Completing and Submitting Your Thesis/Project
Documents posted by 5:00 PM PST on the below deadline are assured of review and processing in time for clearing the culminating experience portion of your degree, barring any major format errors. If Digital Commons receives your thesis or project after the deadline, your degree will not post to your transcript until the following graduation date.
When to Submit
Note that these are FINAL deadlines. We suggest submitting at least one week early to give committees and advisors time to complete the approval process.
| Graduation Term | Courtesy Review Deadline | Final Submission Deadline |
| Fall 2024 | December 2nd | December 16th |
| Spring 2025 | April 28th | May 12th |
| Summer 2025 | TBD | TBD |
*Your advisor must notify Graduate Studies before the end of the preceding Spring Semester.
Before You Submit
Before You Submit
Courtesy Review: To receive a courtesy review of your thesis/project, submit your document to the Digital Commons Office to cfr@humboldt.edu before the deadline above. If you have any questions, please call the Scholarly Communications team at 707.826.5602
Approval: Your thesis or project must be completed and ready for approval by your advisor/committee chair and all committee members (or second reader for projects).
Defense: You must have successfully defended your thesis or project if your program requires a defense.
Formatting and Revisions Complete: All content additions or corrections requested by your committee members (or readers) must be incorporated into your document. Your thesis or project must be formatted per specifications detailed in the Humboldt Thesis and Project Format Requirements. For assistance with thesis and project formatting, you can enroll in our Canvas Course. This thirty-minute course will save you hours of work later.
Check your final document carefully. With the exception of format corrections required by Graduate Studies, any requests for editorial changes from students or committee to a thesis/project after submission will be denied. Editorial changes include errors in punctuation and spelling, minor changes, or major changes to the interpretation of data or content.
Final Submission Instructions
Final Submission Instructions
File Name: The thesis or project file name should include your name and graduation date. For example: if Susan Sanchez was submitting her thesis and graduating in Spring 2020, her file should be sanchez_susan_sp20.
Make an Account: Create an account in Humboldt's Digital Commons platform. We will ask for your contact information as well as the names and contact information of your committee members and graduate coordinator. They will be notified via email that your thesis/project has been uploaded.
Submit: Submit your thesis or project through the Digital Commons platform. Please SUBMIT EARLY to allow your committee members time to electronically register their approval.
Questions/Tech Help: If you have any questions please call the Scholarly Communications Team at 707.826.5602
After Submission
After Submission
If we do not receive approval from your committee by the deadline, we will notify you immediately.
Upon approval from your committee and graduate coordinator, your submission will be reviewed for compliance with university formatting and accessibility requirements. Your thesis or project will not be reviewed for content, research quality, spelling, punctuation, grammar, bibliographic format, plagiarism.
The outcome of the reviews will be as follows:
- No formatting issues: Your document will be archived by the university library. You will receive notice via email that the culminating experience portion of your degree is cleared.
- One to ten formatting issues: You will receive instructions for correcting the format errors and length of time allowed for resubmission of your document.
- Eleven or more formatting issues: You and your committee will be notified by email that your document is being returned for correction and revision. If there are numerous or major formatting errors you may be advised to change your graduation date to the following term.
Once finalized and approved, the library will archive your document in Digital Commons. You will receive notification from the library via email when your document is available through Digital Commons.
Committee Members & Graduate Coordinators
Committee Members & Graduate Coordinators
When you receive an email with a request to review a thesis/project, follow the link provided in that email and sign in to your account on the Digital Commons @ Humboldt website.
From there, you will be able to download the student's thesis/project.
You will be given the option to register approval or rejection of the thesis/project for the current academic term. See full instructions in Faculty & Staff Resources.
Once your thesis/project has been approved by all of the committee members and the graduate coordinator, the Graduate Studies Office will conduct the official format review.
