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Publishing Dissertations

This Libguide provides guidance on how to prepare and submit your dissertation for publication by ProQuest Dissertation Publishing.

Before You Begin

Before you begin to submit, please be sure you have the following:

  • Full text of the dissertation/thesis in PDF format: Your dissertation itself must be in one file, though you can include supplementary files, as discussed below. If your manuscript is in Word format, you can convert to PDF using the PDF conversion tool that is part of Word. You also must embed fonts in the PDF. For tips on creating PDF files, see Formatting Tips and Converting to PDF on this page.
  • Abstract: you are required to submit an abstract as part of your completed dissertation.
  • Names of your Dissertation Advisor and other Committee Members.
  • Subject Category: You must choose one subject category from the ProQuest Subject Category list that best describes the topic of your dissertation, and you should choose up to two more. Describing your topic in detail will make it easier for others to find it in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
  • Keywords: You also should provide up to 6 keywords to characterize your topic further to facilitate searching.  You should use significant words that are embedded in your abstract.
  • Optional Supplementary files: images, data, etc. that are an integral part of the dissertation, but are not part of the main document's full text.

Converting to PDF

The final stage of preparing your dissertation for publication requires you to convert your document to the PDF format. If you use a recent version of Word on Windows or MacOS, Word has a PDF converter built-in, so you're ready to go.

You can simply use Word's Save As function to save your document as a PDF, but please read on ...

  • It is very important to embed the fonts used in your document into your Word file before you convert it to PDF. This will ensure that your document always appears exactly as you intended.
  • You access Word's options at Word's File Manager screen by clicking on Options at the bottom of the left-hand navigation column. If you have a document open for editing, click on the File menu button at the top of the window and then look for the Options button at the bottom of the left-hand navigation column.
  • Once Options opens, click on Save options in the left-hand column and then look down for the section Preserve fidelity when sharing this document. Click Embed fonts in the file
  • Be sure to choose also Embed only the characters used in the document and Do not embed common system fonts as shown. Otherwise, you will embed all versions of every character in the fonts you use in your document, which will greatly and unnecessarily increase the size of the file.
  • The graphic below shows how the recommended settings menu looked in Word 2016. They don't look remarkably different in earlier or later versions.

After converting your document, you should check it closely to determine whether any aspect of formatting became problematic during conversion.  You should resolve formatting problems in your Word document and convert to PDF again, remembering to embed fonts each time, before starting the submission process.  Once ProQuest Dissertation Publishing has accepted your dissertation for publication, they will assess a fee for you to make further changes in your archived document.

For further PDF formatting and Converting assistance, there is more help at the ProQuest Support Center.