Archiving the Master's Thesis

Thesis Archiving Requirement

Master’s theses present significant research by students and are a vital part of the University of Arizona’s academic contributions.  A master’s student who completes a thesis is required to submit the final approved thesis for archiving.  Archiving does not preclude publication by other methods. Successful master's candidates are also encouraged to submit thesis material for publication in scholarly or professional journals. Suitable acknowledgment must indicate the publication to be a thesis, or portion of a thesis, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree at the University of Arizona.

The instructions below apply to students who completed a Thesis (course number 910) as a requirement for a master’s degree.  They do not apply to a master’s report completed under course number 909.

The master's degree for a student completing a thesis will not be awarded until the Graduate College receives and accepts the thesis submission with the supporting forms (see the submission steps below and Steps to Archiving Your Thesis).

Thesis Submission Deadline

All requirements for the master's degree, including the submission of the final, approved thesis for archiving, must be completed by the published deadline for graduation in that semester or term.  The submitted thesis must be the final thesis approved by the thesis committee with no edits or revisions remaining.

Instructions for Thesis Archiving

All master's theses will be archived both with ProQuest/UMI in their national archive of dissertations and theses and in the University of Arizona Campus Repository maintained by the UA Library.  The thesis submitted for archiving must be the final thesis as approved by the student’s thesis committee.

   Submitting the Thesis for Archiving

  1. Please submit your thesis through the submission site maintained by ProQuest/UMI: www.etdadmin.com/arizona.  You will begin by creating your submission profile.  Be sure to use your “@arizona.edu” e-mail address in the submission profile.
  2. Follow instructions on site to complete submission of thesis.
  3. Submit your signed Distribution Rights form to the Graduate Student Academic Services office in the Graduate College.  (See below for details about these forms.)  You may deliver these forms to the Administration Building, Room 316, fax it to (520) 621-4101, or scan and e-mail them to your Degree Counselor.
  4. You will receive a confirmation e-mail when your thesis has been accepted.  The thesis will be added to both the ProQuest/UMI archive and the UA Campus Repository.  (There may be a delay of a few weeks before the thesis will be available from ProQuest/UMI.) Any corrections post publication may incur a fee.

Restricting Access to your Thesis (Embargo Option)

If you do not want your thesis to be available to the public, you may deposit it in the archives with a temporary or permanent embargo on distribution.  You may specify any length of time for which you want your thesis restricted from public access.  An embargo requested from ProQuest while making your submission will also be observed by the UA Campus Repository.

Not sure whether to make your thesis immediately available online? Read more about reasons to release or embargo your thesis.

Thesis Approval Pages

  • Option 1: Your Graduate Coordinator will use Adobe Sign to gather signatures for your approval page.  Once the chair/co-chairs and committee members have all signed, you will include that signed approval page as page 2 in your dissertation.
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  • Option 2: If your chair/co-chairs and committee members prefer to physically sign your approval page at the final defense, please follow these instructions:
  • Download the sample to prepare your approval page. Be sure to use the correct version, depending on whether you have one thesis chair or co-chairs. Type your name, thesis title and names of the members who will participate on your thesis defense committee. Use your defense date as the date for the signature lines.
  • Print out a hard copy to take to your thesis defense and get the signatures of all your committee members. Your Thesis Chair Co-Chairs will need to sign the form twice (as a member and as chair/co-chair). If a committee member or chair attends the defense remotely, scan the page, have them sign and send back to you.
  • When all signatures are received, scan the signed approval page and email it to your Graduate College Degree Counselor. Keep the original for your records. DO NOT add to ETD ProQuest as a supplementary file.
  • Once you receive the approval page back with the UA watermark, insert the page into your thesis as page 2.

Distribution Rights Form

You will prepare and sign the Distribution Rights form to grant permission to the UA Campus Repository to store your thesis.  If you have requested an embargo on public access to your thesis, you should list the date for permission to publish the thesis consistent with the date you agree to make the thesis publicly available.  Email the signed Distribution Rights form to your Degree Counselor in the Graduate Student Academic Services office.

Optional Fees

Archiving with ProQuest and the UA Campus Repository is free of charge. 

However, if you elect Open Access publishing through ProQuest/UMI, you will pay an additional fee directly to ProQuest.  By paying the Open Access fee, you enable ProQuest/UMI to make your thesis available at no cost to readers.  Note that all theses are available free from the University of Arizona Campus Repository regardless of your publishing option with ProQuest/UMI.

You may elect to have ProQuest/UMI file for a copyright for your thesis in your name.  You can find more information on our About Copyrighting web page.   If you choose to file the copyright for your thesis, ProQuest will charge you the copyrighting fee directly.  Please note that once you make your online submission, you will NOT be able to change your copyrighting decision.

Requests for Technical Help while Submitting your Thesis

Technical assistance with submissions available at http://www.etdadmin.com/cgi-bin/main/support.

Thesis Formatting

Please refer to the Thesis Formatting Guide for our formatting guidelines and our site providing sample pages of the standard thesis title page and approval page.  You can contact your Degree Counselor in the Graduate College with any questions about thesis formatting.

Graduate Exit Survey

After submitting your thesis, please complete the Graduate College Exit Survey.  Your feedback assists the Graduate College in improving graduate education for all students.