Theses and Dissertations FAQs

Approval requests are sent in order of the adviser, the rest of the committee, and lastly, the program head. Until your adviser approves your work, the email is not sent to the rest of the committee. The process is paused until the adviser completes their approval.

Try the following:

1. Ask them to clear the cache in their browser, then close your browser then open it again. Now try clicking on the link. If that doesn’t work, try option 2.

2. Try using a different browser. If that doesn’t work, try option 3.

3. Ask your committee member to email OTD at gradthesis@psu.edu with their decision for the student’s work and ask us to proxy for them. We will submit the decision on their behalf.

You will have to defer your graduation to a later semester.

If you are unsure if your graduate program head or the professor-in-charge/director of graduate studies should approve, please reach out to your program coordinator, as this may differ from program to program.

All dissertations and theses must be approved by either the program head or director of graduate studies, even if they are not a member on your committee as per policies GCAC-607 and GCAC-642.

If you allow your eTD to be freely available worldwide, which we recommend (see below for reasons and for discussion of other options), we will work to make your eTD as easily available as possible. First, we will allow access over the World Wide Web, so people can link to our collection for browsing, and even link directly to your eTD (with a special type of URL that is not subject to change). Second, in the record for your eTD that will be in the Penn State library catalog, we will have link information, so those searching that catalog can link directly to the eTD. Third, we will provide one or more search engines so that people can search the Penn State eTD collection using "full-text" searching. Fourth, we will have a mechanism so that your eTD can be found by anyone seeking to search the NDLTD (i.e., the full distributed collection of eTDs made available by institutions that are part of the initiative). Fifth, we will work with third party organizations, such as UMI and OCLC (a not-for-profit in Dublin, Ohio that provides library cataloging and other services to libraries), to encourage them to provide access as well as archiving services.

Please direct all questions concerning defending your master’s thesis to your program, as these processes vary from program to program.

Once your committee and the Graduate School have approved your eTD, that version is a matter of University record and will be archived as such. You may not make any corrections. For this reason, you and your committee must check the eTD thoroughly before submitting it.

No, your committee does not have to approve again if OTD requests that you make final corrections. Simply make the requested corrections and upload your final submission again.

Yes, you do. If your format review was rejected, please make all requested corrections, and then submit it in the ETD system for format review again.

Yes, and you can do so in LionPATH.