Dissertation and Thesis Deposit

At the University of Pennsylvania, a doctoral candidate presents and defends the dissertation publicly, and then, with the approval of the dissertation committee and graduate group chair, submits the final manuscript for publication.  Finally, the PhD degree is awarded to the candidate upon the recommendation of the Graduate Council of the Faculties.

Deposit Appointment

Depositing your finalized dissertation is the final step to obtain your degree. Degree candidates must confirm with their  graduate group coordinator that all required forms have been submitted in Penn Graduate Forms before the date of their deposit appointment. 

View the PhD Graduation Checklist for instructions on how to deposit and guidelines for a final formatting check. 

Doctoral degree candidates will schedule a deposit appointment; however, this is not a meeting, and you will not be present when your dissertation is reviewed. Deposit appointments are scheduled to manage the flow of degree candidate submissions received from all schools.

Deposit appointments are scheduled via Calend.ly and available during the deposit periods listed on the Graduation Calendar. Students who wish to schedule deposit appointments during peak times (the last three weeks of a term) will be required to attend a formatting pre-check appointment with a Graduate Fellow prior to their appointment. Email grad-degree@provost.upenn.edu to sign up for peak appointment times.

During the time of your scheduled appointment these graduation requirements will be examined to determine if you are eligible for publication approval and degree clearance:

• required benchmarks and milestones in Penn Graduate Forms
• bursar balance and holds on the Penn.Pay account
• completion of two PhD surveys
• final, approved dissertation submitted in ETD Administrator

Formatting

In preparation for the submission of a dissertation, degree candidates should consult the PhD Dissertation Formatting Guide and Formatting Templates early and often for assistance with the formatting of their work. Formatting will likely take longer than you anticipate, so please set yourself up for success by following the formatting guideless for your own document early in the process or using the dissertation template provided. 

Complete the PhD Dissertation Formatting Checklist and make sure your title page looks like the sample dissertation title pages. 

One-on-one Formatting Support

One-on-one dissertation formatting support is available via in-person walk-in Office Hours at the Graduate Student Center or on Zoom by appointment. The Graduate Fellow is available to meet with students who have formatting questions, need technical support, or are required before a peak-period deposit appointment.

Students can attend weekly drop-in formatting support hours in person at the Graduate Student Center; check the Graduate Student Center calendar for the current schedule. 

Schedule with Billie or Schedule with Sasha. Please bring a formatted draft of your dissertation and be prepared to share your screen. Please review the PHD Dissertation Formatting Checklist for common issues. Compare your dissertation document to the example of a perfect dissertation.

Additionally, any student who uploads a dissertation with significant formatting errors will be required to meet virtually with our Graduate Fellow for support before they submit a new draft.

Requirements to Graduate

In the final term of their program, the Research Master’s degree candidate must complete these steps to graduate:

1. Apply to graduate using the Graduation Application

2. Schedule a thesis deposit appointment

3. Upload the final, approved, and properly formatted thesis in this Qualtrics form

4. Meet all graduate degree requirements within the program of study

5. Clear their bursar bill in Penn.Pay.

Graduate Groups that Deposit a Thesis

Only Research Master’s students in the following graduate groups may be required to submit a thesis to the Degree Office.

Formatting

The Research Master’s thesis must follow the formatting procedures in the Master’s Thesis Style Guide.

Deposit Appointment

Research Master’s candidates will schedule a deposit appointment; however, this is NOT a meeting and you will not be present when your thesis is reviewed. During the time of your scheduled appointment, these graduation requirements will be examined to determine if you are eligible for thesis approval and degree clearance:

• required benchmarks and milestones
• bursar balance and holds on the account
• formatting of final, submitted dissertation

For more details, view the graduation checklist for Research Master’s Students.

Once a dissertation has been submitted and approved in ETD Administrator, it will be delivered in a batch once per term to ProQuest and ScholarlyCommons subject to any embargoes. It may take additional time for dissertations to appear online after submission. Learn more about embargo options here.

Dissertations at the University of Pennsylvania are available through three primary venues: ProQuest, ScholarlyCommons, and for dissertations prior to 2020, the Penn Libraries stacks. More information about ProQuest and Scholarly Commons can be found in Dissertation Embargo Guidelines. 

Penn Libraries

Penn Libraries provides physical access to dissertations prior to 2020 on its shelves or through off-site storage and delivery on demand. Any member of the public may come to the Penn Libraries and access physical dissertations prior to 2020. Members of the Penn community and members of other US-based libraries participating in interlibrary loan may additionally request and check out dissertations.