ETDs - Electronic Theses & Dissertations: Submitting ETDs to ScholarWorks

In order to ensure that all master´s theses and doctoral dissertations produced at Georgia State University are captured, preserved, and appropriately made available, the University requires all students who produce a master´s thesis or doctoral dissertation in fulfillment of his/her degree to upload the final version of these documents to ScholarWorks@Georgia State University as a condition of the award of the degree. Programs requiring extra time to submit master´s theses or doctoral dissertations will have no more than five years to meet the submission requirement.

ETD Policy in University Policy Library

Have you included any copyrighted material in your thesis or dissertation?

If yes, have you obtained permission to include that copyrighted material in your thesis or dissertation?

If you included copyrighted material and have not obtained permission, you must obtain these permissions before continuing with the submission process. Contact the Office of Legal Affairs if you have any questions.

Does your thesis or dissertation disclose or describe any inventions or discoveries that could potentially have commercial application and warrant patenting?  (If you and/or your faculty advisor(s) have any questions about making this determination, please contact the Office of Technology Commercialization & Industry Relations).

If yes, the technology transfer and patenting process necessitate further conversation before you can continue with the ETD submission process to determine the appropriate embargo on access to your dissertation to protect patent eligibility.

Are you requesting an access restriction for your thesis or dissertation? Georgia State colleges have different policies regarding embargos and may require permission for an embargo, so be sure to check with your college before making this decision.

No embargo required

By choosing no embargo, you agree to publish your thesis or dissertation in ScholarWorks@GSU immediately after graduation.  This option will provide the broadest possible access to your work.  The full text of your thesis or dissertation and any supplemental files will be accessible online for unlimited viewing.  Your thesis or dissertation will be indexed and discoverable via major search engines. 

Embargo

By choosing an embargo, you are requesting that there be no access to the full text of your Dissertation for a specified period. Your dissertation will be listed and indexed in the Georgia State University Library Catalog and in ScholarWorks@GSU, but the full text of your Dissertation and any supplementary files will not be accessible until the expiration of the embargo. The title, author, keywords, and abstract will be displayed on the web in the record for your Dissertation, even if you have restricted access to the full-text copy. If you are embargoing due to patentability concerns, ensure your abstract is written not to be considered prior art. If you do not want an abstract displayed, enter “No abstract to protect patentability” in the abstract field when you upload your thesis or dissertation.

Closed

By choosing a Closed Thesis or Closed Dissertation, you limit online access to the full text of your submission to the Georgia State University campus (IP address). No one outside of GSU will be able to see your thesis or dissertation. This is the equivalent of available access when theses and dissertations were only on a library shelf. Your thesis or dissertation will be shared as the result of an Interlibrary Loan request.

When you are ready to upload, make sure you have the following information:

• Title
• Your ORCID (not required, but highly recommended)
• Embargo decision (if you plan to embargo your dissertation, make sure you have departmental approval)
• Advisor names
• Your abstract and any keywords to describe your research
• A PDF copy of your document

To submit, go to https://scholarworks.gsu.edu.

Click on Login (top right) and log in with Shibboleth using your CampusID and Password.

Click on the User Icon where the Login link was and select MyDspace.

Click Start Submission, then Start Submission from Scratch.

Submission Steps

1. Submission Type - select “Publication.”
2. Find your collection by typing to find your department, the chose the correct collection (e.g. Sociology Dissertations, Public Heath Theses, Nursing Doctoral Projects). NOTE: if you are in Public Health - type Health instead of Public.
3. Upload your document by dragging it to the box or clicking on browse and then Import.
4. Item type – select the type of item you are submitting (e.g. dissertation, thesis).
5. Author – enter your family name, followed by your given name. As you enter your name, the system will check to see if you have an ORCiD. If you do, click the link and a pop-up box will display your iD number. Copy that for the next field.
6. ORCID Identifier – enter your ORCID.
7. Enter the title of your work. Please capitalize each word (Title Case) – don’t enter it in all caps.
8. Enter your Advisor(s). Use the +Add More to enter each advisor on a separate line.
9. Enter your Degree.
10. If you want to embargo your work, enter the date the work would be made available here. This does not finish the embargo process. It informs readers that your work is embargoed.
11. Enter the language of your work.
12. Enter any Keywords that describe your work.
13. Enter your Abstract.
14. The next field is the File edit field. Click on the middle icon for Edit.
    1. You can change the name of the file if you want to make it clearer – it will show on your work’s landing page.
    2. You don’t need to add anything in the description box.
    3. If you are embargoing your work, click on the dropdown box under Access Condition Type and select Embargo. Then in the “Grant Access from” box, enter the date when your work will become available.
    4. Click Save. This step embargos your work.
15. Read the License Agreement and click the box to confirm.
16. Click the green Deposit button on the bottom right.