There are several computer labs across campus. See the Vanderbilt ITS webpage for details. There are also computers available for student use in each of the libraries on campus and most libraries have laptops available for checkout.
Simply purchase a ZIP disk and use it like a floppy or CDROM. There will be instructions in the labs that have ZIP drives on how to use them.
Yes. The Graduate School will continue to accept paper theses and dissertations until further notice.
Yes. The Graduate School will accept both electronic theses and dissertations and paper copies if you would like.
The Graduate School now collects an ``archiving fee.'' This money is used to maintain the Digital Library of ETDs in perpetua.
No. Alumni may eventually be able to submit ETD versions of their theses or dissertations, but not at the present time.
Please see Formatting Your ETD for Submission, or come by the Graduate School for a copy of Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines.
When you pay your fee, the Graduate Schools sends ProQuest a signed title page and the "ProQuest form." ProQuest, then:
The standard right now is Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format).
PDF stands for Portable Document Format.
PDF is a hypertext file format developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated for electronic publishing. PDF is like PostScript...only it's like printing to the World Wide Web (instead of a printer).
We request you submit your ETD in PDF because PDF is easy for you to create, it is easy for us to manage, and it works on multiple platforms (e.g., Macintosh, Windows, UNIX).
The Acrobat 7.0 package includes PDFWriter, and Distiller. It is available for purchase through the bookstore with student ID or online (click here).
The Acrobat products are also available for students' use on some of the computers located in the computer labs across campus.
Acrobat Reader is available free! Adobe Systems, Inc.
Adobe allows free conversion of 5 files to PDF. Convert files to PDF
Yes. Help is available by selecting the "Help" menu from Acrobat, Reader, or Distiller. Also see Adobe Systems for more information.
Yes. First, be sure that you are using Adobe 5 or 7. Be sure to check carefully that the PDF conversion happened successfully.
If you are experiencing conversion difficulties:
We will ask you for the shortest possible sample file that exhibits the error.
Use Acrobat or Acrobat Reader to review your PDF files. Get a friend to help! Make sure all pages formatted correctly, and that all fonts converted correctly. Make sure all pages are numbered correctly (no skipping pages), and that the table of contents matches the numbering. Make sure you have included all the document parts, especially your Vita.
Additionally, your committee should review your PDF before they sign the ETD Approval Form. Once your ETD gets accepted into the library, we cannot change it.
Adobe PDFWriter is a one-pass process and will not convert some documents correctly. Adobe Distiller, however, (a two-pass process) generates correct PDF files more reliably.
Once your committee and the Graduate School have approved the 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 and the Graduate School registrar's office must check the ETD thoroughly before submitting it.
From Vanderbilt's ETD Server, select "Browse Publicly Available ETDs." To view ETDs from other universities, please consult the Digital Libraries Page.
PostScript is a page description programming language developed by Adobe in the 1980s. It is perhaps the most versatile and most loved language for printers worldwide. It is also capable of drawing to computer screens and any kind of drawing device at any resolution. However, Postscript is not interactive. It does not allow hyperlinking or annotation.
Non-conforming dialects of the PostScript language have evolved. Attempts to make a well-formed PostScript "standard" have had little success. Adobe released the Portable Document Format (PDF) language to attempt to resolve the conflicts and solve some of the problems inherent in PostScript, and extend it to perform hypertext.
Multimedia is the art of combining several channels to convey information (visual + aural, textual + visual, etc.).
Multimedia data are usually stored as a working unit---as a multimedia object.
In the computer, a multimedia object can be pasted into a word processor document, or stored in its own file that has its own suffix (e.g., house.gif, forest.jpg, tstorm.mpg).
An internal multimedia object is included directly in an ETD. Any object drawn or pasted into an ETD from another application is an "Internal Multimedia Object."
In your word processor file, center an anchor: a figure number, caption, file name, and approximate file size on a line by itself. Create the PDF file as usual.
Figure 1.1 Air escaping through steam portal (steam.wav, 10K)
Then, using the link feature of Adobe Acrobat, make a link to the file ``steam.wav.'' Be sure to include the ``steam.wav'' when you submit your ETD to the Graduate School.
We have not yet set a size limit. We have four terabytes (4096 gigabytes) dedicated to the ETD digital library. In other words, we have room for more than 4,000,000 average-sized ETDs.
Use the SAS statistics package to print graphics to Postscript (.ps files) or even better, Encapsulated Postscript (.eps files)). From there, you may use the Adobe Distiller product to convert the graphics to PDF and then import the pages into ``etd.pdf'' or link to them using the Adobe Acrobat product.
If the result is not satisfactory, you may print to GIF or JPEG graphics format from SAS and include those graphics in your document.
When using any extra tools, run a test with a small document early to make sure that everything converts correctly. The minute you take now (when you are relatively unstressed) could save you hours later (when you are completely stressed).
If you are using Mathematica under Windows (3.1,95,NT, 2000, XP) or Macintosh you should be able to ``copy'' and ``paste'' (under the ``Edit'' menu) graphics into your word processor file. The same is true for spreadsheets and other software packages. Make sure you are using Adobe Distiller version 3.0 or better. Always test to see how well small files work before doing your entire ETD.
You may ``copy'' and ``paste'' scanned images directly into your word processor as internal multimedia objects.
Otherwise, save the scanned photo as a JPEG file and make a link to it as an external multimedia object (explained above).
Yes, you may include programs just like external multimedia objects. Please include directions on how to install and run the program. Please include carefully documented source code. Make sure you have included all required support libraries and that you have permission to make these publicly available.
My multimedia file format is not listed, I need to include files of this type, and I have a special viewer. What can I do?
First, we suggest that you provide an alternate view in a standard format (JPEG for images, etc.) for multimedia objects. In this way, everyone who reads your ETD can get an idea of your work without installing a special viewer.
For special cases (e.g., 3-D molecule browsers), you may include the viewer for the multimedia format as an appendix to your ETD. Then you may make links to the external multimedia objects. Make sure that you document the tool and its use carefully. Also be sure that you have correct permissions to redistribute the viewer as well as documentation on the file type.
Yes. PDF files can represent pages that are more than three (virtual) feet wide and tall. This is a useful feature of the ETD, as it is nice to be able to pan and enlarge parts of such a figure with no loss of resolution.
Converting scanned images into a text format involves optical character recognition (OCR). Scanners attached to systems running Adobe Capture can convert to PDF and OCR at the same time. This allows for corrections if needed.
Be sure that you secure permission to use the scanned text from the copyright owner. You may have to present this proof when you submit your ETD.
I am using some "non-standard" fonts (by your definition in the submission guidelines). How do I make sure that my PDF file will contain the correct fonts?
You need to set up Distiller to "embed all fonts."
The lastest versions of Adobe products all have native PDF support. From the "File" menu, select "Save as PDF..." or "Print to PDF..."
For non-Adobe products, any file that can be printed from Windows/Macintosh can be printed to PostScript and then Distilled into PDF.
Follow the instructions in the How-to section:
These suggestions are derived from the Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.).
It has always been the case that dissertations are published. However, the lack of fast and free access provided by ProQuest publications has not harmed students' abilities to find publishers for their work, either in article or book form. It is the case that the access provided by Internet publication is altering the availability of work. Students will need to consider whether publication on the Internet may harm their ability to secure another publication outlet for the material, either in its original or a revised form. As indicated above, students are not required to publish in digital form nor on the Internet. Some students may believe that their dissertation in its original form will be more valuable to them if it is promptly available through Internet publication, with little value in second publication form. Many other students, however, will likely choose ProQuest (or a competitor), and attempt to secure another publisher for part or all of their work.