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Formal Submissions

Formal submissions must be completed by 5:00 p.m. on the date of the submission deadline (see the Academic Year Deadlines for dates). See the appropriate document-type checklist below (Doctoral Dissertations or Master's Theses) for the list of required submission components.

The Graduate School editor will review all submission components in the order in which they are received, and will contact the student at their Notre Dame email address if the editor has questions or identifies problems with any submitted materials. Depending on the number of submissions received and proximity to the deadline, final reviews may take up to three weeks. If outstanding issues are not resolved as communicated by the editor, the Graduate School reserves the right to request a dean's hold on the student's diploma or reject a submission and remove the student from the graduation list. 

If there are no issues with the components of the formal submission, the student will receive an email stating that the dissertation or thesis has been approved by the Graduate School.

If you have questions about any component of the formal submission checklist, please contact the dissertation editor:

Laura Patzschke
The Graduate School
117 Bond Hall
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

E-mail: dteditor@nd.edu

Formal Submission Components

These checklists apply to formal submissions only. Do not submit formatting checks to the CurateND intake site. If the formatting of your formal submission does not match the requirements set by UMI/ProQuest and the Graduate School, your dissertation or thesis may be rejected. It is the student's responsibility to ensure compliance with formatting guidelines.

All checklist items for the listed submission type are required unless specified as “optional.”

Doctoral Dissertation Checklist

Note: This checklist assumes you have already defended the dissertation and received the results of a preliminary formatting check.

  1. The doctoral dissertation: Upload your primary submission file as 1 PDF to the CurateND formal dissertation submission portal. Additional supporting materials may also be uploaded, but be sure to designate which file represents the actual dissertation, and keep in mind that the editor will rename files during the final review. Submissions made to the CurateND website prior to a successful defense will be deleted without exception.
  2. Research director’s approval: Notre Dame faculty serving as a dissertation director must be added to your CurateND record by name and NetID; if you don't know your dissertation director's NetID, consult the directory. This step is time-sensitive; if you do not receive an email within a few days indicating that all directors have signed off on your submission, please follow up with your director(s); the submission cannot move forward without their approval.
    • Faculty with Active NetIDs: Curate ND will send faculty designated as a "Research Director" an access link by email, inviting them to review and approve the dissertation submission. If the dissertation director has not logged in to CurateND before, they will need to set up their own contributor account before proceeding to your submission record. Once they are able to access the record, they will have two options: send the record back to you for edits, or approve the submission to proceed to the Graduate School review.
    • External Research Directors: Co-directors who do not have an active NetID should send an email to dteditor@nd.edu stating that they have seen and approved the student's dissertation for formal submission to the Graduate School. The dissertation editor will then approve the record in CurateND on their behalf.
  3. ProQuest/UMI Microfilming and Copyright Agreement. This is required for all doctoral students. If you have not used the digital portal before, you'll need to create a student account first.
    • Both the agreement form and the payment are now collected through the ProQuest website. You will not need to upload your dissertation file; we will transfer the approved files when we close out each graduation cycle.
    • Refer to the National Archives website to find out why we still require microfilming for doctoral dissertations.
  4. The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED): This survey, conducted on behalf of the NSF, NEH, and four other federal research agencies, will send a confirmation email to you and to the Graduate School when you press the “Submit” button at the very end. For more information about the SED and how the data is used, please see the NSF’s SED description.
  5. Graduate Outcomes Survey:  All doctoral level graduates will receive an email invitation to take this survey approximately 1 month prior to their graduation date.  Please be on the lookout for an email being sent on behalf of Graduate Career Services from the Office of Strategic Planning & Institutional Research. If you have any questions regarding this survey, please contact Graduate Career Services at gradcareers@nd.edu. This survey does not need to be completed by the formal submission deadline date.

Master's Thesis Checklist

Note: This checklist assumes you have received the results of a preliminary formatting check.

  1. The master’s thesis: Upload your primary submission file as 1 PDF to the CurateND formal thesis submission portal. Additional supporting materials may also be uploaded, but be sure to designate which file represents the actual thesis.
  2. Research director’s approval: Notre Dame faculty serving as a master's thesis director must be added to your CurateND record by name and NetID; if you don't know your thesis director's NetID, consult the directory. This step is time-sensitive; if you do not receive an email within a few days indicating that all directors have signed off on your submission, please follow up with your director(s); the submission cannot move forward without their approval.
    • Faculty with Active NetIDs: Curate ND will send faculty designated as a "Research Director" an access link by email, inviting them to review and approve the thesis submission. If the thesis director has not logged in to CurateND before, they will need to set up their own contributor account before proceeding to your submission record. Once they are able to access the record, they will have two options: send the record back to you for edits, or approve the submission to proceed to the Graduate School review.
    • External Research Directors: Co-directors who do not have an active NetID should send an email to dteditor@nd.edu stating that they have seen and approved the student's thesis for formal submission to the Graduate School. The dissertation editor will then approve the record in CurateND on their behalf.
  3. ProQuest/UMI Microfilming and Copyright Agreement. This is optional for master's theses. If you have not used the digital portal before, you'll need to create a student account first.
    • Both the agreement form and the payment are now collected through the ProQuest website. You will not need to upload your thesis file; we will transfer the approved files when we close out each graduation cycle.
  4. Graduate Outcomes Survey:  All master's level graduates will receive an email invitation to take this survey approximately 1 month prior to their graduation date.  Please be on the lookout for an email being sent on behalf of Graduate Career Services from the Office of Strategic Planning & Institutional Research. If you have any questions regarding this survey, please contact Graduate Career Services at gradcareers@nd.edu. This survey does not need to be completed by the formal submission deadline date.

The formal review, approval, cataloging, and microfilming processes take time, so it may be several weeks before the dissertation or thesis becomes available in the University library system or on the UMI/ProQuest website.

After the Submission

Students who submit early in the semester and plan to begin a new job shortly after submission can request a Letter of Completion for their employer. Refer to the Active Student Registration & Student Records page for details. 

All requests concerning extending or lifting embargoes, or updates to dissertation and thesis records on CurateND or ProQuest should be directed to dteditor@nd.edu.

Once a work is published to the ProQuest catalog, a $47 Vault Repair Fee is required to update the ProQuest record or PDF. Please contact  to initiate this process if an amendment is needed. The Acknowledgments page is the most commonly corrected page; be sure to double check it for accuracy and inclusion of all required acknowledgments, especially if your work was sponsored by an external grant or governmental office.

Alumni are encouraged to contact the Graduate School editors at dteditor@nd.edu with any book publication information.  This information will be included on their CurateND record and will direct patrons to their published work.