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Publishing to an ETD SeriesPublishing to an ETD Series

Introduction and Existing Documentation on Managing Series and ETDs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) are often a core part of an IR. This document is meant to serve as a reference guide for commonly utilized features that are specific to the ETD series structure in Digital Commons.

The ETD series structure shares most of its features with the standard series structure, and we encourage you to also consult Publishing to a Series as you plan and set up your ETD structures. The basic steps of adjusting configurations, managing submissions, and setting up collection filters are well-documented in the general series guide. This guide addresses the unique parts of ETD workflows which may be of interest to administrators and graduate school stakeholders. Your consultant will be glad to answer any questions you may have about general series management that are not addressed in that guide.

ETD series can support all steps in an institution's workflow or particular steps needing reinforcement. The ETD Workflows section below covers several common approaches.

Metadata Fields

ETD series include default metadata fields to capture information such as degree name, advisor names, and departments. Additionally, metadata is often customized to support features like embargoes. Some schools also configure fields to help harvest their ETDs from Digital Commons to other third-party platforms; see Digital Commons and OAI-PMH: Harvesting Repository Records. You can learn more about Digital Commons metadata flexibility in our metadata guide, Metadata Options in Digital Commons.

Embargoes and Limiting Access to ETDs

If your institution has access policies regarding student work, DC can accommodate that in different ways.

Embargoes can be enabled with either a list of options for set periods of time (e.g., 6 months, 1 year, 2 years), or a drop-down menu for a submitter to choose the day, month, and year on which an ETD will become available to the public. N.B.: embargoes start their count from the day on which an item is submitted, not the day from which an item is posted. For example, an item that’s placed under a six-month embargo but is posted two months after its submittal will have its embargo expire four months after it is posted. Your consultant can enable the embargo field for you and advise you on which date option to use. While an ETD is under embargo, a message will appear on the article information page informing users that the document will be available for download after the date that the submitter has chosen.
Access controls: ETDs may also be configured so that access to them can be granted only to users who have email addresses containing certain domain names, or who are seeking access from computers within a set IP range. Users who attempt to access ETDs from email addresses that are not from an approved domain, or are outside of the designated IP range, will be directed to a page that contains text informing them of the unavailability of the document.

ETD Workflows

One of the main aspects to consider in managing ETDs is the workflow. We typically characterize the three common ETD workflows based on the “lifecycle” stage when submission occurs: caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. This model can be used for both undergraduate and graduate student work.

Caterpillar - full life cycle including review, approval, and publishing

This workflow takes advantage of the review tools available in Digital Commons. It is initiated when a student submits an ETD that is drafted and ready for review. The administrator of the ETD series assigns the ETD for review to the faculty advisors named by the student on the submission form and, based on the recommendations of the advisors, the administrator accepts the ETD or returns it to the student for revision. The review-revise cycle can be repeated as many times as needed. Once the advisors all agree that the ETD is ready for acceptance, the administrator sends an acceptance notification, and the student prepares the final version according to formatting requirements. Once the final version is submitted, the administrator reviews it and publishes it to the site. See “The Review Process” later in this guide for more information.

Chrysalis - approval and publishing of final version

The student submits the final version of the ETD to the IR. The ETD administrator and/or the library reviews the metadata for accuracy and the ETD for formatting requirements, and also attaches any submission agreements and archival copies as additional files before posting the ETD to the site.

Butterfly - publishing of final, approved version

ETDs have been finalized and approved by all parties–the document is complete and in its final form, and the degree has been awarded. Users with this workflow often use the batch upload feature or an import schema to move large amounts of metadata over from other platforms such as ProQuest, or to upload archival ETDs.

Email Notification Templates

One of the features of the review tools that is utilized in the caterpillar workflow are the templated emails that are sent at certain points in the review process. These templates include notifications that may be sent:

To advisors when an ETD has been sent to them for review
As a reminder to advisors when a review is late
To the student notifying them of a decision
To the administrator when reviews have been submitted by advisors

There are additional notifications throughout the review process, too. The templates for these notifications can be customized to suit your needs: the ones not suitable for your own review process and workflow can be suppressed or edited to contain language and instructions that are better fitted to your own institution’s needs.

Your consultant can provide you with a list of the templates and their boilerplate text, which you may edit as needed. For more information, see Automated Email Notifications for Repository Submissions.

Collection Tool and Organization

A part of managing ETDs includes considering how they’ll be organized within the repository. We have found that there are two common ways that institutions manage their ETDs. Some institutions take a centralized approach, while others prefer a decentralized method. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Both approaches utilize the collection tool, which is discussed in more detail in The Collection Tool guide and also in this video: The Collection Tool Tutorial – Automatic Collection.

Centralized method

The centralized method of managing ETDs uses a single series to which the items are submitted. The series is configured to take advantage of the auto-collect feature to separate ETDs into sub-series for each academic department. This allows for management and review of all ETDs to ensure compliance with formatting and submission requirements that are specific to an institution.

Advantages:

The submission process can be streamlined.
The collection filters can be configured to separate ETDs by degree type, department, or any other parameters that you set. This approach would require that a primary ETD series be created as the main “bucket” for all of the ETD manuscripts, and also the creation of each series that would hold the ETDs that have been collected by the filters according to the parameters that you set (usually by academic department).

Disadvantages:

The series can become quite large over time. While Digital Commons has no size limits on any of its structures, there are practical limits to managing a series that contains thousands of records.

Decentralized method

The decentralized method uses multiple series to which the items are submitted. Students submit ETDs to a series specific to their colleges or departments, and the ETDs are collected from those series into a single ETD series. The filters can be configured to auto-collect ETDs from the departmental series into the larger institutional-level series based on degree type or any other parameter that you set.

Advantages:

Different colleges and departments can manage their own unique degree requirements and review workflows.
Submission forms can have metadata fields that are standard throughout the university made mandatory so that key information is captured for every ETD within the IR.

Disadvantages:

Active management of multiple ETD series structures is required.

Multimedia

Many ETDs include audio and video files. The Digital Commons platform offers administrators a variety of options for the presentation of these files.

If you would like to incorporate multimedia files within the ETDs in your repository, submitters can upload their files and custom metadata using the same process as they do full-text files. When you post the ETD to your repository, users may download the file and view it with the application of their choice, and this will trigger a download in your usage reports. If a manuscript is uploaded as the primary file, then the additional files option can be used for multimedia files.

If the multimedia file exists on another site, we can present two additional options:

If the multimedia file is on a streaming server such as YouTube, Vimeo, or a streaming server at your institution, the submitter can use a section of the submission form titled “Multimedia” that is especially for streaming content. The submitter enters the URL of the file on the streaming server and the file type. When visitors visit the page where you posted it, the system will allow visitors to view or listen to the file using a player that is embedded within the repository web page. Multimedia fields can be enabled upon request if they are not present.
If the file is not on a streaming server, the submitter can provide the link to the file under the usual “Upload File” section of the submission form. Users will click on the link and be able to download the file from the external site.

Additional Files

Use the Additional files option to upload extra files, sometimes called supplemental files, that accompany an ETD. Multiple additional files can be uploaded to accompany a manuscript: charts, images, appendices, and datasets are some of the additional files that may be uploaded along with an ETD. Additional files can also include permission forms that require signatures for the publication of ETDs. These can be hidden by the submitter when an ETD is uploaded, or by the administrator when the ETD is reviewed (see steps below).

It is important to note that additional files are not governed by embargoes or access control limitations; if an ETD is uploaded and placed under an embargo, any additional files that are not hidden will be available to the public. Once an embargo expires, however, any additional files will have to be manually unhidden. Your consultant can advise you on the particulars of this.

Hide or show additional files

To hide or show an additional file:

Click the Additional files link in the sidebar
Select the Show checkbox to display the file on the site, or clear the checkbox to hide the file
Click Save, then select Publish saved changes to update the ETD series when you’re ready to make the change live

Additional files management page for an ETD submission with Show checkboxes for each file.

The Review Process

The ETD series advisor review process uses the same peer review tools as other Digital Commons publications, so the review interface uses general labels rather than ETD-specific ones. The table below shows how those labels typically correspond to ETD roles:

Digital Commons Label	Common Participant
Author	Graduate Student or Candidate
Administrator	Library or graduate school representative responsible for assigning manuscript faculty advisors, publishing content to the repository, and overseeing revisions.
Reviewer	Faculty advisor or other graduate school representative responsible for supplying feedback and suggesting revisions to an ETD before publication.

To begin the review process for a manuscript, navigate to its Thesis/dissertation details page and click Reviewers in the left-hand sidebar. This link appears only after you enter a value in Maximum number of reviewers per article on the Configuration page.

Manage Reviewers

Reviewer management in an ETD series works the same way as in journals and other series. For step-by-step instructions, see Peer Review Tools.

In an ETD series, the process generally follows these steps:

Suggest reviewers. Build a list of reviewers for the manuscript, usually the student’s advisors and committee members. You can add a new person, choose someone from the Master List of Reviewers, or choose from the author list. Suggested reviewers aren’t notified until you send a request.
Send review requests. Request reviews from some or all of the suggested reviewers. Each reviewer receives an email with a due date and a link to accept or decline.
Monitor reviews. Track each reviewer’s status on the Reviewers page. Committed reviewers receive automatic reminders, and completed reports appear in the Submitted Reviews table.
Follow up on late reviews. Send reminders, revise due dates, suggest a replacement, or upload a report on a reviewer’s behalf if they email it to you.
Share reports with the candidate. After you register a decision, reports are available to the candidate unless you hide them.

To add many reviewers to the Master List of Reviewers at once, Consulting Services can provide a batch reviewer spreadsheet for you to fill out and return.

Re-review:

For details on sending out a paper for another round of reviews following a revision, see “Re-review after revisions” below under “Administrative Decision.”

Administrative Decision

Once administrators have read the referee reports, it is time to register an administrative decision.

Registering a decision on a manuscript

To register a decision:

Navigate to the Thesis/dissertation details page and click Register decision in the left-hand sidebar.
Select the appropriate decision from the drop-down menu:
- Accept Thesis/Dissertation: ETD is accepted for publication as is (i.e., no revisions necessary).
- Accept Thesis/Dissertation with minor revisions: ETD is accepted for publication assuming the candidate makes minor revisions as requested by the administrator. The requested revisions may be included either in the body of the acceptance message or in an attached file (such as a tracked-changes version of the native MS Word file). Minor revisions typically include formatting changes.
- Major Revisions required for acceptance: ETD is not suitable for publication without major content revisions. The author is invited to make changes and submit a revision. Select this option if revisions may require another round of advisor review.
- Reject Thesis/Dissertation: ETD is not worthy of publication in the repository. (Rejected manuscripts are immediately removed from the Not yet posted list in the Theses/dissertations list within Manage theses/dissertations. To view them, select “Rejected” from the State drop-down menu there.)
  
  Register decision page–note that the decision selected here is “Accept Thesis/Dissertation”:
If you do not want to email a decision letter, select the Do not email the decision letter checkbox and go to step 6. Otherwise, continue to step 4.
Modify the decision letter, if desired. A default version of the decision letter appears when you select a decision. Decision emails can be sent as is (after deleting the text in brackets) or edited to include any important information regarding referee reports and suggested or required revisions. Use the Cc: The Administrators and Send a copy to reviewers checkboxes to copy the letter to other administrators and to reviewers.
If you'd like to include additional files with the decision email, click Choose File to locate and select the desired file(s). Click the Add button to upload multiple attachments. Click the corresponding Remove button to delete an attachment. It is not necessary to attach the full-text manuscript or referee reports to the decision letter—these will be available to the candidate through their account.

Note: Do not delete the ATTACHMENT_LINK placeholder in the text of the email when modifying the message. This text ensures that files are attached when the email is sent.
Click Register decision to send the letter and formally register the editorial decision.
Once a decision is registered, any referee reports will be made available to the candidate (unless they have been marked as hidden on the Reviewers page). This option can be disabled by contacting Consulting Services.

Access editorial decision letters:

To access a previously-sent decision letter, navigate to the Thesis/dissertation details page, and select the Decision letters link in the left-hand sidebar.

All decision letters and attachments for that particular manuscript are archived on this page.

Re-review after revisions

When administrators register a decision of “major revisions” for a paper, it can be sent out for a second round of peer review or re-review. Typically, in the case of re-review, the original reviewers are called upon. However, administrators may select new reviewers from the Master List of Reviewers.

As soon as a reviewer submits a report, a new request rereview option will appear beside his/her name on the Reviewers page.

To send a paper out for re-review:

Navigate to the Thesis/dissertation details page and click Reviewers in the left-hand sidebar.
Click the request rereview link beside the reviewers you want to re-review the manuscript.
Modify the re-review request letter if desired and click Send.

For details on how re-review reports are hidden and shared with authors, see Peer Review Tools.

ETD Configurations

This section highlights commonly used settings available on the ETD series Configuration page. For publication-level settings that apply across publication types, see “Publication-level configurations” in Digital Commons Administrator Configurations.

After modifying the options below on the Configuration page, select Save Changes. Options that affect appearance or visibility don’t appear to the public until you publish them. Select Preview changes in the left-hand sidebar to confirm your changes are correct, then select Publish saved changes.

Basic Settings:

Breadcrumb: This can be used to customize what appears in the breadcrumb navigation instead of the ETD series URL label (default).
Introductory text: A text box for including cover text on the series home page.

Basic Settings section of the ETD series Configuration page with the Breadcrumb and Introductory text fields.

ETD Series Presentation:

Extra sidebar link URL and Extra sidebar link display label: Fields for entering an additional sidebar link and the label for the link. This is great for linking to department pages and external documentation on your ETD workflow for students.
Add link to submit form: If checked, adds a Submit Research link to the sidebar of your ETD series where students may upload their ETDs.

Publishing:

Submission Steps and Copyright Agreement: A text box to include information on author rights and any copyright agreement information you’d like to include. Standard HTML text formatting is accepted, including bold, italic, and super- and subscripts.

Review:

Maximum number of reviewers per article: If included, the system will prompt administrators to solicit the number of reviews indicated. Administrators may override this selection using the options provided on the Reviewers page of any submission.
Number of days to submit a review: If completed, the system will prompt reviewers to complete their reviews in the number of days indicated. Administrators may override this selection using the options provided on the Reviewers page of any submission.

Additional ETD Series Pages:

Using these text fields, administrators can customize the ETD series Policies page and Final Manuscript Preparation Guidelines page. Standard HTML text formatting is accepted, including bold, italic, and super- and subscripts.

Manage permissions:

To add or remove ETD series-level administrators, select Manage permissions in the left-hand sidebar of the Configuration tab (see Managing Administrator Permissions).