Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

1. Save your final document as a WordDoc or PDF. To avoid the potential of signatures being stolen and misused, NO signatures are permitted anywhere in an ETD. For example, you first must remove signatures from the IRB approval notice if you include it in an appendix.
2. Go to the ProQuest ETD Administrator website. Create a new account the first time you log on and go through each step to:
   • Embed the fonts.
   • Convert your document to PDF format if it isn't already and upload it.
   • Select your publishing and embargo preferences.
   • Order personal hard copies (optional).
   • Register the copyright through ProQuest with the Library of Congress (optional).
   • Submit your final document.
3. ProQuest sends you an e-mail confirmation. Save the email, as it is your proof that you submitted online by the stated deadline.
4. The Graduate School is alerted that your document is submitted and will review your document to make sure the formatting is compliant with Marquette's Thesis or Dissertation Directives. If changes are needed, you will be notified by email to make the appropriate changes and re-upload to ProQuest.
5. Once approved by the Graduate School, your final document is released to ProQuest who will log, index and publish your thesis or dissertation.

There are two ways to publish - traditional or open access. An embargo to delay publishing for a selected period of time may be used with either method.

Option 1: Traditional Publishing

Traditional Publishing makes your work available for purchase by others and enables you to receive royalties based on those purchases. However, the need for others to purchase your document means that it will not receive the widest possible dissemination. Your document is, however, included in an online database so that subscribers to the database will have access to your document unless you impose an embargo. Those who do not have access to the database through an institutional subscription and choose not to purchase it have access online only to an extract consisting of the title page and the first few content pages.

Traditional Publishing Fee through ProQuest: None

Option 2: Open Access Publishing

Open Access is the broadest possible method of disseminating your work. The full text of your electronic thesis or dissertation is freely accessible world-wide on the Internet after it has been approved by the Graduate School and submitted to ProQuest. Granting open access to your ETD results in more recognition of your research work, wider dissemination of scholarly information, and acceleration of research. Because your research is available free of charge, there is no income to ProQuest (or to you via royalties), and there is an upfront fee included. For that reason, this is the more expensive choice of publishing for you.

Open Access Publishing Fee through ProQuest: $95.00

You can choose to grant immediate access to your work or to block access in order to protect the work for patent and/or proprietary purposes for a designated period. You may choose to embargo (i.e., inhibit access to) your work for six months, one year, two years, or a custom amount of time. If you choose to delay access, your work will default to whichever publishing method you have selected (traditional or open access) at the expiration of that embargo.

Disclosing potential intellectual property in theses or dissertations published online may preclude patent rights in some areas of the world. If you have patent concerns or concerns that the posting of your ETD might prevent later acceptance of your research by professional journals or book publishers, it is your responsibility to consult with your committee and with possible future publishers to make an informed decision. 

The author of the thesis or dissertation already owns the copyright to the electronic work as soon as it is in a fixed form (i.e. written). International copyright law provides full protection and establishment of the author’s rights.

However, ProQuest offers an additional copyright registration service that registers your copyright, establishes your claim to copyright, and provides certain protections if your copyright is violated.

The cost to have ProQuest register your copyright with the Library of Congress is $75. This fee is between ProQuest and the student, and is not administered through Marquette University. The additional fee for copyright registration must be paid via credit card to ProQuest at the time of the electronic submission. For more information regarding copyright registration and the advantages, please visit the ProQuest site.

Copyright @ Marquette 

The U.S. Copyright Office

ProQuest can bind your document into a hard-copy book. Follow the directions at the ProQuest Web site regarding their full range of binding options. You select the binding option you prefer at the “Order Copies” step of the submission process.

Each volume is rendered with respect for the scholarly research, featuring:

• Brilliant white 32 lb. paper stock: acid-free and archival-grade, this photographic-quality stock is brighter and more opaque for better ink contrast and readability.
• Photographs, charts, and other illustrations are printed as they were provided electronically.
• Durable hardbound copies are 8½”x11” with elegant black covers made from 2.5 mm-thick board covered in washable linen. Titles are embossed in gold foil on the spine. Handmade thread-sewn bindings and generous margins enable volumes to be opened flat.

All master’s and doctoral students submitting an ETD must sign a ProQuest/UMI Publishing Agreement form. Read Publishing Your Graduate Work with UMI Dissertation Publishing carefully before signing this agreement. You will find important information on copyrighting your work there as well.

As your publisher, ProQuest offers your dissertation for sale and pays you royalties in any year in which your 10% accrues to $10.00 or more. If you did not restrict distribution of your dissertation when you signed your author agreement, we assume that you want the broadest possible distribution of your work. If you are no longer comfortable making your work broadly available, ProQuest can restrict sales of your work per your instruction. Please contact the ProQuest author relations team at disspub@il.proquest.com or (800) 521-0600, ext. 7020 if that is your wish, or if you have any further questions about the Amazon.com or Google Scholar portals to dissertations and theses.

You may also limit distribution at the time of graduation; simply provide a completed ProQuest/UMI Non-Distribution Memo with your Publishing Agreement Form. To re-authorize ProQuest / UMI to distribute copies of your thesis or dissertation, you may send an email request to disspub@umi.com to make arrangements for this. You will need to cite your name, document title and ProQuest publication number along with your request.

1. Submit Publishing Through e-Publications@Marquette DocuSign form.
2. Indicate your preferences for how the thesis or dissertation is published in the repository.
3. There is no publishing fee