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Graduate Thesis Style Guide: MFA in Creative Writing

Dominican Scholar

The Library uses Dominican Scholar to collect, manage, display, and distribute electronic theses.  Once you have uploaded your thesis to Dominican Scholar, it will be reviewed for:

  • Formatting
  • Accessibility
  • Copyright

All students required by their department to submit a thesis or capstone project to the Library must do so electronically; paper copies will not be accepted. The copy submitted to the copy must be the same as the thesis submitted to and accepted by the department.

Depositing Your MFA Manuscript

To deposit your manuscript you’ll first need to create an account with Dominican Scholar. If you created an account to present at the University’s Scholarly and Creative Works conference, use the same account for your thesis.  

Note: If you use you personal email when setting up an account you'll receive a monthly email letting you know how many times your documents have been downloaded.  You can always update your email address later.
  1. Go to Dominican Scholar
  2. Choose the My Account tab near the top of the screen
  3. At the login page choose Don’t have an account? Sign up
  4. Fill out the form
  5. Check your email for a confirmation message

dominican scholar home page click on my account

dominican scholar sign up for an account

Depositing Your Manuscript

Once you have your account set up follow the steps to deposit your manuscript

  1. Go to Dominican Scholar and navigate to the MFA Theses page
  2. Select the Deposit your Research link from the left-side menu
  3. Log in with the username and password that you created earlier
  4. Read and accept the Terms of Agreement, fill out the subsequent form, and upload your manuscript

After you've Deposited your Manuscript

  1. We will ensure that all the information has been entered correctly and that the manuscript has been formatted according to the style guide. If errors are found within the manuscript itself the we will notify you of corrections that need to be made.  You'll be able to resubmit the updated version of your manuscript with no penalty.
  2. Once your manuscript has been received we will notify your manuscript advisor and wait for their approval before publishing.
  3.  Once approved by your thesis advisor your manuscript will receive a DOI and then be posted. 
  4. You should receive an email notifying you that your manuscript is available with a URL linking to your manuscript. Depending on when you submit your manuscript and the number of theses received this process could take several days.
NOTE: there is no need for an embargo. All MFA in Creative Writing theses will be unavailable for the public to download; however, your thesis metadata (title, description, etc.) will be visible.

Theses Recieved Before the End of Finals Week

Theses recieved between the beginning of the semester and the end of Finals Week will be published immediatlely after the semester has ended.

Theses Recieved After the End of the Semester

Theses recieved between semesters will be published prior to the start of the next semester.