ETSU will become the third university in the nation to require electronic submission of theses and dissertations necessary for advanced degrees beginning January 2001.
Based on the system used at Virginia Tech, the first institution to commit to such a mandatory program, the ETSU plan calls for all graduate students to submit their final work electronically to the School of Graduate Studies after it has been defended and approved by the student’s graduate committee.
“We conducted a pilot study involving 17 theses and dissertations written last spring and summer,” said Dr. Wes Brown, ETSU’s dean of Graduate Studies. “The success of these volunteers helped smooth the way for all graduate students to enjoy the improved methods of handing these vital documents.”
Under the traditional system, graduate students carried or mailed their papers to the graduate studies office, the staff carefully examined the document, made suggestions and corrections, and the student would then pick up the manuscript and return with a revised copy.
With the new system, graduate students can submit their work electronically, receive a response, and return a corrected copy, all from a home or office computer. The ease of transmission has proven beneficial, especially for students who have left the area for further study or employment.
“The ETSU Graduate School conducts a rigorous review of the work submitted, and the new process allows us to be more efficient as well as thorough,” Brown said.
Steve Crowder, the style reader for the School of Graduate Studies, concurs. “Reviewing manuscripts electronically, and annotating them on the screen with Adobe Acrobat was faster and less hassle than doing the same on paper,” he said.
In previous years, students made copies of theses or dissertations, the pages were sent to a bindery and specially bound copies were retained in the student’s department of study at ETSU’s Charles C. Sherrod Library.
Anyone wishing to read the bound copy had to go to the library and check out the single copy, if it was available. The new method will save paper and shelf space, since the archival copy will be retained on microfilm.
Brown adds, “There is also an advantage of far greater access to graduate students’ work. All papers may be viewed electronically from computers on campus.
A student may elect to have access restricted to campus or choose to give the manuscript a wider range, making it available to anyone around the world.”
This new accessibility makes it possible for ETSU graduate students’ work to be shared by scholars everywhere, and the ETSU community can see what research is being done by students around the world.
Sherrod Library plays an important role in the new process. Theses and dissertations are added to the electronic catalog of library holdings and can be accessed through the library Web page.
In addition to providing an easier transmittal method for graduate students and greater accessibility for their work, the new system also enhances the quality of illustrations and graphs used in the manuscripts.
Illustrations can be scanned into the electronic document far more accurately and colorfully than the traditional method of printing with ink and paper. `Hot links’ can be added to the document to take readers to related Web sites.
Students can also take advantage of several other benefits. For example, online tutorials and resources help the student properly format, convert, and upload their theses or dissertations onto the site.
Additional lifesavers include templates, tips on how to make the process go smoother and suggestions on how to avoid getting a rejected manuscript, among others.
The topics of the theses and dissertations cover a wide spectrum of interests from “Vertices in Total Dominating Set” to “A Study of Disk Performance Optimization,” from “The Assessment of Empathy in Four, Five, and Six Year Olds” to “The Utilization of Technology in Sports Information Department in Three Divisions of the National Collegiate Athletic Associations.”
Of the ones currently posted online, five theses or dissertations come from the psychology department, four from the math department, two from biomedical, one each from computer science, comomunicative disorders, English, chemistry, biological science, physical education, liberal studies, and educational leadership departments.
ETSU joins Virginia Tech and the University of West Virginia in the vanguard of electronic theses and dissertation transmission.
The guidelines and examples can be viewed online at http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/.
For further information about the ETD system, contact Brown, dean of graduate studies, at (423) 439-6146.

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