Dallas Campus: Submitting Your Electronic Dissertation or Project to DC@ACU

DC@ACU (DigitalCommons@ACU) is Abilene Christian University’s open access digital archive promoting your unique and creative work for current and future research and instructional use. By submitting your College of Graduate and Professional Studies approved work, you are providing access to your scholarly, intellectual and creative work through ACU’s Brown Library and Special Collections. Congratulations on your hard work!

Before you submit your dissertation or project, be sure it is your FINAL College of Graduate and Professional Studies approved document, and that it is in the PDF format.

Questions, or Need Help?

If you need assistance with your DC@ACU account or submitting your dissertation or project, email or call 325.674.2352. DC@ACU assistance is available during most university business hours (9a-5p) during the work week and calendar year. If you have questions specific to ACU’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies dissertation or project requirements, please contact ACU’s Dissertation Manager at .

Submitting Your Electronic Dissertation or Project

We recommend using one of the following web browsers in navigating through, and uploading your materials to DC@ACU, in order to ensure a successful upload process:

  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • Internet Explorer 7
  1. After opening a new window or tab using one of the recommended browsers mentioned above, go to DC@ACU: http://digitalcommons.acu.edu
  2. Click on “My Account”, and enter in your ACU “Email address” and “Password” you chose in creating your account several weeks ago.
    1. If you have not created an account on DC@ACU, please click on “Sign up”, under “Create new account”. Please use your ACU email when creating your account. When you have received confirmation of your DC@ACU account, log in and continue the submission process.
  3. After signing into your DC@ACU account, click on this link to go directly to the ETD Submission page.
  4. Follow the direction prompts, making sure you enter the following information about your dissertation or project:
    1. Title
      1. The full title of your dissertation or project
    2. Author
      1. Your ACU email address
      2. Your full name as it appears on your project or thesis
    3. Campus Location:
      1. Dallas
    4. Date of Award:
      1. The final day, month, and year of the term in which you graduated
    5. ORCID iD
    6. DOI
    7. Document Type
      1. Dissertation for EdD students
      2. Project for DNP students
    8. Department
      1. School of Organizational Leadership for EdD students
      2. Nursing for DNP students
    9. Degree name
      1. Doctor of Education for EdD students
      2. Doctor of Nursing Practice for DNP students
    10. Commitee Chair, Committee Members
      1. Chair and committee members first and last name
      2. Do not include titles such as Dr., Ph.D., or Mr., Ms., Mrs.
    11. Subject Heading
      1. Skip this step.
    12. Keywords
      1. The Keywords you and your Advisor chose – if any, up to seven (7) independent words, separated by commas.
    13. Subject Categories
      1. The Subject categories you and your chair chose – if any.
    14. Abstract
      1. Copy and paste exactly from your dissertation or project.
    15. Comments
    16. Creative Comments License
      1. The Creative Commons License protects and makes others aware of how they can use your work.
      2. We recommend choosing CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 in order to maximize dissemination and use.
      3. For more information about Creative Commons Licensing, click on this link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
    17. Upload Full Text
      1. Upload your PDF or Word Document file by selecting “Upload a file” and click the “Browse” button to locate your manuscript from the computer you are using.
      2. DO NOT USE “Provide a link to the full text”, as this option will not upload your dissertation or project, but will instead only record an external URL.
    18. Additional Files
      1. If you have supplementary files, place a check in the “Supplementary Files” box. You will be prompted to upload your supplementary content after you click on “Submit Paper”.
      2. Supplementary Files are intended for those items used in supplementing your project or thesis. Examples would be datasets, video, audio, photos, and other items. Each of these files MUST have been approved by your advisory committee as part of your project.
      3. You will upload your supplementary file or files in the same manner you upload your dissertation or project.
        1. Remember to place a check in the “Supplementary Files” box, before clicking on “Submit Paper”.
        2. After clicking on “Submit Paper” you will be prompted to upload the supplemental content.
        3. Select “Browse”, locate and select the file you are wanting to upload.
          1. You can only upload one file at a time, and will be required to enter a brief description for each.
        4. When a supplemental file has been uploaded, you will be asked to give a brief “Description” for the file.
        5. Click “Save New File”.
        6. If you have additional supplemental files, please do so now before clicking on the “Continue” tab.
      4. Once you have submitted your project or thesis, as well as any supplemental files, you will be able to revise your submission or logout.
  5. Congratulations! You have successfully submitted your project or thesis to DC@ACU.

Your submitted dissertation or project will be reviewed by the Dissertation Manager for format compliance, as well as double-checked to make sure any uploaded supplemental files were pre-approved by your advisory committee. If any changes need to be made, you will receive an email notification. If your items are approved by the Dissertation Manager, it will be posted to DC@ACU and be publicly viewable on the web. You will receive an auto-generated message to your ACU email account notifying you when your content is posted. You will not be able to make any changes or edits to your submission after it is made public to the DC@ACU site.