The University of Tennessee  Thesis/Dissertation Website
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General Information

On September 6, 2001, the Graduate Council approved the recommendation from the Academic Policy Committee to make electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) a regular submission option. The main goal of the ETD option is to help graduate students learn more about electronic publishing and digital libraries through application in their own research. Students will be able to share the results of graduate research more quickly and completely and will be empowered to convey a richer message through the use of multimedia and hypermedia technologies.

Upon conferral of the graduate degree, ETDs submitted will be available globally. Universities, students, publishers, and other interested parties can search and browse the collection of ETDs through the UT Libraries Catalog or the ETD Web site.

The ETD Submission Option is a joint collaboration between the Office of Information Technology, University Libraries and the Office of Graduate Studies.

History of ETDs

In October 1997, the Graduate Council of The University of Tennessee, Knoxville approved a Pilot Program for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). The concept of ETDs was first openly discussed at a 1987 meeting in Ann Arbor, MI arranged by University Microfilms, Inc. (UMI). Beginning in 1991, a team at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University led the ETD Project, investigating problems associated with production, archiving and access. Since 1992, they have worked with the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), UMI and other interested organizations, to help run a series of design and discussion meetings.

Over 70 institutions and organizations are currently accepting ETDs or working on resources to help create ETDs. Universities around the world are working together to build a Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). This initiative involves training graduate students to publish electronically and use digital libraries, and to better prepare them for research and future careers. The ETDs they produce will be widely accessible, supported by powerful research and browsing software.

Note to Student Participants

Your ETD will contribute to worldwide graduate education as we participate in building a Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) in collaboration with other scholarly institutions. We want to address concerns and questions you may have about how this relates to other types of publication. Please read the Frequently Asked Questions page, and feel free to contact us at thesis@utk.edu if you have further questions.

The ETD option at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville has several goals, including to help you in your career, to help other students and researchers, and to make available many works that are now "lost" (e.g., theses that led to no other publications and that only are available through inter-library loan).

Most publishers contacted by the NDLTD Project Team support these goals, realizing that theses and dissertations are very different from previously published or derivative books and articles. The team believes that making ETDs available will supplement the efforts of publishers so both activities can proceed in harmony. We urge you to prepare your ETD to harmonize with publishing practices, so that your research becomes as widely disseminated as possible, as soon as possible.