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Adobe Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Initiative

Adobe ETD Initiative As a critical part of their fundamental mission to preserve and share knowledge, colleges and universities need a reliable and universal method for archiving and accessing graduate research. But incompatible file formats, lack of centralized repositories, and continual changes in hardware and software can complicate efforts to make research accessible in a timely and convenient manner.

To address these challenges, Adobe is working with international organizations and universities worldwide to develop standards for establishing long-term archives of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) with a main objective of improving and broadening access to research for all scholars.

Adobe ETD tutorials NewLearn how to convert your thesis or dissertation to Adobe PDF
Created by Ohio State University with support from Adobe, this free, easy-to-follow tutorial shows you how to use Adobe® Acrobat® software to convert your thesis or dissertation into a searchable, media-rich PDF file.

Standardizing on PDF for digital archiving Learn more

By standardizing on Portable Document Format (PDF) for publishing ETDs, universities, institutions, and business can maintain searchable archiving systems where students can easily locate previous research. A PDF standard, based on a publicly available and recognized archiving specification, provides students with greater opportunities for their research to be recognized by other scholars.

PDF is also the basis for PDF/A, a proposed archiving standard that defines a subset of existing PDF capabilities that have been identified over time as the best practices for archiving electronic documents.

With advanced PDF creation, review, commenting, security, and archiving capabilities, Adobe Acrobat is the most powerful software for creating searchable, universally available ETDs. Using Acrobat as a foundation for PDF-based ETD creation and archiving, you can:

  • Heighten global awareness of key research.
  • Expand capabilities in creating theses and dissertations.
  • Protect the value of your technology investments.

With Acrobat and PDF as core components of your ETD archiving solution, you can help ensure that student research will be broadly available today — and for years to come.

View a program brochure to learn more about the Adobe ETD Initiative (PDF: 215k).

ETD solutions white paper (PDF: 493k)
Learn about using reliable technology standards to implement ETD mandates.

Publishing and archiving ETDs (PDF: 425k)
Read this solution brief for an overview of how Adobe solutions can be an integral part of your institution's ETD initiatives.

NDLTD
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations is a not-for-profit education and research-oriented foundation whose mission is to promote graduate education and research.

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