Submit your thesis
Congratulations on completing your thesis! Before graduating, you must submit one print and one digital copy of the final version of your thesis to the Library.
To be eligible to graduate, you are required to deposit your thesis at the Library. This page will give you information and guidance on how to complete the deposit process.
As every thesis is unique, you may have questions or concerns that aren’t addressed here. Please read through the information below and get in touch with the Systems and Integration Development team, if you have any questions about the deposit process.
You may also have other upcoming deadlines that require the deposit process to be completed. If you have any questions or concerns about deadlines, your degree, or graduation, please contact your faculty.
Note that your thesis can only be deposited in the Library after it has been examined, marked, and finalised.
To deposit your thesis, the Library requires:
- One professionally hard-bound print version of your thesis for inclusion in the Library’s physical collection
- One identical electronic version of your thesis in PDF format to be stored in ResearchArchive
- A completed Availability and Deposit of Thesis Form (permission form).
Format guidelines
The Thesis formatting guide sets out formatting guidelines for both your print and electronic version.
All theses must abide by the requirements in the formatting guide. However, if the format of your thesis falls outside of these requirements, you may include written approval from your head of school pdf156.6KB for a non-standard format (more information is given in the formatting guide).
How do I submit my thesis?
Print version
You are welcome to submit the print version of your thesis to us in-person to:
Systems and Integration Development Team
Level 7, The Library (Rankine Brown Building)
Victoria University of Wellington
1 Kelburn Parade
Wellington
Your thesis may be deposited in the Library between 9 am and 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday. Outside this time, you may deliver your thesis to Library service points at the three campuses during staffed hours (8 am–8 pm weekdays, 10 am–3 pm weekends/holidays):
- Kelburn – Info Ihonui level 2 (Hub) at the Level 2 entrance to the Kelburn Library
- Te Aro – Architecture & Design Library
- Pipitea – Law Library
Note that if you submit your thesis to the Te Aro or Pipitea campus libraries it will take at least 24 hours for us to collect your thesis and send your receipt. Therefore, if you are under any urgent deadlines, we strongly urge you to submit your print thesis directly to the main Kelburn Library if you can.
Alternatively, you are welcome to post your print version to:
Systems and Integration Development Team
Victoria University of Wellington Library
PO Box 3438
Wellington 6012
New Zealand
For courier however, please use our team’s physical address listed above.
Electronic version
Once the electronic version of your thesis is online, it will be publicly available worldwide. It will therefore have to abide by New Zealand copyright law for digitally published works.
If your thesis contains any third-party content, for example, any images, maps, tables, or charts that you did not create yourself, we strongly urge you to read through this section before you submit your electronic version.
Third-party content
When submitting your electronic thesis, we will ask if you have used any third party content. All quotations should be attributed to the source of the quotation with a proper citation that is the standard in your discipline. Other third party content such as maps, images, and so on should also be attributed.
While you are permitted under the Copyright Act 1994 to copy another person’s copyright work (third party copyright) and include this copy in a live, printed or digital format with your thesis for the purposes of examination. However, your thesis will be deposited and made available to the public in ResearchArchive, so you will need to ensure all your third party material is properly attributed and with appropriate permissions from the copyright holder for said content.
The full copyright guidelines for your electronic version can be found in the Self deposit library guide. And further information on copyright for theses, including guidance on how to attain permissions, can be found on the Copyright in research for students page on the University website.
If you cannot obtain permission for the reuse of third party materials material (or clearance by Creative Commons or similar licencing) then you will need to submit two electronic copies of your thesis to the Library. One copy will have all third party material without permissions redacted, while the other will be the thesis in its original complete form. The redacted copy will be made publicly available while the un-redacted copy will be held as the archival copy. A guide to preparing a redacted copy of your thesis for submission is available. pdf455.8KB Please read through the guide carefully and contact the Systems and Integration Development team if you have any questions.
For further information about third-party content in theses, an in-depth guide to copyright for research students (including what is required for theses under New Zealand copyright law) is available: Copyright guidelines for research students pdf.
Note that all personal contact details and signatures (in any part of the thesis; even in ethics approval letters) must be redacted from the electronic version of the thesis before it can be accepted into ResearchArchive for public access. Any other information or content that could be considered sensitive or confidential must also be redacted from the electronic version of the thesis. This is because personal signatures could be easily copied and used for fraudulent purposes. Furthermore, personal contact details could be used to contact individuals without their consent.
Note that these copyright and privacy requirements only apply to the electronic version of your thesis. No content at all is to be redacted from the print version of your thesis. The print version of your thesis is considered an ‘unpublished manuscript’ under New Zealand copyright law, as it remains in the Library, available only to students and staff. As such, it does not attract the same copyright concerns as your publicly available electronic version does.
Furthermore, the print version of your thesis is also considered an archival work, and therefore must be your thesis in its original and complete form with all content included.
To submit the electronic version of your thesis
All electronic theses must be submitted through the Library’s Thesis Self Deposit service. This requires a student (preferably) or staff username and password to access. Help and a walk-through guide for the service are available.
Please consult the Research Codes section in the guide for information regarding the ‘Type of Research Activity’ and ‘Fields of Research’ sections.
Permission form
The Availability and Deposit of Thesis Form (permission form) can be downloaded pdf76KB. A guide to completing the form is also available.pdf249.3KB
All sections of the form must be completed correctly, as specified by the guide.
Note that this form is a legal document and, as such, it must be completed correctly, by the author of the thesis, and received by us before we can accept your thesis for deposit. Under no circumstance can a thesis be deposited in the Library without a permission form that was been completed correctly and checked in by our team. Please ensure that the form is legible and the formatting or wording of the original document is not altered in any way. Please complete the form in blue or black ink if you can. The form will not be accepted if it is completed in pencil or red pen.
The form can be submitted by the following means:
- As a separate loose page accompanying your print version
- With the electronic version of your thesis through the Thesis Self Deposit service by uploading it at the ‘Upload Files’ window under the ‘Upload related and/or supporting files’ option
- Scanned and emailed to library-cataloguers@vuw.ac.nz
- By post.
For the purposes of checking and filing the permission form, please do not bind the form into your thesis. All permission forms must be submitted as a separate document to the thesis.
Receiving your thesis
Once your thesis has been received, it will be checked by the Systems and Integration Development team. Then, once all the requirements for deposit have been fulfilled, a thesis deposit receipt will be issued by email.
During the submission process, the Systems and Integration Development team does the following:
- Checks for any pre-supplied paperwork or any other items you may have already supplied us – please let us know if you have already completed a permission form etc.
- Checks that both your print and electronic versions are identical, and that all other formatting requirements are fulfilled
- Checks that the permission form has been completed correctly
- Congratulate you!
- Issue a receipt. The receipt will go to your faculty and school admins, as well as yourself and your supervisor(s).
Where will my thesis be kept?
The print version of your thesis will be catalogued and made available in the Library’s physical collections.
The electronic copy of your thesis will be held in ResearchArchive. ResearchArchive is open to the public, and anyone who is interested may access, read, and download material. The contents of ResearchArchive are regularly harvested and indexed by KRIS, Google Scholar, and Digital New Zealand, among other services.
If you don’t wish to have your thesis accessible by anyone, you must apply for permission from the Wellington Faculty of Graduate Research to withhold your thesis.
For alumni
If you completed a thesis at VUW in the past and are willing to allow us to digitise it and make it available to the public through ResearchArchive, please download and fill out the form below and send it to Library Research Services by email.
Alternatively, you may post it to:
Library Research Services
Victoria University of Wellington Library
1 Kelburn Parade
PO Box 3438
Wellington 6012
New Zealand
Downloads:
- Permission form for alumni pdf92KB
- Guide to filling out permission form pdf249.3KB , for reference.
General information
- A thesis is defined as a research output carrying a value of 90 points or more that is submitted for external examination.
- The Faculty of Graduate Research also has information about availability of your thesis and intellectual property.