Submitting your thesis or dissertation this year?
Please review the Five Steps below to prepare to submit your ETD for approval by your advisor and committee.
STEP 1: BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION:
STEP 2: PREPARING YOUR FILES:
Recommended document and file formats. At this time, WPI doesn’t have a required thesis template. Please consult with your advisor or department regarding preferred formats. Your primary documents will be submitted as PDF files. For information on creating PDF files, please see: https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/using/create-pdf.html
If you are interested in using LaTeX to create your thesis/dissertation documents, WPI now offers an institutional subscription (standard subscription plan) to Overleaf. Overleaf is a collaborative LaTeX editor used for writing,editing, and publishing scientific documents. Active faculty, staff, and students can request an Overleaf account by emailing its@wpi.edu. For more information, see: https://hub.wpi.edu/software/637/overleaf An example of a dissertation template (created by former WPI graduate student Saad Islam) is at: https://www.overleaf.com/read/smrpckjqfpff
Prepare your complete thesis or dissertation, with unsigned title page, converted to PDF. You will upload this file via the ETD Submission Website (eProjects 2.0). Your primary thesis/dissertation document must be submitted as a single PDF file. Please do not break up your document into multiple files.
Your title page will contain the following information: Title of dissertation or thesis; full name of author; degree; department/program; date; advisor's name; co-advisor's name - if applicable; names of committee members - if applicable; name of the head of department/program - if applicable. This information will also be used in the submission process through eProjects 2.0.
Prepare a separate, digitally signed approval form, or a digital copy of your signed signature/title page. You will submit this online through eProjects 2.0 at the time you submit your thesis or dissertation. You can download a digital approval form here, instructions for its use, and examples of cover pages:
Blank Approval Form for Digital Signatures
Use this form to create a digital Approval Form and collect digital signatures from committee members.
Guide to Approval Form with Digital Signatures
10 step process for filling out the Digital Approval Form and obtaining digital signatures from your committee members.
Supplementary files: You are welcome to attach supplementary files to your ETD when you submit it online. Your files may be in any file format, but please consider using file formats with a higher probability for long-term preservation. If you do include supplementary files, such as a computer program simulation, data set, image, or video, be sure your thesis adequately describes it. For example, for a program or simulation, you might also include any source code with your PDF so that someone could recreate the work later.
Note: Current file size limit for submission through eProjects is .5GB. If your file is larger, Digital WPI can accept files up to 1GB, please work with digitalwpi@wpi.edu to submit your file.
STEP 3: SUBMITTING YOUR FILES:
If you need to modify or manage your ETD submission online before submitting (login required):
STEP 4: GETTING APPROVAL:
When the Registrar has approved your ETD, you and your advisor will be notified via e-mail.
STEP 5: GETTING BOUND COPIES:
Check with your department to see if they require a bound copy of your thesis or dissertation. You may wish to retain a bound paper copy of your thesis or dissertation for yourself as well.
To get a bound copy of your thesis or dissertation, contact HF Group Binding Services. Using HF Group's Thesis On Demand service, you can order thesis and dissertation printing directly, online. Thesis On Demand offers a range of cover and printing options. and you can use their online calculator to get an estimate of your costs before placing your order. You can do as many or as few copies as you want.
STEP 6: AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR WORK
Once your ETD appears in Digital WPI, you will be able to view, retrieve, download, and share it.
Correction and revision
Once a submitted ETD has been accepted, it is considered an academic record and cannot be edited. Any corrections to submitted works should be submitted in the form of a correcting addendum, to be approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies.
Changing names or other descriptions of submitted works (metadata)
The WPI Library routinely corrects, amends, adds, or otherwise revises metadata describing works in Digital WPI, including student works, to enhance accuracy and improve retrievability of the works. All users of Digital WPI including authors are welcome to suggest such changes by contacting Digital WPI at digitalwpi@wpi.edu.
We recognize that personal names used in Digital WPI descriptive information may not reflect preferred, lived, or corrected names. We welcome requests for changes in displayed names in the descriptions of works, from all authors, advisors, or contributors to materials in Digital WPI. No justification is required for a requestor’s name change to be implemented. The change does not need to reflect the requestor’s past or current legal name(s).
To request that your name be changed in the description of materials in Digital WPI, email the Digital WPI administrators at digitalwpi@wpi.edu ) with the following information:
1. Name(s) currently listed on your works in Digital WPI, and role (ie author, advisor, contributor)
2. Complete list of materials with the previously used name on them, with a link to each item
3. The new name that you would like to be used in describing the materials
4. Whether you want us to retain the previous name in addition to the new name
Once we receive a request, we will change the name as requested on the item record(s). This can usually be done quickly (within a few days or weeks at the most).
It is also possible for us to add a preferred, new, or lived name but also to retain a previously used name in the metadata for your work.
You are responsible for contacting your coauthors, advisors, or others, if you want them to know about the change(s) you’ve requested.
Digital WPI administrators will keep a private record of the change(s) made, as part of our archival responsibility, but we will not share this information with others without permission from the requestor.