Penn State Schreyer Honors College

Thesis Submission Guide

Introduction

This guide is prepared as an aide to assist you in fulfilling the final requirement to graduate with honors – the submission of your thesis document. The requirements in this publication apply to all Schreyer Honors theses.

Public Access to Honors Theses

Open access: The electronic thesis is available to anyone who wishes to access it on the Web unless you request restricted access. Open access distribution makes the work more widely available than a bound copy on a library shelf.

Restricted access: If there is a reason your thesis should not be released to the public, you must contact the Schreyer Honors College at least two weeks prior to final submission of your thesis and request restricted access. If restricted access is granted for your thesis (usually for patent or proprietary purposes), access to the body of the thesis will be denied to everyone for a period of two years. The thesis will be released automatically for access worldwide at the end of the two-year period.

Submission Requirements

Electronic submission of the final Honors Thesis became a requirement beginning spring semester 2010. Both the mandatory draft submission and the final copy must be submitted online.

The "official" copy of the Honors Thesis is the electronic file (eHT), and this is the copy that will be on file with the University Libraries. Electronic submission does not prevent the author from producing hard copies for the department or for personal use. All copies are the responsibility of the author and should be made prior to submission. The Schreyer Honors College does not provide copies.

How to Submit an Honors Thesis

  1. Upload a draft of your thesis in PDF format to the Electronic Honors Thesis (eHT) Website (login required).

    What and When to Upload

    1. The initial submission for review should be the textual thesis only, and should be in a single PDF file (it may include small image files such as tiffs or jpegs).
    2. The recommended file naming convention for PCs:
      yourlastname_firstname_severalwordsoftitle.extension ,
      Example: Smith_Adam_variablesinlinearequations.pdf
    3. Failure to submit your draft by the Final Thesis submission deadline will result in removal from the honors graduation checklist. If this occurs, you must either
      1. defer graduation if you plan to graduate with honors or
      2. withdraw from the Honors College
      If you do not withdraw, you will be dismissed from the Honors College for failing to meet all the requirements.

    Uploading Video, Audio, or Large Images

    1. If your thesis content is such that you feel you need to upload content other than text to properly represent your work (e.g. audio, video,) upload the textual portion of your thesis first as a single, standalone PDF file.  
    2. Add additional files for any other content as separate uploads.
    3. Acceptable Formats:
      File Type Formats
      Video Apple Quick Time (.mov)
      MPEG (i.e., MPEG-1, MPEG-2) (.mpg)
      Microsoft Audio Video Interleaved (.avi)
      Audio MIDI (with timing information) (.midi)
      MPEG (.mpg)
      WAV (.wav)
      Images PDF or PDF/A (.pdf)
      JPEG (.jpg)
      TIFF (.tif)
    4. Do not upload any ZIP files.
    5. If uploading more than one file, keep individual file sizes for the supplementary material under 50MB where possible. Large files will upload but may take a long time to download for future use, so divide large files into smaller ones if feasible (we recognize that movie files can be 4‑5GB and are not easily split.)
  2. If uploading large files, using a computer on campus should generate a faster upload speed
  3. Continue to revise your draft as required by your thesis supervisor and readers.
  4. Remove the Signatory Page since this will need to be submitted to the Honors College in hard copy.
  5. Collect the required signatures on the signatory page.
  6. Review your thesis one final time to be sure that no further changes are needed. It will not be possible to make corrections after the final approval by the Honors College.

Final Honors Thesis Submission

  1. Go to the eHT website and upload the final eHT.
  2. When you upload your final thesis you must also pay the $20 processing fee.
    Submit fee (login required).
  3. Your thesis will be reviewed one final time when you bring in your signatory page. If corrections are required, your file will be deleted and you will be asked to make the changes and upload a new file immediately. Your signatory page will be returned to you to bring back after you upload a corrected file.
  4. Your eHT will be accessible on the eHT website immediately after graduation unless you have specified restricted access.

Final Approval

When the final thesis is approved, the author and all signers will be notified, by email, of the approval.

Deadlines

Every Schreyer Honors thesis must be reviewed and approved by the Schreyer Honors College. There are no exceptions. Failure to meet the specified deadlines will result in removal from the honors graduation checkout list. Failure to be on this list means that you do not graduate with honors.

Getting Answers to Questions

Additional information about theses can be found in the SHC Student Handbook, the Thesis Formatting Guide, and the Honors Thesis Project Guide. Scholars who have questions about the honors thesis submission process can contact our office at 814-867-2505, or via email to SHCRecords@psu.edu.