Dissertation/Thesis Guidelines

The GSBS utilizes Turnitin to provide similarity reports to our students when submitting their own original work. This is meant to support academic integrity as well as uphold the UT Health reputation. It is important to note that this process is not meant to be punitive in any way to the students. It is a simple process to assist with student writing. 

Access to the Turnitin Canvas course will be granted to student who have applied for graduation for the next semester. If you do not have access and are expecting to graduate, please contact Tiffany Thompson (ThompsonT4@uthscsa.edu) in the Graduate Dean office. Students are required to submit an initial draft of their thesis/dissertation to the Turnitin course on Canvas one month prior to their defense. Once a student has successfully defended, they are then required to submit a final draft within two weeks following their defense.

See the pdf for instructions on how to use turnitin. 

To submit a draft, students will need to locate the GSBS Turnitin course in Canvas. From there, they will click on “Assignments” on the left-hand side. There are two different assignments available so please be sure to submit to the correct one. Once the submission has been uploaded, Turnitin will create a similarity report that students can access. To access this report, click on “Submission Details” on the upper right-hand corner. Locate the blue icon next to the document name. 

The first similarity report should be emailed to the PI so that the student and PI can discuss any major areas of concern. 

Below are the ranges of possible percentages that students may encounter. The GSBS Acceptable Range is 0-24% (either blue or green).

Ranges:

Blue: 0% matching text
Green: 1 – 24% matching text
Yellow: 25 – 49% matching text
Orange: 50 – 74% matching text
Red: 75 – 100% matching text

For any questions regarding Turnitin and the Similarity Report, please contact Alex De Jesus (DeJesusA@uthscsa.edu) in the GSBS Office.

The Proquest/UMI website provides publishing guides regarding your options for traditional publishing versus open access publishing and registering for copyrights. There are fees associated with some of these additional options. There is no fee for the traditional publishing of theses and dissertations.

The process is very straightforward: In the center box, click on "Submit my Dissertation/Thesis." One important point to remember is when you are asked to type the title of your dissertation do not copy and paste, this must be typed out. You are required to submit your dissertation/thesis to the publishing company ProQuest/UMI for electronic publishing/storage.  You do not need to purchase a bound copy from ProQuest (see below for more binding information).  You must select "submit" at the end in order for the GSBS office to receive your dissertation/thesis.

Please note that the version submitted to ProQuest must be the same version submitted to the “Final Submission” assignment in the Turnitin course. 

See pdf for how to submit to ProQuest. 

Registering with the U.S. Copyright Office establishes your claim to the copyright for your dissertation/thesis and provides certain protections if your copyright is violated. Once registered, your dissertation or thesis becomes eligible for statutory damages and recovery of attorney fees. Registration of a work is required prior to being able to sue for copyright infringement, and you may claim statutory damages and attorney's fees only for infringements occurring after your work is registered. Statutory damages are set out in Title 17, Section 504 of the U.S. Code, and range from $750-$150,000 USD per infringement. This contrasts with infringements occurring prior to copyright registration which are only eligible to recover actual damages with no recovery of attorney’s fees.

Students are given the choice to copyright their thesis/dissertation. ProQuest can file the paperwork on behalf of the student for a fee of $75 during the initial submission process. The site will also handle any issues that may arise once the paperwork has been filed. ProQuest will mail you a completed certificate of registration from the Library of Congress. Please note that ProQuest will only file the copyright on behalf of one person.

If you wish to add a copyright after your paper has been submitted, you can choose between these options:

• Create a new submission and add the $75 copyright fee
• Use Copyright.gov to file your copyright paperwork

UT Health San Antonio expects all members of its community to comply with U.S. copyright laws and refers to all users of its technological and information resources to the description of copyright law included in the Use of Copyrighted Materials in the UTHSC Handbook of Operating Procedures, Chapter 2.3.2. The UT System Policy Library has addition information on the UTS 107 Use Of Copyrighted Materials.

Copyright protection currently lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. If the work has more than one author, the copyright protection lasts for the life of the last author plus 70 years.

Additional information and resources about copyright can be found here.

Students will often add outside sources such as previously published work and materials to their dissertation/thesis submission. In order to keep these materials in their submissions, students must obtain written permission from the copyright holder. Copies of the granted permission must be submitted to the Graduate Dean Office.

If students are unable to obtain permission to use the work, they may choose one of the following methods:

• Redraw/trace maps, images, graphics, etc.
• Redact the image and reference where it can be found (URL, journal, etc.)

Students who wish to use their previously published work in their dissertation/thesis must first determine who has the copyright to their work. 

Copyright held by publisher: Students should read the agreement they signed with the publisher to confirm if the copyright is exclusively through the publisher or if the student or co-author signed an agreement that the work was a “work made for hire”. If either is the case, the publisher holds copyright. 

Copyright held by author: If the student retained copyright to their prior work but are granted certain rights to a publisher through a non-exclusive license in exchange for publication, the student should read the terms of the agreement and comply with the conditions. In this case, students would be free to use the work without permission of the publisher.

Prior work has two or more authors: Co-authors must be acknowledged in the thesis or dissertation. If the copyright is held by the publisher, no other action is needed from co-author. If the co-author retained copyright, the student who is using the prior work must be mindful of whether there was an agreement among the authors as to the ownership of the sections of the prior work. If the student is using sections created by the co-author, they must obtain written permission. 

Outside of the UT System license, use of copyrighted material is dependent on the concept of Fair Use, Section 107 of the United States Copyright Law. It presumes the use is minimal enough so that it does not interfere with the copyright holder's rights. Under the "fair use" rule of copyright law, an author may make limited use of another author's work without asking permission. 

Fair use is intended to support teaching, research, and scholarship, but educational purpose alone does not make every use of a work fair. 

Additional information and instructions for obtaining permission can be found here.

PDF of Sample Permission Page

The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences allows students to place a 1-year embargo on their ProQuest submission. Please note that ProQuest gives students the option to make their submissions available through search engines including Google and Google Scholar. Students can request a 2-year embargo by emailing the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs with a justification for the extended delay. The justifications to extend can include but are not limited to:

• Patentable rights in the work or other issues in which disclosure may be detrimental to the rights or interests of the author. 
• The ethical need to prevent disclosure of sensitive or classified information about persons, institutions, technologies, etc. 
• The interest of an academic or commercial press in acquiring the rights to publish your dissertation or thesis as a book*. 
• Content that is likely to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal*. 

Adding an embargo to your submission will not delay any physical printing if you requested a hard copy. 

During the submission process, students will be given the option to choose between Traditional Publishing and Open Access Publishing. Traditional Publishing is available to students at no extra cost. Open Access Publishing is accessible through a $95 one-time fee. Both options received the same services including indexing, microfilming, preservation and archival in the ProQuest repository. However, Open Access Publishing will allow the student the widest possible exposure. This includes:

PQDT: Student’s submission will be available for free to all users of ProQuest® Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database

PQDT Open: Open access titles can be retrieved via the ProQuest database PQDT Open. Anyone with access to the Internet will be able to read and download open access dissertations and theses for free.

	Open Access Publishing PLUS Dissertation: $95 Thesis: $95	Traditional Publishing Dissertation: $0 Thesis: $0
Open Access Publishing PLUS from ProQuest	X
Option for Open Access from Your Institution	X	X
Optional Exposure to search engines	X	X
ISBN assignment	X	X
Editorial Review	X	X
Bibliographic indexing	X	X
K-level MARC record on request	X	X
Published citation and abstract	X	X
Fulfills Mandatory Deposit with Library of Congress	X	X
Appendix check for copyright issues	X	X
Digital preservation and dissemination	X	X
Microfilm archiving and preservation	X	X
On-demand print copies	X	X
Award eligibility	X	X
ETD Administrator* available Copyright filing available ($75 service fee)	X	X

Binding of your dissertation/thesis is not required; however, students who wish to order physical copies of their final work can utilize different options:

• ProQuest: The site offers a variety of options (paper, size, etc.) to choose from. The fee will vary depending on what the student chooses.
• Third Party Sites: Students can access these third-party sites below if they wish to order physical copies
• • PhD Book Binding
  • Thesis On Demand
  • Book1One 

After your degree has been approved by Graduate Faculty Council, you will receive the final signed copy of your approval page. You may insert your approval page into your dissertation/thesis prior to submitting a binding request. If you choose to request a bound copy through ProQuest, you can contact Alex De Jesus (DeJesusA@uthscsa.edu) to open your ProQuest submission so that you may upload your signed approval page. 

Survey of Earned Doctorates (for Ph.D. only)*

*Please complete the survey online. A copy of the certificate will be mailed to the GSBS office.

Dissertation/thesis formatting should follow ProQuest guidelines as demonstrated in the templates/examples below. These guidelines supersede any other formatting guidelines such as APA. Please utilize these templates and examples when preparing your dissertaton/thesis.

Templates

• Title Page Template
• Abstract Page Template
• Approval Page Template

For BME students only - Title & Abstract Pages Templates

Formatting Examples

• Example of the correct formats for abbreviations in text
• Table of Contents Page example
• Title Page example
• Approval Page example
• Dedication Page example
• Abstract Page example
• List of Figures example
• Literature Cited Page - Numbered Block Format example
• Literature Cited Page - Hanging First Line Format example