ETD Step by Step

Submit your proposal to your graduate committee for approval in Gradprog using the Prospectus milestone.

Complete your approved research as outlined in your proposal and report on your findings. It is important that you learn the accepted style guide followed by your department/college before you begin writing your work.

Follow the accepted style guide as outlined by your department/college.

What are the Graduate Studies formatting requirements?
To ensure that each thesis and dissertation is legible and accessible in printed and digital format, BYU Graduate Studies requires: US Letter sized pages (BYU Print and Mail suggests margins of at least ¾” to ensure the quality of printed and bound documents)

• All fonts embedded in the PDF
• Bookmarks for each chapter and heading that is present in the table of contents section in the PDF

How do I prepare my title page and preliminary pages?
Checklist for Preparing Your Title Page and Preliminary pages

Templates/samples for title and preliminary pages
Sample Title Page
Sample Preliminary Pages

How do I prepare my document with correct formatting?
ETD Formatting Classes and Tutorial

Bookmarks are required.
Bookmarks are required for each chapter and heading that are present in the Table of Contents.

Submit research for approval by your graduate committee. Your document must be approved before a defense can be scheduled.

Present and defend your research before the graduate committee.

Complete additional editing and resubmit to your graduate committee. The committee will approve when all qualifications are met.

Convert ETD to a PDF document using Adobe Acrobat, embed all fonts, and add bookmarks.

How to embed fonts in a PDF document

View the tutorial. See the section titled Acrobat Preferences.

Upload thesis/dissertation to the ETD milestone to receive four approvals: Graduate Studies (preliminary approval), Department, College, Graduate Studies (final approval to library).

After final approval, your document will be released to the BYU digital library.

Essential videos and information on how to prepare and submit theses and dissertations.

Applying Heading 1s and 2s

Heading 3s and Style Separators

Formatting and Inserting Page Numbers

Generating and Formatting Table of Contents

Generating a List of Tables/Table of Figures

Exporting to PDF and Embedding Fonts

Can I include a published article as a chapter in my thesis or dissertation?

If you are the primary author, you must ensure you have permission from the publisher to use your article in your ETD. This may have been obtained when you signed agreements to publish your article in a journal and you’ll need to insert the permission statement. You may add the article as written using the article format into your thesis or dissertation. Be sure to follow the advice of your chair.

What is Graduate Studies’ policy on article-based chapters?

BYU Graduate Studies is supportive of article-based formatting of chapters in theses and dissertations when consistent with disciplinary norms and College style standards. If applicable, accepted or published articles on which the student is a primary author may be inserted as chapters in the thesis or dissertation. Submitted articles are subject to college formatting requirements. Article-based chapters using accepted or published articles must include a complete citation and the following statement. "I hereby confirm that the us of this article is compliant with all publishing agreements."

Can I have internal figures in a “landscape” orientation?

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 helpful to be able to pan and enlarge parts of such a figure with no loss of resolution.