Submission of the thesis

Submission of the thesis is the last formal requirement for most students before the defence. By the final deadline, the student must submit a complete copy of the thesis to the appropriate body within the accepting institution, along with the appropriate forms, bearing the signatures of the primary supervisor, the examiners, and, in some cases, the head of the student's department. Other required forms may include library authorizations (giving the university library permission to make the thesis available as part of its collection) and copyright permissions (in the event that the student has incorporated copyrighted materials in the thesis).

Failure to submit the thesis by the deadline may result in graduation (and granting of the degree) being delayed. At most US institutions, there will also be various fees (for binding, microfilming, copyright registration, and the like) which must be paid before the degree will be granted.

Once all the paperwork is in order, copies of the thesis may be made available in one or more university libraries. Specialist abstracting services exist to publicise the content of theses beyond the institutions in which they are produced.