Ohio University

The Arrangement Form must be turned in to the college two weeks before the defense, not to TAD Services.  We make the Arrangement form available as a service to students.

Transcripts are available approximately four weeks after the end of the semester and diplomas are available approximately eight weeks after the end of the semester.

TAD Services encourages students to submit their final documents as one Microsoft Word file, but some documents are more difficult to combine than others. If it is unavoidable, TAD Services will accept multiple Word files. If filing electronically, the final Word files can be converted to PDF format and combined before uploading to the OhioLINK database.
 

Your document file can be any size, however TAD Services can receive documents smaller than 17 MB via email for review and approval at tad@ohio.edu. For documents larger than 17 MB, the student may send the document through the TAD Dropbox.

TAD Services has a team of manuscript specialists who check for different formatting details throughout the submission process, from your preliminary review to your final adviser-approved document review. Therefore, separate manuscript specialists may uncover additional suggestions or changes, and we encourage more than one set of eyes to review each document.

Some departments still require a printed copy, while others do not. Please check with your adviser regarding departmental expectations of printed copies and where to deliver them if they are required.
 

We strongly discourage students from using a past document as a formatting template.

Updated, campus-wide formatting guidelines are online. By using our Web site and its templates, you guarantee that the formatting and guidelines are the most current. If you want to look at accepted ETDs in your field, we recommend finding the most current documents from OU on OhioLINK.

The TAD Graduation Workshop and the Word Training workshops are free and optional. Both are geared toward students who have questions or concerns after reviewing the web site or who are having technical issues while formatting documents. TAD Services recommends attending at least one of the Word workshops in the semester that you begin working on your document. The Graduation Workshop is especially useful in the semester you plan to graduate.

TAD Services is physically located in Research and Technology Center, Room 220, with other Graduate College offices. The Research and Technology Center is at the intersection of Richland Avenue, President Street and S. Congress Street, just south of Hanning Hall and west of Bentley Annex.

Some students, especially in the humanities, prepare books related to their theses or dissertations. In general it appears to be the case that electronic release of early versions of a book can lead to greater sales of such books. Indeed, having an electronic work made available on the Internet, and telling a publisher that there have been a large number of electronic accesses to that work, may help you land a book contract. However, since publishers vary widely in their policies, it may be wise to share this documentation about the ETD initiative with publishers to which you are likely to submit your work.

Usually, books that relate to theses or dissertations turn out to be significantly changed as part of the editorial process. This makes it likely that those interested in your work will buy your book when it comes out, even if they have reviewed your ETD.

Publication delays can be requested if a student is concerned with future publishing of an article, collected poetry or short stories, a book, or a pending patent. TAD Services strongly suggests that a student request a publication delay if he or she plans to publish text from their manuscript that is in a similar or exact format.
If you decide you want a publication delay, the form is posted online at www.ohio.edu/tad under Step 2. Complete, print, sign, and drop off the form to TAD Services by the deadline for the quarter.

No, it is not a requirement, but TAD Services highly suggests it except in the cases where the copyright is no longer the property of the author, for example in paid research or if the rights to the finished work have already been sold. 

You may use the copyright line without paying the fee to register your copyright with the U.S. Government. Utilizing the copyright line reinforces that you own the copyright. U.S. copyright law states that as soon as your work is in tangible form, you own the copyright. 

Registering your copyright affords you more legal protection in a court of law against someone who may plagiarize your work than if you did not register your copyright, and can be done as soon as the final version of your document is approved. Information on registering a copyright can be found here.

ProQuest/UMI is a corporation in Ann Arbor, Michigan that maintains a microfilm archive of about 1.5 million dissertations, as well as an online service called Dissertation Abstracts. Most dissertations written in the US are submitted to UMI for archiving on microfilm, from which microfilm or paper copies can be produced. In the U.S. all dissertations must be filed with the Library of Congress and ProQuest/UMI fulfills that role while providing permanent digital off-site backups of all dissertations. 

Doctoral candidates are required to file under the Traditional Publishing option with ProQuest/UMI. The cost to the student is free. Open access options are available through ProQuest/UMI, but a fee is assessed.

Masters candidates are not required to submit to ProQuest/UMI, but may do so on their own.

TAD Services retains a list of contacts for students who need more help with their documents in the writing and editing stages than TAD Services can offer. Contact tad@ohio.edu to receive a copy of the list. These contacts are available for hire and negotiating fees is between the student and the editor.

Formatting support:

TAD Services will conduct document reviews on Microsoft Word documents and respond with instructions on required formatting changes. TAD Services does not have the staff available to make corrections to documents on behalf of students.

A sample document as well as formatting checklist is available for students to reference while creating their documents. Use of the TAD templates is highly recommended. Training for the use of the templates is available at least once per quarter.

Technical errors:

Minor technical errors will be addressed with an explanation of how to correct the error in email along with the document review.

For more complex technical errors, TAD services will suggest attending a workshop or scheduling an appointment.

TAD Services will review PDF documents for students writing in Latex. TAD Services staff is not familiar with Latex code and cannot offer advice on formatting in Latex, however we do have a Latex template and the creator of the template has offered to assist should someone need help. Contact information is in the included Readme file
 

Currently the pre-oral defense review is not mandatory. However it is highly recommended to catch errors in advance of the final document to avoid major formatting changes at the end of the process. 

Students who do not receive a pre-oral defense review (or a format review of some form) before submitting the final document may find themselves struggling to meet the deadlines as in-depth hands-on formatting support at the deadline may not be available, delaying graduation.

You may submit your document at any time; however TAD Services will not review documents that do not include the following:

• Title page
• Signature page
• Abstract (body of the abstract may be in draft form)
• Table of Contents
• References

We recommend that you be at least 75% through your writing process and include any tables and figures in the pre-oral defense review. Without at least this much viable content, a format review would be a moot point. 

When requesting a format review, please specify what stage your document is in:

• Pre-oral defense
• Final post-oral defense

Most documents only need a pre-oral defense review and a final review. Do not re-send your document after a pre-oral defense review unless requested. If you have questions, contact the office by email or phone, but please do not re-send your document unless requested.

An early filer is a student who missed a deadline for the semester in which he or she intended to graduate, but can complete all paperwork before the first day of the next semester meeting the Early deadlines. While the student will be a graduate in the following term, early filer status allows a student with no other obligations to the university to graduate in the next semester without having to enroll in courses or pay fees. They must simply reapply for graduation. 

There are limitations on who qualifies for this option. The eligible student must:

1. be enrolled in the quarter they originally intended to graduate
2. have no visa restrictions requiring him or her to be registered in the quarter in which he or she graduates. To clarify if you are eligible, contact the International Student Services Office at 740-593-7330.
3. Meet all Early deadlines.
4. respond in a timely manner to TAD Services requests for format revisions.

As of Winter 2010, Thesis and Dissertation Services and the Alden Library no longer require a print copy of theses or dissertations when a publication delay is requested.

All students not filing their thesis or dissertation in hard copy are required to upload their full text Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) to OhioLINK. 

The following colleges allow students to elect to file in hard copy:

• Scripps College of Communication
• College of Fine Arts
• College of Health and Human Services

Students who choose to file a hard copy in lieu of digital publication are required to submit two complete copies of their document on cotton-bond paper including a blank front and back sheet for binding and shelving in the libarary.

Students in all other colleges must file electronically in order to graduate. 

Publication delays are available if a student wishes to delay publication for purposes of submitting their work to journals or other publications, filing a patent or delay the release of sensitive information.

In order to list dissertation titles in the Commencement Program and present doctoral graduates with their diploma at commencement, the registrar’s office needs to be able to verify grades, titles and check names. The process requires doctoral candidates to finish their work a month earlier than masters candidates. 

Due to a reduction in staff, we request that you use our troubleshooting guides, checklists and the TAD guidelines to answer questions before requesting an appointment. We also recommend our formatting workshops when time permits. Appointments are limited in availability, but we will do our best to help you.

Generally, your document will appear on OhioLINK by the end of the semester following your graduation. The degree must be posted to the student transcript before the final accuracy check and release of the document to OhioLINK occurs. Dissertation documents are released first to increase the processing time through ProQuest/UMI (Dissertation Abstracts).