To access Safari eBooks,
After your Defense and Manuscript Approval Form has been signed, you need to submit your final dissertation (with the attached approval form) to the OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertation Center (ETD). You can find instructions on submitting to the OhioLINK ETD in Section IV of "A Guide to Submitting Your Dissertation":
Students must begin the submission process at least two weeks before the end of the term so that all submission requirements are met before graduation. Students are responsible for making any changes requested by the OhioLINK ETD administrator during the process.
After publication, your dissertation will be available in the OhioLINK ETD Center, Proquest Dissertation & Theses Global, and Franklin's institutional repository, FUSE (Franklin University Scholarly Exchange).
For Proquest, please note that it typically takes Proquest 6-8 weeks to load your dissertation into the database after it has been transferred (transfers occur on the 1st and 15th of each month), but it could take longer during busy times. Dissertations are uploaded to FUSE at the end of the term in which they were submitted to the OhioLINK ETD Center.
Students must
Franklin University's Digital Accessibility Standards (DAS) exist to ensure the widest possible audience for doctoral dissertations. Dissertations will not be published in the OhioLINK ETD if they do not meet these standards. The University's ETD administrator will work with students to ensure that the standards are met.
Many of the standards should be met by creating a document in Word and following the instructions on the "exporting to Word from pdf" tab of this box. This guide also provides specific instructions for some of the standards that may cause students issues.
To ensure accessibility, students should use the accessibility checker in Word and address any issues before exporting their dissertation to PDF.
To ensure digital accessibility of dissertations, Franklin University requires that dissertations submitted to the OhioLINK ETD meet the following requirements:
Alt text (alternate text) exists to help individuals who use a screen reader because of difficulties seeing a screen understand the visual content in your dissertation. Alt text should be a sentence or two explaining what the image does or shows (i.e. the purpose of the image in the dissertation). Imagine you are reading the dissertation out load to someone: how would you describe the image to them?
Alt text should not just be the title of the image. If the image is a graph or chart, the alt text should not just say "this is a chart of my research's values", but should indicate the important values or the concept you want readers to take from seeing the chart. Alt text should be your explanation of the purpose/meaning of the image in your dissertation. Do not auto-generate the alt text in your dissertation.
To add alt text in Word,
For more information about creating alt text, on this guide:
You can also see the following external information about creating alt text:
Image: Right click on the image or figure, and select "edit alt text" to enter your alternate text
Image: Enter the alternate text in the box under Alt Text on the right side of the page and click on the x at the top. then, save your document.
Alt text: Recruitment flyer with an African American male student in a collared, short-sleeve blue and white plaid shirt resting his head on a stack of school books next to text that is inviting New York City middle school teachers with two years of teaching experience to participate in a Franklin University doctoral study on African American male academic disengagement.
From: Murphy, S. A. (2023). Academic Disengagement of African American Male Students in Classroom Settings: A Qualitative Descriptive Study [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1693223681767092, used with permission.
Alt text: The bar graph illustrates the Overall, U-term, and Q-term response rates (RR) for each of the anonymous lab surveys; the graph shows that RRLab 1 > RRLab 2 > RRLab 4 for the Overall, U-term, and Q-term data.
From: Wagner, A. M. (2023). Perceived Usability Evaluation Of Hands-On And Virtual Science Laboratories: Using The System Usability Scale (SUS) To Determine Adult Learners’ Preferred At-Home Laboratory Experience [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1690890441790308, used with permission.
Alt text: The flow diagram shows the use of the PRISMA method for this study. The flow diagram included four steps: identification, screening, eligibility, and inclusion of literature sources. In the end, the author of this study reviewed 56 full-text articles, which included 11 chapters from two books. Each chapter was counted as one source.
From: Arriola, V. (2023). The Emotional Impact of Registered Nurses in Virginia and Maryland During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic in Early 2020: A Qualitative Study [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1679433902513126, used with permission.
Alt text: Collection of words that were most commonly found in the data analysis process. The main themes of work collab, program shortcomings, diversity are most prominent, while words like reunion date are much smaller, indicating a smaller significance to the themes.
From: Kent, N. R. (2023). A Qualitative Inquiry Into a Community College Leadership Development Program [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1695662241162219, used with permission.
According to the DAS, “The PDF document properties include the title, author, keywords, and subject”
These items are all entered in the document properties in Word:
The screenshots below show how to edit the document properties in Word.
Image: Set Document Properties
Image: Set Document Properties
The dissertation template may already include heading information. However, to ensure compliance with the standard, use document styles from the home tab in Word to select headings.
The document must include at least heading level 1. If additional heading levels are used, they must be used in order, without skipping a level (i.e. you cannot use heading level 3 unless it is a subhead of heading level 2). Additionally, headings must be unique. Do not repeat headings, because that will make navigation of your document more difficult.
Use document styles from the "home" tab to apply your headings. First, format the heading to meet the formatting requirements for your dissertation. Then, with the cursor in the line of your heading (example: Chapter 1: Introduction), right click on "heading 1" and select "update heading 1 to match selection."
After you have formatted heading 1, go to the next item you want to mark as heading 1 (such as "Chapter 2: Literature Review." Click so the cursor is in the line of that heading, and then click on "heading 1" from the styles menu in the home tab to apply heading 1.
For more information, see the Microsoft Word guideline to improve accessibility with heading styles.
Manually review your document for uses of color and make sure that you have not used color alone to convey information. While use of color is permitted to enhance your document, it cannot be the sole means of providing information. If you see that your dissertation uses color alone to convey information, provide a textual alternative.
Use of color must include sufficient contrast. Run the accessibility checker in Word by going to “review” from the menu bar. Click on the “check accessibility” icon. If you get a “hard to read text contrast” error, change the text contrast and run the report again to make sure that the new color chosen resolved the error.
When you are ready to create a PDF of your Word file to upload to the OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertation Center, select “file” from the top menu bar, then select “export” and click on the option to “Create PDF/XPS Document.” Note: These instructions are for computers running Word for Windows. If you are using a Mac, please contact the tech help desk (see the "tech support" tab of this box) for instructions on how to properly export your Word doc to PDF.
Before saving, click on the “options” button. Make sure that the options under “include non printing information” for “document properties” and “document structure tags for accessibility” are selected. Also make sure that the option for “create bookmarks using:” is selected with “headings” selected underneath it. Then select “ok” and click “publish.”
The image below shows the options to select when exporting to PDF.
Image: Select these settings when exporting to PDF
If you run into technical issues with satisfying the DAS, such as when exporting your PDF, creating alt text or any of the other requirements, you can contact the Franklin University Help Desk.
The Franklin University Help Desk is available during the following hours:
Monday through Thursday: 8AM - 8PM (EST)
Friday: 8AM - 5PM (EST)
Saturday: 9AM - 1PM (EST)
Sunday: 1PM - 5PM (EST)
The Franklin University Help Desk can be reached:
Chat with the Help Desk on their website: helpdesk.franklin.edu
helpdesk@franklin.edu
1.866.435.7006
614.947.6222
The University's Digital Accessibility Standards exist to make your dissertation available to the widest possible audience. There are 7 standards, but this presentation addresses only the alt text standard. The remaining standards are available in the "how to meet the digital accessibility standards" box on this page. This slide show explains what alt text is and how to add alt text to your dissertation. Use the right arrow to navigate through the presentation.
Alt text is not the visible text surrounding your image. It is hidden text which a screen reader uses to explain the image. It needs to be descriptive, and should explain what you want readers of your dissertation to take from the image in your dissertation.
This shows a sample of alt text for an image from a dissertation. Just using the title "Appendix A. Recruitment Flyer" for alt text would not be sufficient - this alt text is good because it provides a description of the image and the purpose of the image.
(Image from: Murphy, S. A. (2023). Academic Disengagement of African American Male Students in Classroom Settings: A Qualitative Descriptive Study [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1693223681767092, used with permission.)
This shows a sample of alt text for a graph. Just using the title of the graph ("Response Rates for Anonymous Lab Surveys") or saying something like "Graph Showing Results", would not be sufficient. This alt text explains what information the author wants readers to take from the graph.
(Image from: Wagner, A. M. (2023). Perceived Usability Evaluation Of Hands-On And Virtual Science Laboratories: Using The System Usability Scale (SUS) To Determine Adult Learners’ Preferred At-Home Laboratory Experience [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1690890441790308, used with permission.)
This shows a sample of alt text for a figure in a dissertation. As with the previous images, just using the title ("PRISMA Flow Diagram") or saying "Diagram" would not be sufficient. This alt text provides a description of what the diagram shows.
(Image from: Arriola, V. (2023). The Emotional Impact of Registered Nurses in Virginia and Maryland During the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic in Early 2020: A Qualitative Study [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1679433902513126, used with permission.)
If you create your table in Word, then you do not need alt text for the table - when you export the table to PDF it will include tags for accessibility. However, if you create your table in a different program and paste an image of the table in your dissertation, that would be considered an image, and will require alt text.
(Image from: Wagner, A. M. (2023). Perceived Usability Evaluation Of Hands-On And Virtual Science Laboratories: Using The System Usability Scale (SUS) To Determine Adult Learners’ Preferred At-Home Laboratory Experience [Doctoral dissertation, Franklin University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1690890441790308, used with permission.)
To add alt text in word, select the image and right click. On the menu that comes up, select "edit alt text" to bring up the option to add alt text to your image.
After you select "edit alt text" for the image, you will see a box on the right of the screen where you can place your alt text. You do not need to save the box (although you will need to save the dissertation with the alt text). You can just click the x to close the side window after you have added alt text.
The "How to Meet the Digital Accessibility Standards" box on this page has tabs which explain how to meet all of the University's Digital Accessibility Standards. Importantly, this box explains how to properly export your Word doc to PDF to ensure that it includes the necessary information for accessibility.
For the copyright selection, you have three options:
Which option you pick depends on what permissions you’d like to give people who want to use your work. The first option is the most restrictive option. If you select this option, anyone who wants to use your work will have to seek your permission, unless their use falls within a copyright exception such as fair use. This is a good option for students who plan to publish their work in other forms later because some publishers require authors to retain this level of copyright in order to publish with them. Another reason students might pick this option is that they want control over whether people can copy, distribute, or modify their work.
The other two options make your work available under what is known as a Creative Commons license. These licenses let you tell others who want to use your work, up front, the conditions you are placing on their use of your work. You might choose one of these two options if you don’t plan to publish, or plan to publish with a publisher that does not require restrictive copyright. A reason many authors choose a Creative Commons license is that they want people to be able to use and share their work more openly.
The second option applies a CC-BY-NC-ND license. This license means anyone using the work must attribute it to you, cannot use the work for commercial purposes, and cannot modify the work.
The third option is less restrictive than the second one. It applies a CC-BY-NC-SA license. Under this license, anyone using the work must attribute it to you and cannot use the work for commercial purposes. However, they are allowed to modify your work as long as they make the work available under the same Creative Commons license you applied.
Whichever of these options you select, you still retain the copyright of your work. You will be able to use your work as you want, and will be able to grant others the right to make use of your work in whatever way you want., Your work will be available through the OhioLINK and Proquest dissertation databases, as well as the University’s Institutional Repository, FUSE. Selecting a license simply lets users know how they can use your work.
For additional information, see the following pages of our Copyright Research guide:
