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General Guidelines for ETD Preparation

General Guidelines for ETD Preparation

General Guidelines for ETD Preparation

Each College has unique requirements for formatting, tables of contents, and bibliographies, frequently outlined in the College's Style Guide. Check with your advisor or College ETD Contact for these specific requirements or a Style Guide.

  1. After successfully defending your dissertation or thesis, make any required final corrections. Your approval signature page should include the names and titles of the people who will be signing the page. Many Colleges now use electronic signature pages for collecting signatures; check with your College ETD Contact.
  2. Your advisor will need to approve any request for Delay of Publication (Embargo). If your ETD includes patent information, the form will require the signature of the University Patent Officer as well. Please allow sufficient time.
  3. Starting in Word or other word processing format, convert the final corrected copy to Accessible PDF format. You will need Adobe Acrobat Pro software to do this step. Avoid off-brand free software or web services that may insert advertisements into your document. Do not password the file or add other forms of security to it. Make sure all fonts are embedded. Starting with 2023 graduates, your ETD will need to meet minimal Accessibility Standards. Follow the instructions in this Tip Sheet on creatiing Accessible ETDs.
  4. Go to the OhioLINK ETD Center and follow the prompts to create your account and provide information about your ETD. You may wish to add your ORCID ID to your account, if you have one, but this is optional. Additional submission information from OhioLINK is available in the OhioLINK ETD Center Submitter User Manual. Soon after submitting your ETD, you should receive an email confirming it. This email may land in the Junk folder of your email.
  5. If your ETD contains formatting or other Style Guide issues, it may be "returned" to you by your College ETD Contact through the OhioLINK ETD Center itself. Check your Junk folder in your email.
  6. You should receive another email when your submission has been approved. Check your Junk folder in your email.