Pre-submission Requirements

Before you submit your disquisition to the Graduate School, you must complete the following steps:

  1. At the beginning of the semester you plan to graduate, submit the Graduation Application in Campus Connection according to the Graduate College deadlines. If the application is not available, email the Graduate School.
  2. Submit your Notification of Scheduled Preliminary Exam or Final Defense form to the Graduate School. This form must be received at least seven calendar days before you intend to schedule the defense.
  3. Successfully defend your disquisition.
  4. Submit the following forms within seven days of your final defense.
    1. Report of Final Defense
    2. IRB/IACUC/IBC Compliance Notification
  5. Complete all revisions of your disquisition content, as required by your committee.

  6. Submit your Disquisition Approval Page (Copy 1) to the Graduate School. This must include the signatures of all your committee members and your department chair.

    Note: This is NOT the copy that you include in your final disquisition, which is named Copy 2. For more information, see the Disquisition Approval page section of this guide.

  7. Pay the disquisition processing fee.
  8. If the disquisition is submitted for review before these steps are completed, your review will be put on hold until your pre-submission requirements have been met.
  9. Further information and links to the correct forms for each item below can be found here.

Research Compliance

If your research involves human or animal subjects, or the use of biohazardous substances (i.e., rDNA, infectious agents, or bodily fluids or tissues), you must obtain approval from the appropriate campus committee before you begin your research.

  • Institutional Review Board (IRB) – For research that involves human subjects
  • Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) – For research that involves animal subjects
  • Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) – For research that involves biohazardous substances

After your supervisory committee has finalized your research design, you must submit the appropriate forms to the IRB, IACUC, or IBC for review. You must receive research approval before you begin the research.

Your disquisition will not be accepted by the Graduate School if it involves the non-approved use of human or animal subjects, or biohazardous substances. IRB, IACUC, and IBC approval cannot be obtained retroactively.

For more information, see “Research Compliance (IRB, IACUC, and IBC)” on our policies page.

Note: You must submit the Compliance Notification form to the Graduate School, even if your disquisition research does not involve human subjects, animal subjects, or biohazardous substances.

Disquisition Approval Page

After your final examination, and after your major advisor and supervisory committee have approved the content of the disquisition, you must submit the Copy 1 version of the Disquisition Approval form to the Graduate School. This form includes original signatures from your committee members and the chairperson of your department. This form, Copy 1, will not be included in the disquisition.

You must also include a second version (Copy 2) of the Disquisition Approval form in the disquisition, when you submit the disquisition to the Graduate School. This second version does not contain original signatures, but instead has the information typed into the form and is included as the second page of your disquisition.

For more information, see the Disquisition Approval page section of this guide.

Submission Deadlines

Roughly one month before the end of a semester, there is a deadline for the initial submission of disquisitions to the Graduate School. Documents submitted before the initial submission deadline are prioritized for reviews over post-deadline submissions until the end of the semester. If you do not meet the initial submission deadline for a particular semester, the Graduate School cannot guarantee that your disquisition will be reviewed in time to graduate that semester, and your graduation could be delayed.

Once you've begun the review process, you must submit your final revisions by 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the semester for your degree to post in that term. Degrees are posted three times per academic year, in December, May, and August, at the end of the semester.

Deadlines in the current or upcoming academic year can be found on the front page of our website or the NDSU Academic Calendar.

Deadline for Initial Submission for Format Review

Disquisitions (including all pre-submission requirements) submitted before this deadline will be prioritized for review over disquisitions submitted after this deadline. Forms that are missing required signatures are not considered as being submitted until they are completed--if you are missing signatures when you submit forms to the Graduate School, it may delay your submission date. The official submission date of your disquisition is the date on which the last item is received.

The following forms must be submitted by all students.

See our Submission Checklist for more information about submission requirements and how to submit a document that is compliant with our Format Guidelines. Some frequently asked questions about the review process are answered here.

Fall 2025 Initial Submission Deadline

November 21

Deadline for Final Degree Clearance

By this date, the student must make all changes requested by the Graduate School to gain final approval. The review process must be completed by 11:59 p.m. on the last day of the semester in order to graduate in that semester.

Any incomplete grades and outstanding items on your Graduation Audit must be completed by this deadline. Final clearance of academic requirements will be made when current term grades have been submitted.

Fall 2025 Deadline for Final Degree Clearance

December 19

Electronic Submission

When you have completed your pre-submission requirements and are ready to begin your format review, run through our submission checklist and submit your document. Please review our submission procedures to avoid delays in your format review.

Disquisitions must be submitted as a single .pdf file. Disquisitions that are submitted in other file types (including .doc, .docx, and so on) will not be reviewed until they are submitted as a .pdf file, but supplemental files in other formats may be included alongside your disquisition.

Supplemental files may be submitted alongside your disquisition in these ways:

  • Dissertation or thesis – ProQuest has an option for submitting supplemental files.
  • Master’s paper – Please e-mail the disquisition processor to arrange for submitting your files.

We recommend that you write your document in Microsoft Word. You are welcome to use a different software program; for example, LaTeX submissions require roughly one fewer review than average, but if you are not familiar with the markup language, you may have difficulty trying to correct complex issues during the format review.

If you need technical help with using Microsoft Word, you are welcome to make an appointment with a graduate consultant at the Center for Writers, located in Library 16; our consultants are trained to help writers at all stages, from brainstorming to drafting to formatting. Similarly, the Instructional Design Center in QBB 150 offers help with formatting, as well as bi-monthly workshops. You can also find solutions to common issues in the wiki pages of this website, accessible through the site map at the bottom of every page and the "In This Section" button on the breadcrumb bar. Finally, we have a Navigating the Format Review Process video playlist on the GPS Academy YouTube channel with instructions on formatting.

Center for Writers