DigitalCommons@WOU User's Guide

The library works with your program to make your thesis, professional project, or action research project (hereafter "your project") accessible online via Digital Commons, the website that the university uses to share student and faculty scholarship

This document will show you how to upload your project to the site. Everything in this document takes place as the final step of completing your project, after you have had it approved by your advisors.

The last step before you can upload your project to Digital Commons is to add the signature page (also called a title page). This page shows that your project has been approved by your program and the graduate office.

You will receive the signature page from the graduate office as a PDF file. This page should go on the second page of your project file, immediately after the page containing your project’s title, your name, and your graduation date.

If you have Adobe Acrobat, you can combine the files there by following these instructions from Adobe.

If you have Microsoft Word, follow the directions below to add the signature page to your project.

1. Click Insert.
2. Click Object, located in the “text” section of the toolbar.
   
3. Click the “create from file” tab and browse your computer to locate the PDF page containing your signature page.
   

You may need to make minor changes for formatting after inserting the signature page.

Submitting your project to Digital Commons is the final step in the process, after your committee has approved it and you have made any final changes.

Before you upload your project, make sure you have received approval from the graduate office. You should also have an approved signature page from the graduate office, which needs to be added to your file before submitting.

1. Go to http://digitalcommons.wou.edu

2. Click submit research on the left-hand side

3. Click the link that says Graduate Theses, Action Research Projects, and Professional Projects.

4. If you already have a Digital Commons account, log in using your e-mail and password. If this is your first time using Digital Commons, you will need to create an account with the button at the bottom of the screen before submitting your project. . (You may need to follow steps 1-3 again to return to the thesis submission screen after creating an account.)

Once you have logged in, you will see the project submission form.

Fill in as much information as possible, but don't worry if you're missing some. You can revise or update your responses later, and some fields will be filled out by the library instead.

The fields below are required for graduate student projects:

• Title - The title of your project
• Author - After you are signed in, this should auto-fill
• Exit Requirement - Select the type of project you are uploading
• Date of Award - Enter your expected date of graduation
• Degree Name - Select the option that matches your degree
• Committee Chair - Enter the first and last name of your committee chair
• Committee Members - For each additional committee member, enter the first and last name
• Embargo Period - If you have discussed an embargo with your project advisor, enter it here. Otherwise, select "No embargo"
• Subject Categories - Select "Education" for MAT. For MAIS, click "Arts and Humanities," and select both "Sign Languages" and "Language Interpretation and Translation" from this menu
• Upload Full Text - Click this to upload the file for your project (DOCX format preferred)

Once you have entered the required information, click submit. You may get an automatically-generated e-mail notifying you that the file you uploaded has been converted to PDF. If you receive this e-mail, you can safely ignore it.

If you have additional files (such as an accompanying video, standalone versions of appendices, etc.) select the "Additional files" box. You will be directed to a page to upload these files after clicking submit.

When you need to revise your project, go to http://digitalcommons.wou.edu and click My DC in the top right corner.

At the bottom of this page, you will see a section with the name of the collection you submitted to and your project listed below.

Click the title of your project and then click "revise " to make changes to the record or to upload a new draft.

If you need to upload a new draft of your project, scroll to the bottom of the revision form and select Choose File under the Upload Full Text header.

You may receive an e-mail letting you know changes are needed to your project before it can be published. Do not be alarmed if you receive a notice saying major revisions are required — this is just the way the system describes revisions.

Revision e-mails should contain either a description of necessary changes or a link you can use to log in to Digital Commons and access a document with that description.

When your project has been processed by the Graduate Studies Office and the Library, you will receive an email from the system asking you to confirm that no further changes are needed. Please respond to this email in a timely manner, so we can post your thesis or project on the live site.

Due to library staffing situations during the summer months, there may be some delay in your project appearing in the public view. Please refer to the table below for typical timelines:

If you have questions or concerns about the process, please email digitalcommons@wou.edu 

After processing is complete, your project will appear as a downloadable PDF at http://digitalcommons.wou.edu/. You should receive an e-mail with a direct link to your thesis when it is available.

People from around the world will also be able to find your research, either in Google or other search engines, or via the Digital Commons Network. By logging into your Digital Commons @ WOU account, you will be able to access a dashboard which lists the number, date, and location of downloads for your thesis.