Saving your thesis file
- Save your thesis file to a PDF/A format before submitting your thesis to HDRAC to safeguard its future. PDF/A is a specialised format for preserving and archiving electronic documents.
- Avoid saving your thesis in proprietary formats, such as iBooks, as this will make it harder to access in the long term.
- Keep your thesis file under 100MB in size. If your thesis is larger, consider splitting it into multiple parts to keep each part smaller than 100MB.
Embedded media
- If your thesis contains embedded media, you should aim to save your thesis as PDF/A-3 to maintain the integrity of your embedded media.
- If you encounter any issues saving your thesis as a PDF/A-3, please contact ses.admin@sydney.edu.au.
Thesis preparation and formatting
- Prepare your thesis following University guidelines and guidance in Copyright and your thesis. You can view examples of previously submitted theses in the Sydney eScholarship repository.
- You are not required to include the University logo on your thesis, however you may choose to add it after your degree has been awarded. Your supervisor or another staff member can place a request to use the logo on your behalf.
- Remove any signatures from your thesis before submitting your final version for lodgement at the Library to avoid these appearing in search engines.
- Remove or redact any other personal information from your thesis or supplementary material. Examples of personal information include your student ID number, non-public addresses, email addresses or phone numbers.
Supporting materials
Supporting materials should be saved in non-proprietary or open source formats that are no more than 5GB per file to ensure long-term and equitable access.
We have a list of recommended long-term file formats for your thesis and its supporting materials on our Archiving digital content page.
Lodging your thesis with the Sydney eScholarship repository
If you are a PhD or Masters (Research) student, the Higher Degree by Research Administration Centre will submit your thesis to the repository on your behalf as the final step in the thesis submission process.
If you are an Honours student who has been awarded First Class, you may submit your thesis to the Sydney eScholarship repository.
Click the submit button to fill out the submission form. Guides are available on on the repository support page. Select the following guide: Making a submission that has file attachments.
Please upload the following documentation along with your thesis:
- Written endorsement for the submission of your work from a faculty representative (e.g. your supervisor or Head of Department) and
- verification that your thesis was marked First Class.
These documents will not be published, but archived and removed during the approval process.
Please make sure the thesis file does not contain personal information, such as your SID number or signatures.
Making hard copy theses available digitally
If your thesis is held in Rare Books and Special Collections, you can request to make a digital copy of your PhD or Masters (Research) thesis available in the Sydney eScholarship repository. To request this, complete our thesis author digitisation request form. We will digitise the physical copy of your thesis and add it to the repository on your behalf.
We are unable to accept digital versions of theses held in Rare Books and Special Collections from authors. If your thesis is not held by the Library, we cannot digitise it or add it to Sydney eScholarship.