Electronic Master's Thesis Submissions

As of Fall 2012, the Library no long accepts hard copies of master's theses; students will submit electronic versions of their theses to the Library .  We will deposit theses in a University repository, and with author permission, will be available for public viewing.

1. Formatting Your Thesis

Early in your thesis process, check with your department for all details related to format and required interdepartmental copies. 

The first 3 pages should be:

1. Title page
2. Copyright notice
3. Advisor's page (replacing the signature page in the document)

Example of thesis front matter.

2. Saving your Thesis as a PDF

1. The computers in the Library allow you to save your Microsoft Word document as a PDF.
2. If you are a Mac user, printing your document as a PDF is one of your print options in the print dialog window.
3. If you have multiple PDFs that you need combine into a single document, make an appointment with Michael Pujals at michael.pujals@dominican.edu

3. Formatting Your Thesis File Name

Please format the file name of your thesis as follows: DepartmentYearLastName-ShortTitle.

Single Author: EDU2012Robertson-MyThesisTitle

Multiple Authors: EDU2012RobertsonJones-OurThesisTitle 

Do not use spaces between words in the title. 

Capitalize the first letter of each word of the file name

See the following explanations for each element of the file name.

Department: For your department use the following short codes:

• Biology - BIO
• Business - BUS
• Counseling Psychology - CP
• Education - EDU
• Humanities - HUM
• Nursing - NURS
• Occupational Therapy - OT

Year: author's official year of graduation.

Last Name: author's last name.

Short Title: the first 3-4 words of the title of your thesis.  

4. Supplementary Materials

Often times, as a result of their research, thesis students create informative pamphlets and workbooks for distribution.  If you have these materials we would like to collect them for our institutional repository and university archives.  

You are encouraged to submit these materials along with your thesis and required paperwork.

5. Submitting Your Electronic Thesis

Use the Thesis Checklist to help make sure that you have everything you need to submit your thesis.

Email the final version of your thesis (the same version you turned in to your graduate advisor) as a PDF  to: masters.thesis@dominican.edu

Be sure to attach the following:

1. A PDF of the final version of your thesis (this must be the same copy as you turned in to your advisor)
2. A scanned copy of  your signed signature page.
3. A scanned and signed copy of your Electronic Thesis Approval Form.  (NOTE: for theses with multiple authors. Each author should fill out and sign their own copy.  All copies should be emailed together)
4. Any supplementary materials that you may have.

6. Obtaining Bound Copies of Your Thesis

Although the Library no longer accepts printed theses, students wishing to obtain personal copies may do so at their own expense through any private printer.  To ensure convenience and superior quality, the Library has made arrangements with Herring & Robinson Bookbinders, who have been binding Dominican's theses for 10 years.

Herring & Robinson provides directions on how to submit and pay for binding.  Herring & Robinson also provides a variety of selections for cover material coloring and lettering/stamping.

Any questions regarding the submission of materials and the delivery of bound copies through Herring & Robinson should be directed to hrbookbinders@yahoo.com

Dominican University of California is not responsible for the pricing of bound copies, any transactions between students and Herring & Robinson, or transactions with any other book binder listed on this page.

The Herring & Robinson website

Other Binding Options

Thesis on Demand

The Book Craftsman

Acme Book Binding

Author Rights

Although students retain all rights to their work, they must grant a non-exclusive license to the university at the time of submission. The license confirms that the student is the creator and contributor of the work and grants the university permission to share the work in an open-access digital environment for educational purposes.

Students and any co-authors retain all intellectual property rights for the thesis. Students submitting supportive material for which they do not own copyright, must certify that they have obtained permission from the copyright owner before making materials available online.

Requests to use the work for purposes other than education will be referred to the copyright holder.

If you have any questions, please contact Lisa Wendell at (415) 257-0168 or lisa.wendell@dominican.edu