Submitting Your Thesis

Benefits

1. The thesis is available electronically as quickly as possible benefitting the student and College in terms of discoverability, impact and reputation
2. The hardbound thesis is printed directly from within the process, guaranteeing that the eThesis and the hardbound thesis are the same
3. The thesis records are automatically inserted in the RSS, benefitting the student, supervisor & College
4. The re-use of data across four College systems which means the reduction of duplication of content and of effort

Application for a stay

While TARA is an open access institutional repository for scientific and scholarly publications in digital form, it should be noted that access to items deposited in TARA can be restricted or embargoed if required. For an embargo to be applied the author must have applied for and received a ‘Stay’ on her/his thesis.

The application for a stay process is described in the calendar part III section 1.38.15 and states the following:
“Should an author of a thesis wish to withhold permission for the use of her/his work, a written application must be made to the Dean of Graduate Studies at the time of submission of the thesis for examination.
Such applications must have the written support of the graduate student’s Supervisor or Director of Teaching and Learning (Postgraduate), must state the reasons for the request for a stay on access and must provide a contact address.
The maximum length of a stay is five years. During this period of withheld permission the thesis may be consulted, lent or copied only by written permission of the author who is under an obligation to reply to all enquiries within a reasonable time.”

Submission Process

Download PDF of step-by-step instructions

Notification

1. Students eligible to deposit their eThesis are e-mailed by Academic Registry with the instructions and the link to the system
2. Students are asked to wait 24 hours after receipt of the message from Academic Registry before proceeding with the next step
3. The student logs into the Research Support System using their usual College username and password

Upload

1. As much metadata as possible is pre-populated from SITS. This will include the approved 'stay' on access to the thesis, where applicable
2. In the RSS, the student enters the remaining metadata (including the abstract), assigns keywords and ticks a box to indicate agreement to the terms of the Library Declaration
3. The metadata is sent to TARA where the student uploads the document/s and agrees to the depositor’s licence
4. The student Student receives message: 'Thank you for depositing your eThesis. You will be notified upon approval'

Approval and Archiving        

1. The TARA Content Manager checks the eThesis deposit. All theses are checked by the Content Manager within one working day
2. Upon approval, the eThesis is archived in TARA and e-mail notification with the link to the eThesis is automatically sent to the student, her/his supervisor and to Academic Registry
3. The thesis record is sent to the Library for inclusion in the Library catalogue

Printing and Hardbound Copy Deposit

1. As part of her/his e-mail notification from TARA, the student receives instructions to print the hardbound copies of the thesis and is presented with printer/binder options. The student issues the command to print the thesis
2. The eThesis is sent to the printer electronically along with the student’s instructions regarding the number of copies required, the student’s contact details and other options. A system-generated numeric key is included for printing on the thesis. This key matches the numeric key on the eThesis record and links the printed and digital versions of the thesis
3. The student collects the hardbound thesis from the printer and delivers the requisite one copy to Academic Registry
4. The student’s name is included on the list from Academic Registry to go to Council for final approval. The final message from Academic Registry to the student only goes out after notification of formal approval by Council
5. The hardbound thesis is sent to Library by Academic Registry

Live Demo

Below is a video showing a live demonstration of the e-theses process.