Initial Submission

Starting a Submission and Logging In

Generally, after logging in the students begin their submission on the Vireo welcome screen (shown below), then click on START YOUR SUBMISSION.

Choose a submission option

Once a student has clicked "Start your submission," they will be directed to a page that asks them to choose from several submission options. These options (which may could be College, Degree, Department, or others) are determined by the institution. (See Organization Settings for more information on setting up these options and customized workflows). Once the student has made a selection, the bottom button will turn blue and read "Start Name of Selection Submission".

Step 1: Personal Information

Students will start the 5-step submission process, beginning with Step 1: Personal Information.

If the student logged in with Shibboleth, some fields on this screen will be auto-populated with information stored with the student’s login information. These auto-populated fields are not editable by the student; however, Vireo staff are able to edit these fields once the submission is in the system.  If the student does not login with Shibboleth, they will have to enter all fields manually.

Students should fill out the remaining fields on the “Personal Information” page.

Fields marked with an asterisk are required. If a student fails to fill out a required field, he/she will get an error message on the "Confirm & Submit" page. They will be unable to submit their thesis or dissertation until these errors are addressed.

Help info

Instructions for filling out the forms throughout the submission process are found in the yellow “sticky notes” in the right margin of each screen. (These sticky notes are editable in the Administrative interface for Vireo. See the Manage Workflow section for more information.)

Additional help about each field can be found by hovering over the information icon to the right of each input box. (See below.) This help text is also editable in the Organization section of Vireo.

When done with the “Personal Information” screen, students should click "Continue to License Agreement" at the bottom of the screen.

Vireo automatically saves the information the student enters into their submission. If they skip ahead in the submission process or logout and continue their submission later, their information will be saved.

Step 2: License Agreement

Step 2 of the submission process asks students to agree to a license agreement that allows the university to publish their theses and dissertations.

Vireo provides a default license agreement. However, this agreement is editable in the Vireo Application Settings. You may choose to add additional license agreements (such as for publication in Proquest) in the Vireo Application Settings.

Students can indicate their agreement with the license by clicking the checkbox and then clicking SAVE AND CONTINUE.

Note: If a student fails to click the license checkbox, he/she will get an error message on the "Confirm & Submit" page. They will be unable to submit their thesis or dissertation until these errors are addressed.

Step 3: Document Information

In Step 3, students will be asked for information about their thesis or dissertation, including a title, abstract, keywords, and committee member names.

Several fields in the Document Information section – including the Abstract field – can be expanded to accommodate large chunks of text.

To expand the Abstract field, click on the triangular cluster of dots in the bottom right corner of the field and drag it to increase the size of the box.

Committee Members

Vireo has a blank where students can enter the Committee Chair's name and email address. This information can be entered manually by the student or selected in a drop-down menu if a controlled vocabulary list has been uploaded (see the section on Controlled Vocabulary Management for information on uploading controlled vocabulary lists). If the name is selected from the drop-down list, the email address will auto-populate. Students may enter the names and email addresses for additional Non-Chairing Committee members in the blank below. By default, Vireo includes one blank for Non-Chairing Committee Members, but this number can be adjusted by using the plus and minus buttons to the side.

Previously Published Material

If the student has previously published material, they must indicate this by clicking on the box next to PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MATERIAL. They then must identify the published material in the box that appears.

Embargo Options

Students will have the option to select an embargo on the publication of their theses and dissertations. You may control the embargoes offered and their duration through the Workflow Management section.

Faculty advisors can be given the chance to approve or reject the embargo option selected by students.

To proceed to Step 4, students will click "Continue to File Upload."

Step 4: File Upload

In this step, students upload their theses and dissertations. Depending on how the Vireo Submission Settings are configured, students may also be asked to upload:

  • Supplemental Files (e.g. audio-visual files or datasets that are typically published with the primary document)
  • Source Files (e.g. the Word document used to create the manuscript. When the ETD is published, this may be included for preservation purposes.)
  • Administrative Files (e.g. signed graduation release forms. These files are typically never published with the ETD and are kept in Vireo).

Requiring students to submit the above file types is optional, and can be configured in the Workflow Management Settings.

Upload the Primary Document

To upload the primary manuscript, students may click the box to browse for their document file. Alternatively, they may drag and drop their file in the box. By default this box will only accept PDF files; if a student tries to submit a different file type here, they will get an error message.  

Click UPLOAD.

Vireo will assign a new file name to the document as shown below. Students have the option at this point of replacing the document with a new file by clicking the trashcan beneath the file. A message will appear asking them to confirm that they would like to upload different file.

Upload Additional Files

To upload additional files, students may click the box to browse for their document file. Alternatively, they may drag and drop their file in the box. 


Click UPLOAD.

Click "Continue to Review" to move on to Step 5.

Step 5: Confirm & Submit

In the final step of the submission process, students are asked to review the information and files provided in the previous steps.

Students have the ability at this point to edit any of the fields or replace any documents by clicking on the blue symbols next to each stage heading. Any required fields that have not been filled out will appear in red. By clicking "fix," students will be taken back to that page where they can enter the required information.

Students may also return to any step in the submission process by clicking on the arrows at the top of each screen.

Once all information is verified, students should click CONFIRM AND SUBMIT to complete the process.

They will then see a “Submission Complete” screen.

This screen shows a message from the graduate office that is customizable in the Theme Settings.

Students may view the submission’s status by clicking on VIEW SUBMISSION STATUS.

Students can see all of the submission information…

…including an activity log listing any actions taken on their ETD.