Electronic Theses, Dissertations, and Reports

All K-State graduate students are required to submit an electronic version of their thesis, dissertation, or report. The Graduate School does not accept paper copies.

This overview provides the basics about the process for theses, dissertations, and reports in an electronic format at K-State.

Open Access

Electronic theses, dissertations, and reports (ETDR) submitted by K-State students are openly available through the K-State Research Exchange (K-REx) and are indexed by Google, Google Scholar, and other search engines. For information on copyright and your ETDR (such as how to legally reuse others’ works and what to do if you want to publish sections or chapters of your ETDR with an academic journal), please visit Copyright Information for Graduate Students.

Formatting your ETDR

Templates are available for Word and LaTeX. You're not required to use a template, but they do offer time-saving features such as automatically generating your table of contents and lists of table and figures.

Your ETDR must follow specific formatting guidelines. The ETDR Handbook (PDF) , the ETDR Formatting Checklist, and other tools and resources in this site demonstrate how to correctly format your ETDR to meet Graduate School requirements. K-State recommends you use the provided template options and review the videos located on the ETDR Template Resources page.

ETDR submission and other requirements must be completed by specific deadlines in order for students to graduate and participate in commencement with a designated term. Refer to the Graduation and commencement checklists at the beginning of the term in which you intend to graduate to make a plan for completing all requirements on time.

Prior Publication of A Chapter

Follow these guidelines if you have published a chapter of your thesis or dissertation as a journal article.

Saving your ETDR as a PDF

PDF is the format you will submit for the final version of your document after working in Word. The two important details of the PDF are that your formatting remains intact and your Table of Contents, Lists of Figures and Tables, and other links are clickable and go to their destination. In most cases you can use Word > Print > and then selecting PDF to output your document. You can also choose Save As > PDF in Word. You can also use Adobe Acrobat to export the Word document to PDF. In some cases, these steps can result in non-clickable links. When this happens, using Word online in your browser can be a solution. See instructions under "Outputting your ETDR as a PDF from Online Word" on the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Personal Bound Copies of Your Thesis, Dissertation or Report

You are not required by the Graduate School to submit a bound, paper copy of your ETDR. Many students, however, are interested in obtaining a bound copy for their personal use. Students can order a bound copy online by sending the PDF of your ETDR to Thesis on Demand or to PHD Book Binding. Bound copies also may be printed through K-State's University Printing, but hard-cover binding is not available.

Help

If you have questions on any aspect of your ETDR, start by utilizing the templates, tools, and resources. Additionally, help is available through the Graduate School and the IT Service Desk. See Help and Contact Information to determine which office to contact for your specific question.