TDS Guide: Submission Guide

Use this guide for instructions on submitting thesis and dissertation forms and documents through the Graduate School's digital forms process and for understanding what happens after TDS receives your submission. For requirements specific to each stage of the thesis or dissertation process, please refer to the Thesis Process or Dissertation Process page.

For formatting requirements, deadlines, iThenticate, research compliance, resources, and FAQs, please use the corresponding TDS pages.

Everyone in the Graduate School is working to ensure the success of our graduate students. If there are any questions or concerns not answered in this guide or the Formatting Guide, please feel free to contact the TDS office at 903.468.6047 or through email, [email protected]. If additional help is needed, students may make an appointment with TDS for an office visit or Zoom meeting.

Digital Forms and Submission Process

The Graduate School uses a Laserfiche digital forms process for all forms submitted to the Graduate School. This digital process removes the onus of securing signatures for forms, but you are still expected to monitor the progress of the approval process and to take responsibility for ensuring the forms are approved by all parties in a timely fashion. Contact TDS to request a status of submitted thesis or dissertation forms.

All required forms are provided within the appropriate steps on the Thesis Process and Dissertation Process pages.

Completing Digital Forms

When completing a digital form, you will input your Campus Wide ID (CWID) number; wait a few seconds for the form to partially populate with your name, email address, and, for some forms, your degree and document title. Be sure to check that all information is current and correct. If there are any errors, please report the error(s) to TDS ([email protected]).

Blocks with a red asterisk indicate information you are required to provide. Some blocks have a drop-down arrow for you to select the appropriate information or name. For instance, when completing the committee form, click the drop-down arrow and select your advisor, the members of your committee, and the head of the department from the lists provided. If a member or administrator is not on the list, please contact TDS ([email protected]).
Note: Do not list your advisor again as a committee member. Your advisor is automatically included as a member of your committee.

Form Routing and Approval

When a form is submitted, it will route first to your advisor and then to each of your committee members and then the administrators, as applicable. The faculty member or administrator will receive an email coming from either Laserfiche or Workflow (to committee members).

When a form has attachments, committee members will receive a Workflow email with three links. Advisors and administrators will only have one link to the form and can access the attachments within the form.

For committee members accessing Workflow emails for proposal or final submissions that have attachments, you follow the following instructions:

  • University faculty should use the first web link to access the documents (instructions for how to log into that web link are below). Note, you must include “CTIS\” before your log in name.
  • Non-university committee members must use the second web link. Please be sure to use the log in credentials noted.
  • The last link is provided to all recipients and it provides access to the form itself for review and approval. Do not approve the form until the submitted documents have been reviewed.

Below is an example of what the Workflow email to committee members will look like.

Instructions for logging in to WebLink

Committee members: Log in using CTIS\ plus your computer/email credentials (Ex. CTIS\SmithJohn)

  • Please be sure to use the login credentials noted.
  • Click here to view the Dissertation Proposal Submission Packet documents via WebLink
  • Click here to view the Dissertation Proposal Submission Packet documents via WebAccess
  • Click here to open the Dissertation Proposal Submission Packet

Non-university committee members should use the second web link and follow the access instructions provided in the Workflow email.

If you have any issues accessing the WebLink or opening the document(s) provided, please contact the Thesis and Dissertation Specialist at [email protected] or the IT HelpDesk.

Faculty and administrators will review the form and attachments for correctness and completeness. At the bottom of the form there is an “Approve” button and a “Reject” button, or for committee members, the approval button will read “Reviewed & Acknowledged.” Clicking “Approve” or “Reviewed & Acknowledged” serves to indicate acceptance of the form and attachments. Be aware that the form will not advance through the approval process until each party reviews and approves the form.

If there are errors in the form or if corrections need to be made to the attachments, the advisor or administrator should select “Reject” and provide an explanation for the rejection in the comments section. An email will be sent to the student advising them of the rejection. Due to limitations in the system, the committee members are not given an option to reject a form and are asked to let TDS know if the student's form needs to be terminated; the rejecting committee member should also send an email to the student to let them know they have requested the termination of their form and why. The student must then re-submit a corrected form.

Troubleshooting Digital Forms

Sometimes forms are populated with incorrect information or do not have a faculty name available in the drop-down menu. Also, in some instances faculty are unable to access a form. Below are some ways to resolve these issues.

  • If a form is not populating correctly or if a faculty name is not available in a drop-down list, please contact the IT HelpDesk ([email protected]) or call (903) 886-6000.
  • For faculty who cannot access a form or documents, try the following:
    • Try a different browser(s);
    • Disable the web browser pop-up blocker; and/or
    • Clear the web browser history/cache and retry.

If none of these approaches work, please contact the IT HelpDesk ([email protected]) or call (903) 886-6000.

TDS Review and Approval

TDS conducts a one-time format review of proposal documents and reviews final documents as many times as necessary to meet Graduate School formatting requirements. Students receive a Reviewer's Checklist identifying required formatting revisions. The advisor is copied on TDS review correspondence. Students are responsible for carefully completing the requested revisions before resubmitting their document.

You will submit your thesis or dissertation documents to the Graduate School/TDS at two different stages of your program:

  1. At the proposal stage; and
  2. At the final document stage.

The primary purpose of the TDS review is to assist you in meeting the Graduate School formatting requirements. The TDS staff does not serve as editors or proofreaders; that responsibility lies with you. You are expected to perform line-by-line proofreading and editing prior to submitting your proposal or final document for review by TDS.

Deadlines

Proposal approval must be received at least one semester prior to submitting the final document for graduation. To graduate in a given semester, you must meet the scheduled deadline for defending your final thesis or dissertation and the deadline for initial submission of the final thesis or dissertation. Deadlines are posted on the Academic Calendar. Please keep in mind that a complete submission of materials must be received by TDS by or before the deadline for the submission to be considered on time. When TDS receives a submission, you will receive an email to your myLeo email confirming receipt and verifying completeness of the submission.

Review the TDS Deadlines page and allow sufficient time for all required approvals before the applicable deadline.

Research Compliance

Before beginning data collection, students must complete all applicable research compliance requirements. See the Research Compliance information linked from the Thesis Process or Dissertation Process page for current requirements and approval procedures.

ProQuest and Final Steps

After TDS approves your finalized document for uploading to ProQuest, you will be provided a link to the ProQuest web page with instructions for uploading the final document to the site. ProQuest will provide additional instructions as needed as you move through the submission process. The Graduate School requires you to purchase one (1) copy of the thesis or dissertation for the university (for your advisor) at a cost of $30. ProQuest fees include an optional $75 copyright registration fee and a required $30 fee for one bound copy of the thesis or dissertation for the advisor. You may order extra copies at your own cost. To be cleared for graduation, your document must be uploaded to ProQuest and all Graduate School fees paid. Graduate School fees to be paid are the graduation fee ($40) and the thesis/dissertation fee (for thesis, $63, for dissertation $73) applied to your student account when your final submission was accepted by TDS.

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