Submitting Your Thesis

Upon successful defense of the thesis, the student is responsible for submitting an electronic copy of the thesis and related forms to the Scholarly Commons librarian before the due date. Students must submit the following forms and a digital copy of their theses through the Scholarly Commons website, following the instructions found on website.

Submission Process

Do not wait until the last minute to submit your thesis. As with many things (such as writing your thesis), the process might take longer than you think, especially as there may be heavy traffic on the submission website near submission deadlines. To expedite the submission process, have your thesis in Word or PDF format, gather all the appropriate documentation, and review the Submission Agreement and the steps below.

1. Create an account on Scholarly Commons by visiting the “My Account” tab. To receive information related to your thesis after graduation, make sure you use a non-OBU email address.
2. Go to the Graduate Theses page and select the “Submit Thesis” link under the Author Corner heading.
3. Read and accept the Submission Agreement.
4. Provide information about yourself, including your name as it is listed on the Title page and non-OBU email address.
5. Provide information about your degree program, your date of graduation, and your committee members, including the exact names of your adviser/committee chair and each reader.
6. Provide information about your thesis, including a title that exactly matches your Title page, keywords, disciplines or subject headings, submission date, and an abstract of up to 250 words.
7. Select permissions for your work, including a Creative Commons License and whether and for how long to embargo your work.
8. Upload your thesis.
9. Select the “Submit Additional Files” to submit the Thesis Defense and plagiarism check forms, and click the “Submit” button.
10. Upload and appropriately label each form as Supplemental Content. Deselect the “Show” checkbox next to each form before saving. (You may also submit supplemental files, such as video and audio files, related to your thesis. Make sure the “Show” checkbox remains checked for these files.)
11. Select the “Continue” button to finalize your submission.
    
    

Scholarly Commons

Scholarly Commons is the digital repository or archive of OBU’s research, intellectual and scholarly works, and creative material from her students, faculty, and staff. Scholarly Commons is the tool the OBU Library uses to make the full-text of all theses available online. You will submit your thesis directly to Scholarly Commons Graduate Theses page following the steps above.

Your Copyrights and Usage Rights

You retain copyright ownership of your thesis and all rights granted under U.S. Copyright Law, including the right to copy and distribute the work. However, some scholars may allow other permissions. You may choose the Creative Commons license to specify the particular permissions for your work during the submission process. To learn more about your copyrights, contact your advisor the Scholarly Commons librarian.

OBU does not claim copyright ownership of your submitted thesis. All material in Scholarly Commons, unless stated otherwise, is freely available for users around the world to view, download, and print for educational and research purposes, as allowed by fair use. By accepting the Submission Agreement and submitting your thesis, you grant OBU the non-exclusive, perpetual, world-wide, royalty-free distribution rights. You also grant permission to OBU to create back-up copies of your thesis for security and preservation purposes; to convert the work, without changing the content, for preservation, storage, and use of your work; to post a citation of the work and provide a link, if possible to your work; and to state your name as copyright holder and the usage rights along with contact information for those that seek permissions.

Embargos or Delayed Release

An embargo limits who can view your thesis for a specified and limited amount of time. Unless you impose an embargo, your thesis will become available in OBU’s digital repository Scholarly Commons, where it will be directly available to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection. If you do impose an embargo, only the metadata (i.e., title, author, abstract) is visible in the repository.

There is no option to request a permanent embargo; you can embargo your thesis for six months, one year, or two years. For some disciplines, a longer embargo period is needed. Additionally, some students may want to publish a version of their theses; for others, their theses are unique creative works, like artwork, scores, or scripts. Consult your advisor to discuss the embargo options. If a longer period is needed, contact the Scholarly Commons librarian.

The thesis automatically becomes fully visible when the embargo expires, unless the author requests an extension. If you want to extend your embargo, contact the Scholarly Commons librarian.

Removing a Thesis from Scholarly Commons

The purpose of OBU’s Scholarly Commons is to digitally archive the scholarly and creative works of Ouachita Baptist University students, faculty, staff, and affiliates, and to make these works freely and permanently accessible around the world via the internet. Once you deposit your thesis, it is our hope that it will remain in perpetuity. However, if an author wishes to have an item withdrawn, a written request for its removal must be sent to the Scholarly Commons librarian. The metadata (i.e., author, title, abstract) will still remain visible after the document file has been removed.

OBU reserves the right to remove a thesis for reasons including, but not limited to, plagiarism and falsification of data. The Scholarly Commons librarian will make reasonable efforts to notify the author of such removal.

 

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More Thesis Information

General Information

Preparing the Thesis

Format Standards