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For some of you, the most important moment in your graduate experience is when you defend your thesis or dissertation. As the culmination of your outstanding hard work, your thesis or dissertation represents the final step towards earning your Master’s or Doctoral degree.

The process isn’t as daunting as you may have heard! View the links below to learn more about the process.

Openness and Distribution of Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs)

The University of North Texas (UNT), as a member of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), endorses the fundamental tenet on openness and access of thesis and dissertation research as stated in the CGS policy manual The Doctor of Philosophy Degree: A Policy Statement (CGS, 2005).

In compliance with CGS, it is the policy at UNT that “an essential aspect of dissertation [and thesis] research and scholarship is the free and full dissemination of research results. Restrictions, either in the conduct of dissertation [and thesis] research or in the sharing of its results, are antithetical to that spirit.”

As part of UNT’s commitment to openness, all UNT ETDs are placed in the UNT ETD repository and made available via the online UNT Libraries catalog for reading and/or downloading by all users, including being crawled and indexed by online search engines (e.g., Google). ETDs are available in perpetuity; in addition, there are no restrictions regarding who can download the file or how many times it can be downloaded.

If you have created intellectual property in the course of your research *OR* are subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), please contact UNT’s Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) for guidance.

The UNT Thesis Manual: Formatting the Dissertation/Thesis

Your first stop when formatting your dissertation or thesis should be our Thesis & Dissertation Manual. Additionally, we have many resources in our Writing section that can provide you with insight on copyright issues, plagiarism, style guides and the like.

Ready to Submit?

Please review all the information below to aide you in successfully submitting your thesis or dissertation.

IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER:

  • The thesis or dissertation you upload in Vireo must be a single PDF file, and must include all committee-, department- and/or college-level edits.  It must be the absolute final version.  Once you confirm final submission, Vireo will prevent subsequent submissions.
  • Be sure to review the UNT Vireo Submission Guide before beginning the submission process.
  • No individual file may exceed 512 MB, and the total of all files submitted must not exceed 4 GB. 
  • You do not need to complete the entire submission process in one sitting; however, the entire process must be completed and confirmed by the submission deadlines.
  • Make sure to follow all points on the Format Checklist.
  1. Your official name as it appears in UNT records will automatically pre-fill in Vireo. If you wish to use your recorded chosen name, please contact the Graduate Reader after you have completed your submission (jaclyn.kliman@unt.edu).  She can change the Vireo submission on her end for you.
  2. Once a submission has been completed and confirmed, an email will automatically be sent to the major professor to confirm the submitted version is the final approved version.  The email will contain a link back to Vireo; your major professor will use the link to record approval directly in Vireo.  This action takes the place of the former hard copy Document Approval Form.  In addition, your major professor must  *also* approve all availability options you have selected – see Items 3 and 4.  Please be sure to discuss your choices with your major professor before completing the submission, so your professor will not be surprised by your choices.
  3. Beginning with the fall 2023 submissions, TGS has changed to a ProQuest “opt out” model.  This means that during the FIRST STAGE of creating the Vireo record, you will be required to accept both default license agreements (UNT/TDL and ProQuest).  Later during the Vireo process, you will be given embargo options – one of those is titled “ProQuest Opt-Out.”  If you select this option, then the Graduate Reader will update the Vireo record when she processes the submission to the next step.  You and your major professor will receive confirmation emails when this has occurred.  Please see section 8(ii) in the Vireo submission guide and/or section 10.6 in the UNT thesis manual for more detailed explanation.
  4. Although the UNT and ProQuest embargo options closely resemble each other, these are two separate and independent choices. What you choose for one has no effect on the other. In other words, if you selected a 2-year embargo for the UNT copy but neglected to make a selection for the ProQuest copy, then the ProQuest copy will be made freely available immediately upon receipt [default]. Please see section 8 in the Vireo submission guide and/or section 10.6.2 in the UNT thesis manual for more detailed explanation. If you need more information before making your choice, please discuss your concerns with your professor and colleagues.

Submission

Vireo was designed to be very user friendly, and students should not have much trouble figuring out what to do in order to successfully submit. 

  • If you experience technical difficulties with your submission, please contact the Graduate Reader for assistance.