Submission Guidelines for Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

It is important that you plan to defend and submit your thesis or dissertation in the approved and accepted format to the Graduate School according to the dates published in the Graduate School Academic Calendar. Read Thesis and Dissertation Standards for information about preparing and formatting your manuscript. Defending and/or submitting your thesis or dissertation after the deadline date may result in you not graduating in the semester you planned, additional expense to register for a subsequent semester, and your degree to not be conferred.

Before submitting a thesis or dissertation to UTC Scholar, please be sure that all necessary permissions have been cleared. You retain the copyright to your paper and grant us the nonexclusive right to publish this material, meaning that you may also publish it elsewhere.

More information about preparing and defending your thesis or dissertation is available from the Graduate School Thesis and Dissertation page.

  1. When should I submit?
  2. What do I need know when I am ready to submit?
  3. What are my intellectual property rights?
  4. What am I agreeing to when I submit?
  5. How do I choose a Creative Commons License?
  6. How do I request an embargo?
  7. How do I submit?
  8. What happens after I submit?
  9. How do I make revisions?
  10. How do I acquire a bound copy?

When should I submit?

Once the thesis or dissertation has been approved by the committee, the student must submit the thesis or dissertation in electronic form to UTC Scholar.

What do I need know when I am ready to submit?

Before you submit, make sure you have the following information and files ready. Most of the information you'll need can be found on the title page of your thesis or dissertation.
  1. Title
    The title of your thesis or dissertation.
  2. Abstract
    The abstract of your thesis or dissertation
  3. Department
    Your UTC academic department, e.g. Dept. of Psychology.
  4. College
    Your UTC collection e.g. Arts and Sciences.
  5. Degree Type
    The degree you are earning e.g. M.A., M.S., Ph.D., etc.
  6. Keywords
    Keywords, tags, or phrases that describe the content of your thesis or dissertation.
  7. Date
    The date you'll be receiving your degree, e.g. December 2013.
  8. License
    The Creative Commons License you want for your thesis or dissertation. More information about choosing a Creative Commons license may be found below.
  9. Embargo
    The amount of time you would like to delay access to the full text of your thesis or dissertation. More information about requesting an embargo may be found below.
  10. Upload Full Text
    Have an electronic copy, preferably in Microsoft Word (DOC) or (DOCX) format, ready.
  11. Additional Files
    Have electronic copies of any supplemental materials, such as audio and video files or datasets, on hand.

What are my intellectual property rights?

According to the Statement of Policy on Patents, Copyrights, and other Intellectual Property adopted by The University of Tennessee Board of Trustees on October 19, 1984 and amended on June 19, 2003, "a student must, as a condition of a degree award, grant royalty-free permission to the University to reproduce and publicly distribute, including by electronic and digital technologies now known or developed in the future, on a non-commercial basis, copies of the thesis or dissertation."

What am I agreeing to when I submit?

In accordance with the Statement of Policy on Patents, Copyrights, and other Intellectual Property you must agree to our Non-Exclusive Distribution License.

How do I choose a Creative Commons License?

When you submit research, you will be asked to select a Creative Commons License. Here's a little information about each license:

  • Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
    This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
  • Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
    This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to "copyleft" free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
  • Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0
    This license allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to you.
  • Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0
    This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
  • Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
    This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
  • Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0
    This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.

How do I request an embargo?

If your research is pending publication, pending patent, or contains sensitive data, you may request that the Dean of the Graduate School set an embargo, or future date when the full text of your dissertation will be available for download. This means that access to the full text (i.e. your Word or PDF document) will be restricted for a set period of time, generally 6 months or a year, after which the full text of your dissertation will be fully accessible and downloadable by any researcher on the web.

When you submit research, you will be prompted to supply a justification and period of time for the full text of your research to be under embargo in UTC Scholar. The Dean of the Graduate School reviews all embargo requests and will contact you directly with any questions related to your request.

How do I submit?

  1. Make sure your paper is in an acceptable format. We can accept papers in Microsoft Word (DOC) or (DOCX), Rich Text Format (RTF), or Adobe Acrobat (PDF).
  2. Create a new account by clicking on My Account and clicking on the Sign up button. If you already have an account, sign in and skip ahead to step 5.
  3. Complete the user account form. Be sure to enter your UTC email address and choose a password you will remember. Click Sign up.
  4. After you've created your new account, you will see a page directing you to check your email. Check your email and click on the link in the email. This will take you back to UTC Scholar.
  5. Once you’ve successfully logged in to UTC Scholar, click Submit Research.
  6. Choose Theses and Dissertations.
  7. Check the box to agree to to the Non-Exclusive Distribution License for Theses and Dissertations.
  8. Fill out the form and upload your file. Required fields are indicated by a red flag.
Now you are ready to SUBMIT RESEARCH.

What happens after I submit?

After you submit your thesis or dissertation, we will create an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of it and publish it on the site if your manuscript does not require formatting changes. If your manuscript requires formatting changes, you will be asked to make revisions to your manuscripts by the Dean of the Graduate School. You will be notified by e-mail if you need to make revisions or when your thesis is posted.

How do I make revisions?

If the submission has been submitted, but not yet posted, you may revise it via your My Account page:
  1. Locate the article on your My Account page, and click the title.
  2. Click Revise Submission from the list of options in the left sidebar.
  3. Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form, and click Submit at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. (You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.)
Once a submission has been posted to UTC Scholar, you’ll need to contact us at scholar@utc.edu to request edits.

How do I acquire a bound copy?

You may acquire a spiral bound copy from the UTC Copy Center for a binding fee of $3. Alternatively, you may purchase a hard bound copy from the UTC Bookstore for a fee of $36. Inquire at the Copy Center and Bookstore for more information.