Dissertations & Theses

This page will walk you through the submission process, which follows this general outline:

• Complete the submission form and upload a PDF of your thesis/dissertation.
  • You may include supplemental files (e.g. data or appendices)
  • Please do not upload signed signature forms or any graduation-related documents. These will be visible when your work is approved and posted by the Graduate School.
• Check your spam/junk folder for the confirmation email from ScholarWorks once you have submitted.
• The Graduate School takes 6-8 weeks to complete their formatting review of submitted theses/dissertations. They will email you through ScholarWorks if any formatting revisions are required.​​​​​​​

Navigate to ScholarWorks and click the Log In link in the top right corner.  Choose "Log in with your NetID":

Logging in with your NetID will automatically create an account, so there is no need to register a new account.  You will be prompted to log in with your UMass credentials.

Once you have logged in, a + (plus) sign will appear in the lefthand side of your screen:

When you click the + (plus), you'll see: New > Item.  Click on "Item" and then choose the appropriate collection for your degree:

From here, you may browse your computer for a file to upload or drag and drop your PDF.

Note: Filenames in ScholarWorks are now visible, so consider using our recommended filenaming convention for your dissertation or thesis: LastnameDissertationYear.pdf or LastnameThesisYear.pdf.  Also, ScholarWorks will not convert Word files (.doc, .docx) into PDFs, so please upload a PDF.

Note: You can drag and drop multiple files into your submission if you have appendices or supplemental materials that you'd like to include.

Click the "Lookup" button to the right of the field for First name

If you have previously submitted an item to ScholarWorks, you may search the "Local Authority" tab.  If you have not, please choose the ORCID tab:

Click the cloud icon to the right of your ORCID to associate it with your author name:

Click the "Import" button

You'll see a green "Import Successful" window and you may then close the Search for Authors box.  You'll then see a green circle next to your last name:

Note: ScholarWorks will use the author name that you have associated with your ORCID profile.  If you've entered a nickname or used all lowercase letters, that is what ScholarWorks will import into your submission.  The Graduate School prefers that you use the name that you have listed in SPIRE.

Title: Enter the title of your dissertation or thesis.

Degree Date: Enter the year and month in which your degree will be awarded. If you are submitting for a February 2025 degree, you would enter "2025-2".  

Document Type: This defines who may access your thesis/dissertation.  You have three options: open access, campus access for one (1) year, or campus access for five (5) years.  Non-UMass users may request campus access items through interlibrary loan.  If you would like your work to be open access, choose the first item without the campus access designation.  [Note: embargoes will override any campus access settings you choose, so please do not combine a one-year embargo and one-year campus access].

Degree Name: Please choose a degree from the dropdown list.

ORCID: Please enter your ORCID, ex. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3671-7447.

Language (optional): Enter the language in which your dissertation/thesis was written.

Subject Keywords (optional): Enter a few keywords about your research.

Abstract: Please enter your dissertation/thesis abstract.  This will help make your work more discoverable.

Sponsors (optional): If you received any additional funding for your research, you may enter information about that funding here.

Department: Choose your department or program from the dropdown list

Advisor: You must enter at least one advisor.  if you'd like to include your entire committee, you may click the + (plus) sign to add more.

Are you requesting an embargo:  No users, regardless of affiliation, may access or download a dissertation/thesis while it is embargoed. You may choose a six (6) month or one (1) year embargo without any additional approval. If you would like a five (5) year embargo, you must request a memo from your Graduate Program Director stating their approval for this length. The memo must be submitted to the Graduate Student Service Center prior to your degree date. [Note: English MFA students do not need additional approval for a five year embargo.]

While you can drag and drop your PDF into the submission form before you do anything else, this section of the submission form allows you to delete the file you've uploaded if you realize that you've attached the wrong file, have a typo, etc.  It also allows you to rename your file.  If you'd like to rename your file, click the pencil icon:

Here's an example of a file name being edited.  Once you've done this, click the save button at the bottom of the window.

If you are including supplemental files, you can add descriptions to make the files more user friendly.

Creative Commons license (optional): ScholarWorks now provides users with a decision maker for choosing a Creative Commons license.  If you would like to add a license, click "Creative Commons" in the dropdown menu for "Select a license type":

Answer the questions about the type of license you'd like to add, clicking the question marks (?) for explanations.

If you are happy with the license you've chosen, click the check box to grant the license.

Note: Please choose the "International" option no matter the license.

Non-Exclusive Distribution License: You must grant this license to complete your submission.  A copy of this license will be saved in ScholarWorks along with your thesis/dissertation

From here, you can save your submission without depositing by clicking the "Save for later" button.

• To resume your submission, you'd log into ScholarWorks > mouse over the little person icon that appears once you've logged in and click on  "MyDSpace":

• Find your submission and click "Edit"
  

Once you've completed everything on the submission form, you can continue to click "Save for later" or click the green "Deposit" button:

The Graduate School will not see your submission until you click the Deposit button. Once you have deposited your thesis/dissertation, you will receive a confirmation email from ScholarWorks and it will show on your submissions page with a blue box that says "workflow"

Note: You will not be able to edit your submission once you've deposited it.  You will only be able to view the metadata that you included in your submission form.

Once you have completed your submission, the Graduate School will review it and will contact you if any formatting revisions are required.

After submission, the Graduate School will review the formatting of your PDF.  If any revisions are required, you will receive an email from ScholarWorks.

This email will come from the email address umassamh@openrepository.com and the subject will be ScholarWorks: Submission Rejected.

Note: This does not mean your dissertation or thesis has been rejected! This means that formatting revisions are required, but we are currently unable to edit the subject of the emails that ScholarWorks sends out.