable for electronic archives and worldwide retrieval.
    Similar to paper... The ETD is similar to its paper predecessor. It has the same components as its paper counterpart and follows the same format requirements. It describes why the work was done, how the research relates to previous work as recorded in the literature, the research methods used, the results, the interpretation and discussion of the results, the summary with conclusions, and it includes citations.
    Only different... The ETD is different, though. It provides a technologically-advanced medium for expressing your ideas. You prepare your ETD by using word processing software and you use Adobe Acrobat® software to create the final version, and to incorporate relevant multimedia objects into the ETD. All of this is done without the requirement to submit final paper copies on 100% cotton paper. Consequently, ETDs are less expensive to prepare, consume virtually no library shelf space, and never collect dust. They are available to anyone that can browse the Internet. Check out this general information about ETDs.
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  9. What are the advantages to submitting electronically?
    A: By preparing an ETD and submitting it electronically you learn about electronic document preparation and about digital libraries. These skills will help prepare you for your future role in the Information Age, whether you teach, research, or use the research results of others.

    Furthermore, you may be able to better convey the message of your thesis or dissertation in an electronic as opposed to a paper document. Thus, you can easily have color diagrams, color images, hypertext links, and even include audio, video, animations, spreadsheets, databases, simulations, virtual reality worlds, etc. in your document.

    Another advantage is that electronic submission may be more economical for you as compared to the cost of preparing 100% cotton paper copies.
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  10. How will people be able to access my ETD?
    A: By participating in the UT ETD submission option, we will work to make your ETD as easily available as possible. First, we will allow access over the Internet, so people can link to our collection for browsing, and even link directly to your ETD. Second, in the record for your ETD that will be in the UTK library catalog, we will have link information, so those searching that catalog can link directly to the ETD. Third, the URL for the UT ETD website will be provided to the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) to insure future access.
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  11. Why should my ETD be freely available?
    A: The world of scholarship depends on people making their research available to others. When that is done electronically, more people can get access at a lower cost, and more knowledge transfer occurs. This can stimulate education and research. It also can ensure that many people give credit to you for your work, and that your research is cited in others' publications, which adds to your prestige and can help your future advancement.

    Before theses and dissertations were available electronically, not many theses were read because of access restrictions. Electronic access multiplies the number of times works are read by a factor of ten or more. Since you spent a great deal of time on your research, it should encourage you to know that others are reading that work. Your literature review may guide others, and your results may save others the time of redoing your study.

    With ETDs, students and universities can more easily share knowledge, with much lower costs. We believe that about 200,000 theses or dissertations are completed each year. It would greatly aid graduate education if as many as possible of these were freely available.
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  12. What if I want to write a book related to my ETD?
    A: We realize that some students, especially in the humanities, prepare books related to their theses or dissertations. In general it appears to be the case that electronic release of early versions of a book leads to greater sales of such books. Indeed, having an electronic work made available on the Internet, and telling a publisher that there have been a large number of electronic accesses to that work, may help you land a book contract.

    Usually, books that relate to theses or dissertations turn out to be significantly different because they are revised as part of the editorial process. This makes it likely that those interested in your work will buy your book when it comes out, even if they have reviewed your ETD.

    However, since publishers vary widely in their policies, you should confer with publishers, prior to final submission, to which you are likely to submit your work.
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  13. How does the ETD project relate to ProQuest?
    A: ProQuest (formerly University Microfilims, Inc.) is a corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan that maintains a microform archive of about 1.5 million dissertations, as well as an online service called Digital Dissertations. Most dissertations written in the US are submitted to ProQuest for archiving on microfilm, from which microform or paper copies can be produced. ProQuest functions as an on-demand book publisher that eliminates the editorial process. One of the services they offer is to help you regarding copyright and working with publishers.

    They accept electronic submissions as well as paper submissions. The latter are scanned in and OCR'ed, but in most cases current technology does not yield as good a result as would come from an electronic submission. ProQuest plans to make available online electronic versions of all works they receive after 1997 (available as pdf documents).

    Few masters theses are sent to ProQuest. The ETD initiative aims to handle the hundreds of thousands of theses that ProQuest does not receive each year.

    ProQuest has a representative on the Steering Committee and on the Technical Advisory Committee for the NDLTD. More information about ProQuest can be found at http://www.ProQuest.com.
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  14. What do I need to know about signing agreements with publishers?
    A: When you have your research published in a conference, book, or journal, you usually sign some type of agreement with the publisher. You should read that agreement carefully before signing, making sure you understand and agree with the terms and conditions. If you don't, you may want to change the agreement in connection with discussion/negotiation with the publisher, and possibly with advice of legal or other counsel. The agreement should be explicit about what future rights of use you retain. If you want to include the materials in your ETD, reuse the materials for teaching, or incorporate the materials in a book chapter, you must make sure this is clearly spelled out in the publishing agreement.

    As the author, you are entitled to discuss your plans with the publisher. We encourage you to obtain an agreement that allows you to include your research in a freely available ETD.

    During these negotiations you may want to discuss matters of timing and revision. However, most publishers consider a thesis or dissertation to be quite different from a journal article. Typically the article is much shorter than the chapter or full work, has been revised as a result of the editorial process and peer review, and sometimes has several authors, resulting in many publishers having no concern regarding fully accessible ETDs.
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  15. What if I want to incorporate a journal article into my ETD?
    A: If you have published an article or articles during your academic career, and you wish to include those articles in your thesis/dissertation, you have a number of options. These should be discussed with your committee, and possibly with your publisher. First, you can simply cite that publication in your references. Second, if the publisher has the publication online, you can link or point to it (with permission of the publisher, who usually has protection so that paying customers or subscribers are the only ones allowed access). Third, if the publisher gives you a signed release, you can include the publication in your thesis or dissertation as allowed in that release.

    This matter may be avoided if your thesis or dissertation talks about your research in a very different way from the published article. That often is the case, since articles are typically short, and your thesis or dissertation may be the only place where all the details, data, tables, and other aspects of your research are made available.

    Remember that preparing a thesis or dissertation is part of your graduate experience, one aim of which is to prepare you to be a part of the world of research and publication. We hope you will treat this a part of your educational experience, and will take steps when you deal with publishers to help other students gain the widest possible access to your research.
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  16. If I plan to submit my thesis/dissertation electronically, should I bring paper copies for your review or should I bring a disk with an electronic copy?
    A: Bring a paper copy for the preliminary format review. Bring an electronic copy for the final format review and final submittal. The electronic copy should be a pdf file. Go go http://web.utk.edu/~thesis/etd.shtml for instructions on creating a pdf file and other helpful information about an electronic submission. When you bring the file for review, you may bring a CD, floppy disk, USB drive, or Zip disk (I can only accept 100 MB disks). I will not keep the disk or USB drive.
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  17. Can I e-mail a draft for review?
    A: You may e-mail a draft if you do not live in Knoxville. I try to reserve e-mail reviews for students who do not have the opportunity to meet with me in person. The process can take several days, depending on how busy I am. If you have not heard from me after a week, contact me to make sure I received the file. I will always respond, even if you do not have formatting corrections.
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  18. If I don’t live in Knoxville, how can I work with you?
    A: We can correspond via e-mail and/or US mail. If you e-mail the files, you should only send a pdf file. Make sure to send me your e-mail address and phone number with every correspondence. I will review the document in the order I received it and will e-mail comments back to you. The process can take several days, depending on how busy I am. If you have not heard from me after a week, contact me to make sure I received the file. I will always respond, even if you do not have formatting corrections.
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  19. How much time should I set aside to meet with you?
    A: Most student meetings last between 30 and 40 minutes, depending on the length and complexity of the thesis/dissertation and the number of questions you have.
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  20. At what point in the thesis/dissertation-writing process should I meet with you?
    A: Meet with me as soon as you have a few chapters written. I review your document for formatting, so the earlier in the process you meet with me, the less formatting work you will have to do at the end of the process. If you wait until the preliminary review deadline to schedule your appointment, you will likely not be able to get an appointment. My schedule fills up before the end of the semester every semester. Schedule your appointments at least two weeks before the preliminary review deadline.
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  21. What should I do if I cannot schedule an appointment to meet with you?
    A: I will likely run out of appointments at the end of the semester. If this happens and you cannot schedule a preliminary review appointment, you will need to come in when I open my schedule to walk-ins. The last two weeks before the deadline will be first-come, first-served. My hours are 8-5, with a break from around 12-1 for lunch. You should also e-mail a draft of your approval sheet to me before your defense.
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  22. I have heard that I may have to wait in line for hours to meet with you. Is this true?
    A: This is true only if you put off seeing me until a week or two before a submission deadline. Because I am the only Thesis/Dissertation Consultant at UT and I have several meetings with each student who submits a thesis/dissertation, my office is very busy in the weeks leading up to thesis/dissertation submission deadlines. You can avoid the rush if you plan ahead and see me before the end of the semester. If you can’t avoid the rush, rest assured that I will meet with you, although you may have to wait in line. Bring a book, laptop, or something else to do as you wait.
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  23. Do I have to pay for your services?
    A: No. My services are free to UT students.
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  24. I have heard you are an angry, tyrannical, margin-crazy fiend! Is that true?
    A: Yes. Bring shiny objects to distract me and temper my rage.
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