Submission Guidelines for Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Who Can Submit

Graduate Dissertations and Theses only publishes materials about work conducted under the auspices of Graduate Dissertations and Theses. You can submit prior to graduation or end date of the term, i.e., "before you've walked." However, the posted dissertations or theses of graduate students who fail to meet any part of their program's requirements for graduation may be removed at any time. For additional information, please contact digitalshowcase@lynchburg.edu

Prior to Submitting Your Work:

1. Make sure your paper is available in an acceptable format. We can accept papers in Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format (RTF), or Adobe Acrobat (PDF).

2. If you use a word-processing program other than Microsoft Word, look for an "export" or "save as" option in your program to save it as an RTF file. If you have questions, please contact digitalshowcase@lynchburg.edu.

3. We can convert files from some programs into an acceptable format. Please contact digitalshowcase@lynchburg.edu.

4. You will describe your work with a brief paragraph. You are encouraged to write this paragraph prior to typing the form to submit your work. Write a brief abstract for your paper. It must be 750 words or less.

5. You will be asked to describe your work with select keywords. These are words that will help a user locate your paper through a search. Google will index these keywords along with your title and abstract, so they express terms that are not written explicitly in your title. You may type a maximum of six keywords, or phrases, separated by commas. You are encouraged to identify keywords prior to typing the form to submit your work.

Submitting Your Work:

1. Gather all files, abstracts, keyword lists, etc. Please note that you should submit using the latest versions of browsers such as Firefox, Safari, or Chrome, and Internet Explorer is a poor browser choice for submission.

2. Select Submit Research

3. Type in your information into your submission form. Your author name should be the name printed on your official diploma. You will use your keyword list and abstract to add a description of your work.

4. Please select categories, such as Educational Leadership, to place your work in that commons with other similar works.

5. Please note other data about your work: What year is this graduate work submitted? Please indicate the year of graduation. Do you want to embargo this work? Indicate your embargo period, if any, on the form. Do you have any other data related to your work? The administrators will review your comments, rights, and audiovisual files.

6. Review it carefully before clicking submit only once.

After Submitting Your Work:

1. A librarian will review your submission. We will create an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of the paper for online access. Administrators retain the right to copy-proof or revise any submitted information. We will then send you a message asking you to approve the PDF version in a link to the work and description.

2. Please look it over (the link, which contains both your full-text file and the descriptive information about the work) within 10 days and reply to digitalshowcase@lynchburg.edu. At this stage, we're unable to make any changes beyond the truly necessary. You will be notified by e-mail when the paper is posted.

3. If you would like to post a revised version of your paper on the site, please follow the instructions in Submitting Your Work a second time; however, during your second submission, please specify when you submit the revised copy that it is a revision of a previously submitted paper. You will have the ability to resubmit it only twice within the period of 30 days before administrators will lock your account.

4. If you publish this paper or a revised version elsewhere, for example in a journal, please send the citation of the new version to digitalshowcase@lynchburg.edu. We will be able to inform repository users about the new version.