PRISM
Electronic Thesis Submission
Have you submitted all required forms to the FGS office?
Before you proceed with electronic submission of your thesis, ensure that all the required forms have been submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies (FGS) office. You will not be able to access the Vault collection until you have submitted all required forms to FGS.
• Download the most up-to-date forms at http://grad.ucalgary.ca/current/thesis/ethesis
Have you read the Thesis Guidelines?
The Thesis Guidelines provide detailed information regarding the format of your thesis. The guidelines should be consulted prior to submitting your thesis to ensure that you meet all the formatting requirements. If your thesis does not meet the formatting requirements, your submission
to The Vault will be declined.
• You can find the Thesis Guidelines at http://grad.ucalgary.ca/current/thesis/guidelines
Have you obtained permission for using copyrighted materials?
Please ensure that you have read the Theses Guidelines section on the use of copyrighted material prior to creating your PDF and accompanying materials.
If you have used copyrighted material(s) ensure that you have obtained the appropriate copyright permissions to include those materials in your thesis. If permissions are not obtained, those particular material(s) must be left out of your thesis. Copyright permissions must be included in
the appendix of the thesis with all signatures and contact information (including email addresses, street addresses, and telephone numbers) removed.
• Check the Thesis Guidelines for more information at http://grad.ucalgary.ca/current/thesis/guidelines
• Additional information about copyright permissions can be found at http://library.ucalgary.ca/copyright.
• Any further questions about copyright permission can be directed to copyright@ucalgary.ca.
Are you submitting the final copy of your thesis?
Review and make all corrections required by your supervisor(s) and committee prior to converting your thesis file to PDF. You must submit the final and approved thesis (by your supervisor and/or committee) to the Vault. No changes will be permitted once the thesis has been submitted and approved by the FGS office.
Prior to submitting you thesis, you should ensure that your thesis meets the requirements listed in the Thesis Guidelines. You can find the Guidelines at
http://grad.ucalgary.ca/current/thesis/guidelines
Your main thesis file must be in PDF format. This file must be unsecured and it is highly recommended that the PDF file is tagged and fast web viewed. Your file must be under 2 GB.
Naming the PDF File
The PDF file should be named the following way: ucalgary_year_lastname_firstname
For example: ucalgary_2011_smith_john.pdf
Thesis Organization
Prefatory Pages
o Frontispiece or Quote Page (optional)
o Title page (template can be found at http://grad.ucalgary.ca/current/thesis/templates)
o Abstract (label as page ii)
o Preface (optional)
o Acknowledgements (optional)
o Dedication (optional)
o Table of contents
o List of Tables (required if any)
o List of Figures, Illustrations, Other Graphics (required if any)
o List of Plates (required if any)
o List of Symbols, Abbreviations, Nomenclature (required if any)
o Epigraph (optional)
• Body of Text
• Endnotes (required if any)
• Bibliography or References
• Appendices (must include any copyright permissions with signatures and contact information removed)
• Index (Optional)
DO NOT include the following in your PDF: any required forms, approval page, ethics permission, and any signatures or personal information such as your home phone number or address.
Accompanying Materials
Accompanying files are to be uploaded separately from your main thesis PDF. Please ensure your accompanying files are referenced in your main thesis PDF and that you have included your thesis title and name within each file. Files can be up to 2GB in size.
The University of Calgary Theses Repository recognizes many of the accompanying file types, however, full support cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, be aware that we cannot guarantee preservation or access to these files for future users.
Recommended Files Types for Accompanying Files
Any file types are accepted into the repository. We suggest submitting the highest quality, most original and not compressed version available. The file types listed below will ensure your files are preserved long term:
• Containers: TAR, GZIP, ZIP
• Databases: XML, CSV
• Moving images: MOV, MPEG, AVI
• Software and gaming: BAGIT, ZIP, TAR or AXF
• Sounds: WAV, AIFF, MP3
• Still images: TIFF, JPEG 2000, PDF
• Tabular data: CSV
• Text: PDF/A, EPUB
• Web archive: WARC
It is also possible to upload proprietary file formats, including: AutoCAD, ArcView, Mathematica, etc. We suggest that you use these formats only if you feel that the unique qualities inherent in these file types cannot be matched by a more open and accessible file format. You may not upload
the programs that allow users to read these files, however you must include instructions in your theses file on how a user can access your files. This may include information on where the program can be downloaded from.
If the accompanying files consist of multiple files (image banks, tutorials, websites, software, etc.) we suggest that you compress the files into a .zip or .rar file for easy download by users. If your files require a specific directory structure, make sure to save this structure when creating the compressed file. In addition, you must include a manifest file describing the structure and contents. We suggest using WinZip (Windows) or ZipIt (Macintosh) for file compression.
Naming the Accompanying Files
Accompanying files should be named the following way:
ucalgary_year_lastname_firstname _what the supplementary file is For example:
ucalgary_2011_smith_john_appendixa.pdf
For example: ucalgary_2011_smith_john_datatables.pdf
Submitting Your Thesis: Logging In
NOTE: The new version of the Vault works best in Google Chrome or Firefox. Please ensure you are using one of these browsers to submit.
Submitting your thesis can be done through your account in PRISM: University of Calgary Digital Repository. To log in, got to https://prism.ucalgary.ca/login and login via University of Calgary Login.
Submitting Your Thesis: Starting a New Submission
Once you are logged in, go to https://prism.ucalgary.ca/submit
In the Item submission page, select Restricted Theses and Dissertations or Open Theses and Dissertations. You must submit to one of these collections only.
If you do not see this collection in the dropdown menu, contact thesis@ucalgary.ca to request access. Note that if you have not yet submitted the required thesis forms to FGS then you must do so first in order for your account to be activated.
Submitting Your Thesis: Saving and Editing
If at any point during this process you need to stop, you can simply click the “Save for later” button.
Your submission should be saved, and available for you to edit the next time you log in. Simply go to MyPRISM click on the Edit button, below your submission.
This information inputted on this page will be used to describe and index your thesis in the Restricted Theses and Dissertations or Open Theses and Dissertations collection.
The first section is IMPORTANT and contains information about the public release of your thesis
If you intend to apply for a patent or need to delay the release of your thesis to the public, submit a withhold application with the supporting documents along with your thesis. Learn more about thesis withholds here.
This information is also highlighted on the Submit your thesis page.
Some sections below are optional, all sections with an asterisk must be filled out.
In the ‘Date of Convocation’ fields, enter the year and month of your graduation.
Submitting Your Thesis: Uploading Your Thesis
The “Upload” page allows you to attach the PDF of your thesis to your submission. Please ensure that the PDF you upload is the final copy of your thesis, and that it adheres to the Thesis Guidelines. Any PDFs that are not correctly named or do not meet the requirements of the Thesis
Guidelines will be rejected.
Please note: All theses accepted to The Vault are final. Any errors (such as formatting or grammatical errors) found in the thesis after it has been accepted will not be changed.
First, click on “Choose File”. A pop-up window should appear. Click on your thesis PDF and then click “Open”.
You can drag and drop the file anywhere on the submission form.
Once your file has been added, go to the Edit pen, highlighted in blue below, to edit the file or place a withhold (embargo) as appropriate.
Submitting Your Thesis: Setting Your Embargo (Withhold) Date
Students requiring either a withhold or an embargo: Students who require a delay in the public release of their thesis (e.g. publishing their research in a scholarly journal, applying for a patent, etc.) will require a thesis withhold.
To change the date in which your thesis will be released go to the “Access condition type” field and select embargo.
Go to the “Grant access from” field and select the calendar icon at the end of the field to bring up the date picker window.
Students Who Require a Delay in the Public Release of Their Thesis
Students who require a delay in the public release of their thesis must fill out the Thesis Withhold Request form and submit it with the rest of the thesis forms. Information about withholds and the Thesis Withhold Request form can be found at http://grad.ucalgary.ca/current/thesis/withhold
Thesis withholds are only available for 6 month, 12 month, 18 month, and 5 year periods. When selecting the “Embargo End Date”, choose your end date based on the day you submitted your thesis papers.
For example, if you submitted your thesis papers to the Faculty of Graduate Studies front desk on June 1st 2020 and selected a five year withhold, your “Embargo End Date” would be June 1st 2025.
Submitting Your Thesis: Supplementary Files
To add supplementary files, simply drag and drop another file and follow the same process used to upload the initial PDF.
If any of the files are incorrect, or you need to upload an updated version, click on the trash can next to the file and upload again following the same process used previously.
Submitting Your Thesis: Granting the License
The license is an agreement between the student and the University of Calgary regarding the submission of your thesis to the digital repository. If you grant the license, your thesis will be submitted to The Vault collection in the PRISM repository. If you do not grant the license, your submission to The Vault will be paused and your thesis will be saved under “Unfinished Submissions” until you grant the license. Please read through the license carefully before accepting it. Select next to “I Grant the License”.
Check over the information you have inputted regarding your thesis. Check over this page to make sure all information is correct.
If any of the information is incorrect, you can edit it.
Select “Deposit” if all information is correct.
Resubmitting a Rejected Thesis
If there is an error with your thesis or the format of your thesis, you will receive an email telling you that it has been rejected.
The space highlighted in red will have the reason for your rejection. Once you make the appropriate changes to your thesis PDF, click the link provided in the email to get back to your account in PRISM.
Once you have logged in, go to MyPRISM in the top right corner.
Under Your Submissions, click on the Edit button under your thesis.
You can go through each section of your thesis submission to make updates.
If the only error in your thesis is in the PDF, you can skip forward to the “Upload files” section.
Click on the trash can next to the file you need to delete/replace
Confirm as appropriate
After the file has been removed, you can follow the same directions used before to upload your corrected thesis PDF.
After uploading the corrected version of your PDF, continue through and click Deposit.
If everything in your thesis is correct, you will receive an email stating that your thesis submission has been accepted to Restricted Theses or The Vault. You will also now be able to view your thesis by logging in your PRISM account and viewing your Submissions.
Your thesis will be publicly available once accepted. Your file will be open access once your embargo date has passed.
If you have any questions about the thesis submission process, please email thesis@ucalgary.ca