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WPI Theses & Dissertations: For Students

Information for Students on Submission Process

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

STEP 3: SUBMITTING YOUR FILES

STEP 4:  GETTING APPROVAL

STEP 5: GETTING BOUND COPIES

STEP 6: AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR WORK

STEP 1

STEP 1: BEFORE YOU SUBMIT YOUR THESIS OR DISSERTATION:

  1. Be sure that you are clear on your advisor's expectations.
     
  2. Consult with your advisor or department about scheduling your defense.
     
  3. Check with your department or advisor on how and when you should get copies of your thesis or dissertation to your committee members before your defense.
     
  4. Present or defend your work
  5. Discuss with your advisor whether it is necessary to restrict online access to your thesis or dissertation online. You will have the following options to choose from:
    • Open to all: default option – maximizes access and impact of your work
    • Embargoed: access restricted to WPI only for 1 - 3 years (due to intellectual property, grant, or publication plans);
      or
       no access to your thesis or dissertation by anyone for 1-3 years (due to intellectual property, grant, or publication plans; or pending redaction due to classification or disclosure constraints). 
       
  6. Make any necessary changes to your document following your presentation/defense.

STEP 2

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:

  1. ​​​Blank Approval Form for Digital Signatures 

  2. Guide to Approval Form with Digital Signatures 

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

STEP 3: SUBMITTING YOUR FILES:

  1. Review the process: You will submit your revised thesis or dissertation via the online ETD submission system
     
  2. Submit your ETD online by going to (login required): https://eprojects.wpi.edu/ 
  • Required: Enter identifying information about your work, including your name, department, the category of the work (e.g. thesis or dissertation), the title and abstract, and list your advisors. 
  • Recommended: Add keywords that describe the topic, methods, or other important ideas reflected in your work.
  • Optional: Choose United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) supported by your work. The 17 SDGs are goals defined by the United Nations, used globally to identify information, projects, research, and other activities that address global sustainable development challenges.
  • Optional: Specify a Creative Commons or other license to specify how your work can be used by others.
  • Optional: Specify an embargo period of 1-3 years as described in Step 1, for reasons of intellectual property, grant, or publication plans; or pending redaction due to classification or disclosure constraints.

If you need to modify or manage your ETD submission online before submitting (login required):

STEP 4

STEP 4:  GETTING APPROVAL:

  1. Satisfied with your ETD submission?  Once you are satisfied with your submission, you can move on to getting your ETD approved.
    • Only submit a revised final draft. Once your ETD is approved you will not be able to make further changes.
    • Once submitted, the file goes to your advisor for approval.  
       
  2. Questions?

When the Registrar has approved your ETD, you and your advisor will be notified via e-mail.

STEP 5

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

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.