All theses and dissertations at UAB are now submitted electronically. An Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) is simply the digital (electronic) representation of your thesis or dissertation. It is the same as its paper counterpart in content and organization, and it meets the formatting requirements described in the Format Manual for Theses and Dissertations. If you have written your theses or dissertation on a computer by using a word processing program, you have already created an ETD.
Advantages of Electronic Submission
- Rather than printing your document over and over as you make changes and progress through the various stages of review, you will be able to simply make corrections to the electronic file, convert the final version to a PDF file, and submit that file.
- You may include additional information (e.g., data or multimedia files) that might not be possible or appropriate to incorporate into a paper document.
- Whereas paper copies spend months waiting to be bound and distributed, your electronic document can be available much more quickly and, if you so choose, to a much wider audience.
It is important to recognize the distinction between electronic submission and electronic publication.
Electronic submission means simply that rather than printing your document and submitting paper copies to the Graduate School to be bound, you will submit your final document as a PDF file. Committee members may still, if they choose, require a paper copy for their part of the review process.
Electronic publication is a separate issue and refers to the ways in which your document will be made available to others. This issue requires further consideration. Click here for a discussion of publication and copyright issues.