UNC Charlotte ETD Project


ETD PREPARATION
Printer Friendly Version

At the present time in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's project to allow doctoral students to submit a dissertation in wholly electronic format, students are required to submit a copy of their work in Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) for Graduate School approval. Links to specific Graduate School requirements for the physical formatting of ETDs are shown below. There are also links to the ETD Web sites of several other groups and universities that contain many hints and specific instructions for the preparation of ETDs. We urge you to review this information carefully.

It is the student’s fundamental responsibility to –

  • Prepare and submit an ETD that meets the Graduate School’s format requirements;

  • Test that the ETD will display clearly and properly on a monitor when accessed, including working links so the ETD can be readily navigated whether it is composed of a single or multiple files;

  • Test that the printed pdf version will be clear and legible, including any figures or images; and

  • Properly embed fonts.

Graduate School Requirements for ETDs

Some Requirements for All ETDs
Graduate School PDF Format Requirements
Approved Multimedia Enhancement Formats

Hints and Instructions for Preparing ETDs

Some General Hints and Instructions
UMI/ProQuest Publishing Guidelines
Information about Adobe Acrobat
ETD Hints from Other Universities

SOME REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL ETDs

  • Compression or password protection must not be used.
  • All fonts used should be embedded in the document. If they are not, your work may not display properly when accessed and the text may not be fully searchable.

  • External or internal links to multimedia files are acceptable. If such elements are used, file formats should be identified in the Abstract.
  • Only selected multimedia file formats are automatically approved for inclusion (see list below).

  • All doctoral ETDs must be accompanied by paper copies of any reprint permission letters and any required third-party software licenses. Dissertations must also be accompanied by paper copies of the signed Title/Signature Page and the ETD Signature Form.

  • The main file name should conform to the following convention: lastname-first initial of firstname-year-degree.pdf (e.g. doe-j-2004-phd.pdf). Use English letters, Arabic numbers, and dashes (-) only; no extra punctuation or diacritical marks or blank spaces. Associated files (for example, video or sound) should follow this same convention with the addition of an indicator of the type of file (video example = doe-j-2004-phd-video1.mov; sound example = doe-j-2004-phd-sound1.wav).
  • UMI/ProQuest also sets all but the last requirement for electronic dissertations submitted to them. (Top of Page)

GRADUATE SCHOOL PDF FORMAT REQUIREMENTS

Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) software essentially prepares a page-oriented electronic document. What you see on the monitor and what you print out on paper should be formatted in standard 8½ x 11" page size. Owing to this fundamental page orientation and also to keep requirements specific to ETDs as simple as possible, the student should use the physical formatting instructions exactly as stated in the latest version (July 2008) of the Graduate School's Manual Of Basic Requirements For Theses And Dissertations. (Top of Page)

APPROVED MULTIMEDIA ENHANCEMENT FORMATS

Inclusion of enhanced multimedia elements in the basic pdf document is completely optional. Owing to the large number of formats available for various multimedia enhancements, the fact that they quickly rise and fall in popularity, and the difficulty inherent in long-term archiving and migrating of these formats as software evolves and changes, only selected multimedia elements are automatically approved for inclusion in ETDs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. These are shown in the list below. The list of approved formats will undoubtedly change as time goes on.

A word of caution, however. There are essentially three levels of commitment the University has made in regard to the long-term archiving of ETDs. (1) A very strong commitment to migrate the body of the work in the basic pdf format, much the same as that for the paper copies that have been submitted for decades. We will do everything possible to ensure long-term availability. (2) A strong commitment to migrate the added multimedia elements in the formats that have been approved. (3) Little or no commitment to migrate any non-approved multimedia formats. These are included at the author's risk. Please note that when UMI/ProQuest prepares and sells a paper copy of your dissertation, they provide only the printable portion to a customer.

There will be some higher level of long-term risk associated with the inclusion of multimedia enhancements. An ETD must therefore be carefully prepared with this in mind. The body of the ETD must therefore be written so that all the important information is contained in the body of the basic pdf document. For example, images can be inserted into the document in pdf format, with links to higher-resolution or enhanced TIFF or JPEG versions.

A student who wishes to include an optional multimedia enhancement in a non-approved format must submit to the Graduate School for approval a request in writing stating the reasons for including this format.

Approved Formats for Optional Multimedia Enhancements

Images
PDF (.pdf) use Type I PostScript fonts
CompuServe GIF (.gif)
JPEG (.jpg)
TIF (.tif)
(Recommend a minimum resolution of 600 dpi for images of pages with text, and suggest that imbedded images be available in several possible resolutions)

Video
Apple Quick Time (.mov)
MPEG (i.e., MPEG-1, MPEG-2) (.mpg)
Microsoft Audio Video Interleaved (.avi)

Audio
AIF (.aif)
CD-DA
CD-ROM/XA (A or B or C)
MIDI (with timing information) (.midi)
MPEG-2 (.mpg)
WAV (.wav)
SND (.snd)

Special
Spreadsheet - Excel (.xls) (Top of Page)

SOME GENERAL HINTS AND INSTRUCTIONS

Color. Color can add vitality to an ETD. Remember, however, that an ETD is a scholarly document. Please, no orange text on a lime-green background unless this is intrinsic to the creative nature of the work itself, such as in a Fine Arts thesis. Use color carefully. Note that problems can be encountered when colored material is printed on a black-and-white printer or copier; some colors may no longer be distinguishable, especially if the printer/copier is set to a high-contrast mode. Some colors may be so light as to be illegible after printing or in a photostatic copy. In particular, when UMI/ProQuest prepares a microform or paper version of your ETD, colors are lost, and so also may be the readability. Do not use only different colors to distinguish multiple lines in a plot or figure. Use lines that are segmented in various ways or data points of different shapes.

Embellishments. Avoid use of flashing text, animated areas, and "dramatic" sound clips (tadaa!) in your ETD unless intrinsic to the nature of the work. Some adornments can certainly have a dramatic effect and catch the reader's attention, but these cannot be used as a substitute for, nor overshadow the content of, the document. An ETD is fundamentally a scholarly document, not a cartoon.

Put it All in the Text. It is especially important to include all of the critical information in your dissertation in the body of the text in the case of an ETD. The written exposition is the core of the dissertation. We have made a very strong commitment to the student that we will make every effort possible to archive and "migrate" the main body of your work into the future as software and operating systems evolve. It is just not possible to make this same level of guarantee in the case of all the possible optional multimedia enhancements, for example. This imposes a somewhat increased burden on the author to explain or summarize in words all the important material in the work, but not that much more than is the case in a well-crafted printed dissertation. For example, for a linked image file do not simply say, "Figure 2 shows the changes in…" Note or summarize what the important changes are. For an audio or video file, summarize the broad, important features of what would be displayed or heard. For data and calculated quantities in a linked spreadsheet that the reader can manipulate, it might be desirable to duplicate (some of ) the information or embedded equations in a table or appendix in text format.

Navigational Aids. To assist the reader in readily navigating your ETD document, we recommend that you build sufficient internal navigational aids into your work. This is especially desirable if your ETD will be submitted as a single long pdf document. This can be done by adding internal links to the first page of each chapter and to other major parts listed in the Table of Contents, perhaps to each figure and table from the List of Figures/Tables, etc. Use of Adobe Acrobat's "Bookmarks" feature is a particularly easy way to include navigational links. Acrobat can automatically generate Bookmarks, which will appear in a window on the left side of the screen, from the Table of Contents generated from several modern word processors, including Microsoft Word. The creator of a pdf document can create additional bookmarks in an existing pdf document to another pdf document or to a Web page.

Instructions. The UNC Charlotte ETD submission Web site maintains a complete set of instructions for the submission of an ETD. The Web site also provides a resource section for students, a discussion of UMI requirements for electronic submission, and a PDF Help Center. (Top of Page)

UMI/PROQUEST PUBLISHING GUIDLINES

UMI, formerly University Microfilms International, is now a subsidiary of ProQuest Information and Learning. The University sends a copy of all doctoral dissertations to UMI/ProQuest to be "published": UMI/ProQuest prints the abstract in Dissertation Abstracts, and sells copies of the dissertation to the public in paper, microform, and electronic format. At this time, UMI/ProQuest will accept ETDs only in Adobe pdf format.

UMI makes available a brochure entitled "Publishing Your Doctoral Dissertation" that contains, among other items, a "Doctoral Dissertation Agreement Form" and some helpful hints on preparing your dissertation. Every student should secure a copy of this document very early in his or her graduate career. Single printed copies are available from the Graduate School, by calling UMI (800-521-0600 x 7020), or by using their electronic order form. (Top of Page)

INFORMATION ABOUT ADOBE ACROBAT

Adobe Systems Incorporated is the company that produces and sells Adobe Acrobat, the proprietary software used to produce documents in PDF (Portable Document Format). A distinction needs to be made between the full Adobe Acrobat suite, which permits the preparation and editing of pdf documents and must be purchased, and the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which only permits the reading and printing of documents already in pdf format, and is available free for download onto your computer. The full Adobe Acrobat program is needed to produce an ETD.

There are several ways in which UNC Charlotte students may access Adobe Acrobat to convert their word processing files into the PDF file format.

  1. The UNC Charlotte Atkins Library has Adobe Acrobat available on several computers.
  2. Adobe maintains a submission Web site where an individual may "upload" up to 5 documents for conversion to PDF file format for free.
  3. Acrobat may be downloaded from the Adobe Web site and utilized for a free 30 day "tryout" period.
  4. Students may purchase copies of Adobe Acrobat at special educational prices from online stores such as campusEstore.com. The Acrobat Pro 8 version costs $59.98. (Top of Page)

ETD HINTS FROM OTHER UNIVERSITIES

A number of universities have been working with and accepting ETDs for several years now, and have developed extensive Web sites with information about and instruction in preparing them. We urge you to review their Web sites.

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) has been the national leader in ETDs. They were the first university to require that all students submit ETDs, beginning in 1997. Their ETD Web site is extensive

West Virginia University was the second educational institution to require that all students submit an ETD. After only one year’s pilot project, it became mandatory in Fall 1998. They accept ETDs only in pdf format. Their Electronic Theses and Dissertations page contains extensive information including a link to their Preparing and Submitting ETDs page.

The University of Texas-Austin now requires that all doctoral students who shall graduate after the Spring 2001 Semester submit an electronic dissertation. Their Electronic Dissertations page includes links to reasonable tutorials on creating pdf documents from Word, Wordperfect, or postscript documents whether you are using Microsoft Windows or Macintosh. It includes the instructions for the handling of Images, Tables, and Graphs in pdf.

The University of Georgia’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation page has only limited details on the preparation of pdf documents, but does contain a link to an interesting site that describes ways of converting documents to PDF format without using Adobe Acrobat.

North Carolina State University has recently begun requiring ETDs of all graduate students. Their ETD site is fairly extensive and provides complete information on creating PDF files. (Top of Page)