The Manuscript Clearance Portal will automatically calculate a student's deadlines once the "Defense Announcement Form" is submitted. Students in the manuscript clearance process should be familiar with both types of deadlines: Semester and 60-Day.
Fall 2023 Manuscript Clearance Semester Deadlines
Initial, Pre-Defense Doctoral Deadline
October 30, 2023
Last day for doctoral students to submit doctoral dissertation or treatise for pre-defense format review.
Initial, Pre-Defense Masters Deadline
November 13, 2023
Last day for master’s students to submit master's thesis for pre-defense format review.
Final, Post-Defense Deadline (All degrees)
November 27, 2023
Last day for the post-defense, final content-approved manuscript (all degrees) and required Manuscript Clearance Portal forms to be submitted.
Formatting Deadline
December 12, 2023
Last day for students (all degrees) to receive an email from Manuscript Clearance Office confirming final clearance.
Manuscripts must be submitted by 11:59 pm (Eastern Time) of the listed deadline date. Forms must be completed by the same time on the deadline date.
Explanation of Manuscript Clearance Deadlines
Initial, Pre-Defense Deadline
- The relevant pre-defense (initial) format review deadline is the date by which students must submit their manuscript to the Manuscript Clearance Advisor for a pre-defense (initial) formatting review. Manuscripts will not be reviewed and counted as an initial submission under the following conditions: 1) not submitted via the ProQuest ETD website; 2) poorly formatted based on The Graduate School's guidelines, or 3) otherwise appears incomplete (e.g., multiple sections omitted). While it is understood that content will likely change after the defense, it is expected that manuscripts submitted for the pre-defense (initial) format review are at least 90% complete and have been formatted in full accordance with the criteria in the most recent version of The Graduate School's formatting guidelines.
Final, Post-Defense Deadline
- The post-defense deadline indicates the date by which students must submit the post-defense, final content-approved version of their manuscript to ProQuest ETD and ensure completion/signatures of all required manuscript clearance forms in The Graduate School's Manuscript Clearance Portal by 11:59 p.m. ET (except "Official Final Clearance"). Although students cannot complete all forms in the Manuscript Clearance Portal directly, they are ultimately responsible for ensuring their committee has completed the needed approvals.
- *If there are no content changes requested by the student's supervisory committee or made to the manuscript after the defense, a resubmission of the final, content-approved manuscript is still required in ProQuest ETD by this deadline. A pre-defense manuscript submission in ProQuest ETD is not sufficient in meeting this deadline.
- Additional formatting revisions are often required after this date in order for final manuscript clearance to be completed, but content changes are prohibited.
Formatting Deadline
- The Formatting Deadline is the date by which any post-defense formatting revisions (only those required by the Manuscript Clearance Office) should be completed and "Official Final Manuscript Clearance" should be granted in the Manuscript Clearance Portal.
Academic units may set their own deadlines in advance of these manuscript clearance deadlines. Students must adhere to their unit's deadlines in addition to those established by The Graduate School. Please consult with your Graduate Program Coordinator, if you are unsure of your academic unit's requirements.
In the absence of additional deadlines set by academic units, we strongly recommend students defend at least 1 week prior to the post-defense deadline. Missing a semester deadline will result in the student automatically becoming ineligible to graduate in the current term. While students may be allowed to defend until the semester's post-defense deadline, they should understand that ALL content changes must be completed AND approved in the Portal by their committee prior to the deadline. The finalized manuscript must be submitted to ProQuest ETD by the deadline as well. Extensions will not be granted for students who defended late and were unable to complete any content changes in time.
60-Day Deadline
No later than 60 days after a successful defense:
- Post-defense, final content-approved manuscript must be submitted.
- Required forms (through Final Content Approval) must be completed in the Portal.
No later than 1 week after the 60-day deadline:
- All requested formatting corrections must be complete. (Multiple reviews may be required.)
- Official Final Manuscript Clearance must be achieved in the Portal.
This deadline applies to students who:
- Defend early in their semester of expected graduation.
- Defend in a semester prior to their expected graduation.
- Missed a semester deadline after defending (resulting in delayed graduation).
University closures are not excluded from the 60 days, but deadlines may be adjusted (forward or backward) if they fall on a weekend or a day the university is closed. The deadline will be automatically adjusted in the Portal.