Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions ~ Submission & Technical Support Questions ~ PDF Questions

General Questions

Submission & Technical Support Questions

General Questions

How soon after I submit my dissertation or thesis will it be available via ProQuest?
After you submit your manuscript, it must be approved by your graduate school before the site administrator sends it to UMI Dissertation Publishing. Once we receive the manuscript from your school, it can take 8-12 weeks before it is available online. If you would like to inquire about the status of your submission after it has been approved and sent by the graduate school, you may contact our Author and School Relations group at disspub@il.proquest.com or 800-521-0600 x7020. Please include your manuscript ID with your query; the ID was included in the confirmation email sent to you by the ETD Administrator.
Does the author receive a royalty for sales?
If the author selects the Traditional publishing option, yes, the author is eligible for royalties for sales in all formats - print, microfilm and electronic. If the author selects the Open Access publishing option, however, the author is not eligible for royalties, as we make the full text available online for free access. Please see the Author Agreement Form for more details.
What are my ownership rights to my dissertation or thesis?
As the author, you retain sole and complete ownership over your dissertation or thesis.
Does UMI Dissertation Publishing require exclusive distribution rights?
No, submission to UMI Dissertation Publishing is done on a non-exclusive basis.
If I am asked to make changes by the Graduate School or my committee, is there an option to resubmit?
Once the files have been sent by the Graduate School to UMI Dissertation Publishing, questions regarding changes can be directed to the Author and School Relations group at or 800-521-0600 x7020.
What is Adobe's PDF? How do I produce a version of my dissertation or thesis in PDF? What if I can't do that?
Please see the PDF Frequently Asked Questions page for help.
Where do I go for more information about the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database?
You can find more information about PQDT, the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world, at: http://www.proquest.com/products_pq/descriptions/pqdt.shtml.
Is UMI Dissertation Publishing still accepting paper submissions?
Yes, as long as they conform to the requirements of your Graduate School. Contact your Graduate School to get the appropriate forms for paper-based submissions.
How can I order additional bound copies?
If you have already completed the submission process, you can download the PDF Order Form here. Once you’ve completed the form, you can mail it to this address:

UMI Dissertation Publishing
ProQuest CSA
789 E. Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346

Submission & Technical Support Questions

If I run into problems during the submission process, who can I contact for technical support?
For assistance with using the ETD Administrator, please send email to , or call 510-665-1200. The Berkeley Electronic Press handles the technical support inquiries for the ETD submission system. If you have trouble formatting your Word document, please consult the resources on this page and the PDF Frequently Asked Questions page to see if an answer to your problem has been posted. You may contact your school's computer center or writing center for assistance with using your word processor (see the "Resources for Students" sidebar link for contact information, if available). If you have questions about using Microsoft Word, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base.
How do I submit a Master's Thesis or Dissertation?
  1. Go to http://dissertations2.umi.com/iastate and click on the "Start Your Submission" button in the upper left hand corner of the page.
  2. A new page will load which lists the different schools with ETD Administrator sites. Click on your school.
  3. A page with instructions for your school will load. Read through the instructions carefully, and click on the “Start Your Submission” button at the bottom of the page when you are ready to begin.
  4. You will then be prompted to create an account before beginning the submission process.
  5. Once you create an account, the ETD Administrator will walk you through a simple seven step process that involves accepting the publishing agreement and uploading the relevant files and information about your submission.
  6. After you complete your submission, your graduate school administrator will review the submission before sending it to UMI Dissertation Publishing.
  7. Note that all dissertations and theses must be submitted as a PDF document. For more information about creating PDF files, please see the PDF Frequently Asked Questions page.
How do I revise something in my submission?
To revise a submission:
  1. From the My Account page, click the title of your manuscript.
  2. Click 'Revise dissertation/thesis' from the list in the top left.
  3. Enter your changes in the Revise Submission form, and click 'Submit' at the bottom of the page to submit your changes. (You only need to modify the portion of the form that corresponds to the changes you wish to make.) Your site administrator will be notified via email of your corrections.
How can I submit a multi-part file?
Combine all the sections together as one Microsoft Word file or PDF file and submit that. To make one PDF file from multiple files, open the first PDF file, then choose Document>Insert Pages from Acrobat's menus to insert the second file (indicate it should go after the last page of the first file), and repeat for all documents. The result will be one compound PDF file which may then be submitted. If you have further questions, contact .
How do I change the format of the page numbers for different sections in my Word document?
Your manuscript must be submitted as one file. So, to create different formats of page numbers or to restart page numbering in the document you'll need to divide your document into "sections", then change the page number format for each section. (Note that specific steps will vary for different versions of Word.)
  1. If you haven't already done so, insert a section break where you want to change the page numbers. To do this, click where you want to insert a section break. On the Insert menu, point to Break, and then click the type of section break you want to insert.
  2. With the cursor in a particular section, go to the Insert menu and choose Page Numbers.
  3. Choose the page number options you want (click Format and change the page number format), and click OK.
  4. Repeat that for each section in the document.
How do I add a portrait page number to a landscape page in Microsoft Word?
From Microsoft Word's Knowledge Base: If a page of your document is formatted with landscape orientation, the header and footer of the page are also are formatted with landscape orientation. This article describes how to use rotated text in a text box or table to add a page number in portrait orientation to the header or footer layer of a landscape-oriented page. http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=211930.
How can I include related files (sound clips, data sets, etc.) that are a critical part of my dissertation or thesis?
Step 5 of the submission process – Supplementary Files - provides the ability to upload supporting files like sound clips and data sets. These files will be submitted to UMI Dissertation Publishing along with the PDF version of your dissertation or thesis. You will be able to upload multiple files, and we ask that you include a description of each file (or set of files, if more appropriate) in your abstract.
If your supplementary files are very large (over 100 MB), iit is advised that you submit your manuscript via the mail. The PDF file of the manuscript, and any associated supplementary files should be burned to a CD or DVD and mailed with any other necessary information to UMI Dissertation Publishing. See the UMI Requirements page for details. Your Graduate School should have the forms that you need to include with your submission.
What if my dissertation or thesis is too large for me to submit online (i.e., due to a slow connection)?
You should create a CD or DVD that includes your manuscript as a PDF file, along with any other supplementary files that are an integral part of the submission. Mail that CD or DVD, along with any necessary payments, and the completed forms (available from your Graduate School) to UMI Dissertation Publishing. For more information, see the UMI Requirements page.
When I copy and paste abstracts into the Submit form, some text is missing, quotes look odd, or strange characters appear in the abstract. What's going on?
When copying abstracts from a word processing file or a PDF file, and pasting the text into the submission form, you are taking text from an environment that may support fonts, and special characters like symbols or "smart quotes". Please read through any abstract that you copy and paste from a word processing file or PDF file. Look for how single and double quotes appear, usage of special symbols, and incorrect conversion of glyphs from PDF files (e.g. "ff", "fl", or "fi" might disappear causing a word like "difficult" to change to "di cult".

How to include HTML tags

HTML tags
<p> - paragraph
<p>This is the first paragraph.</p>
<p>This is the second paragraph.</p>

This is the first paragraph.

This is the second paragraph.

<br> - line break
<p>This is a line of text with a linebreak here. <br> This is text after</p>

This is a line of text with a linebreak here.
This is text after
<strong> - strong/bold
<strong>bold text</strong>

bold text

<em> - italics/emphasis
<em>italicized text</em>

italicized text

<sub> - subscript
Text with <sub>subscript</sub>

Text with subscript
<sup> - superscript
Text with <sup>superscript</sup>

Text with superscript
How do I include accents and special characters in the abstracts and titles?
You shouldn't encounter any trouble if your titles and abstracts use only the basic ASCII character set (this includes the numbers 0-9, upper- and lower-case letters A-Z, and standard English punctuation).
Characters with diacritical marks (accents or umlauts) are not part of the ASCII character set and therefore need to be handled differently. Windows Users
The method for Windows users to enter these characters into the submission form involves pressing the Alt key plus a four digit number using the numeric keypad (with Num Lock on).
  • ALT + 0224 = à
  • ALT + 0225 = á
  • ALT + 0232 = è
  • ALT + 0233 = é
  • ALT + 0200 = È
  • ALT + 0242 = ò
  • ALT + 0243 = ó
  • ALT + 0241 = ñ

Macintosh Users Macintosh users should press the Option key while typing one of the letters below to get the desired character.

To get this   Type this key combination:
circumflex ê Ê Option + i, the letter 
umlaut ü Ü Option + u, the letter
cedilla ç Ç Option + c or C
  ¿ Option + ?
  ß  Option + s
  ¡  Option + 1
  £ Option + 3
  § Option + 6
  º Option + 0 (zero)
  oe ligature Option + q

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