Bill Savage
Director, Dissertations Publishing
UMI Dissertations Publishing
Timothy Brace
Senior Systems Analyst
University of Texas at Austin
ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, in conjunction with the Berkeley Electronic Press, has developed a Web-based application for the submission, review and approval of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). The application is expected to improve and speed the dissertation and thesis publishing process for graduate students, faculty, and graduate schools.
The new system allows a graduate student to upload his/her approved document into the publishing system, where it is automatically reformatted into Adobe PDF and sent directly to the graduate school. The document is then reviewed for compliance with graduate school policy and format. The system allows the graduate school to track the document throughout the entire process. Using an administrative tool, the graduate school reviewer can accept the document or request revisions. The author is automatically notified by e-mail of the actions taken. Once the thesis or dissertation is accepted, the document and all relevant metadata are delivered to UMI Dissertations Publishing for expedited processing, cataloguing, and posting. The university library also automatically receives a copy of the document. This briefing will describe the project and report on progress to date.