Theses & Dissertations

For some of you, the most important moment in your graduate experience is when you research, compose and defend your thesis or dissertation. As the culmination of your outstanding hard work, your thesis or dissertation represents the final step towards earning your Masters or Doctoral degree. The process isn’t as daunting as you may have heard. View the links below to learn more about the process and hear some of our advice.

Preparing For Your Thesis or Dissertation

If your degree requires a thesis or dissertation, your Graduation Packet will contain several additional required documents.

ProQuest Documents

The Writing Process

Additionally, we have many resources in our Writing section that can assist you with more information on copyright issues, plagiarism, appropriate formatting, and the like. You should also read the complete Thesis & Dissertation Manual.

The Completed Thesis or Dissertation

All of your completed thesis or dissertation documents should be delivered to the Graduate School in the Filing Envelope provided with your Graduation Packet. All documents must be turned in by the appropriate deadlines. (Check the Academic Calendar for these dates: Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Summer 2010).

A completed packet will include:

 

  • Electronic Submission Form (revised November 2009)

  • Final Defense Form (may be submitted directly by your department)

  • Paper or digital versions of any copyright permission letters

  • Paper version of your dissertation/thesis including your abstract

  • A CD containing three separate files (with appropriate formatting)

    • a PDF version of your dissertation/thesis

    • a PDF version of your abstract

    • a Word Processor version of your abstract

What's Next?

After your dissertation/thesis has been submitted, the Graduate Reader will examine your work and email you regarding any necessary revisions (if needed). These revisions should be resubmitted by the appropriate deadline. (Check the Academic Calendar for these dates: Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Summer 2010).

Distribution of Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs)

The Graduate School will distribute your ETD to the UNT Library and ProQuest. All UNT ETDs are placed in the UNT ETD repository and made available via the online Libraries catalog for reading and/or downloading by all users, including being crawled and indexed by online search engines (e.g., Google). ETDs are available in perpetuity; there are no restrictions regarding who can download the file or how many times it can be downloaded. If release needs to be delayed, a student's major professor must make an appeal to the Graduate School dean.

All students must sign and submit a ProQuest publication agreement form as part of their required paperwork for graduation. Students must include their social security number on the ProQuest forms. As copyright holder, students earn royalties on every copy of their thesis or dissertation. All signed forms are sent with the files to ProQuest at the end of the semester. UNT is not a party to this agreement and has no way of tracking what arrangements students make with ProQuest.