ETD 2025 Symposium-USETDA 2025 Conference Invitation
John Hagen
Dear Colleague,
The USETDA and the NDLTD are co-hosting ETD 2025, the 28th international symposium on electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) and USETDA 2025, the 15th national US conference on ETDs, to be held as a joint virtual event via Zoom September 25-26, 2025. This conference is co-organized by the USETDA (United States Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association) and the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations).
ETD 2025 will provide excellent educational opportunities for graduate school, disability and student services, library, information technology, academic and industry professionals and others who work with electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), institutional repositories, graduate students and scholarly communications. Our goal is to offer relevant, practice-oriented content that supports ETD productivity improvement and ETD professionals. This includes the advancement in ETD operations, the encouragement of the formation of regional ETD associations and networking communities, as well as providing useful and innovative resources, standards, and technology for the development and support of ETD programs. Proposals are welcome from graduate school, disability and student services, library, information technology and industry professionals as well as graduate students, and faculty.
The conference theme, “Exploring Global Connections”, will delve into technology and academic processes as they impact various aspects of the creation and dissemination of scholarly work. We will examine the present use and availability of ETDs and related initiatives. We will also explore new and emerging ETD practices, needs, and influences that impact administrative, graduate school, and library professionals.
The ETD 2025 Symposium will be held as joint virtual conference online via Zoom. Through our call for proposals, we will seek plenary panel presentations, breakout sessions, flash talks, user group meetings, poster presentations and workshops in which participants can join live online interactive discussions. We will welcome your experiences as well as how to provide new capacities to re-envision the future, best practices and policies.
Special reduced registration rates will be available including a 50% discount off of regular rates. Reduced rates will include:
- Presenter member: $35
- Presenter non-member: $69
- Regular member: $85
- Regular non-member: $135
Additionally, our scholarship awards program will provide registration waivers to eligible applicants to receive complimentary registration to attend the conference.
Program HighlightsThis year’s program includes a variety of engaging panel discussions, presentations, flash talks, networking sessions and workshops on ETDs for Beginners and AI applications. For complete details, visit our Program Schedule.
Plenary 1: (Panel Discussion). Oh, the Places You’ll Go with Your Scholarly Works! Panelists: Lily Compton and Kristin Terrill (Center for Communication Excellence, Graduate College Iowa State University) and Megan O’Donnell (University Library, Iowa State University). Keywords: research ethics, publishing basics, copyright, license, authorship, digital accessibility, literature review
Breakout 1: Win-Win Apprenticeships : Team Cataloging ETDs at Two OhioLINK Libraries. Presented by Michael Monaco (University of Akron) and Sevim McCutcheon (Kent State University). Moderator: ? Keywords: metadata, cataloging, streamlining ETD processing, efficiencies, discoverability, best practices, training.
Breakout 3: Nobody Likes an Artichoke: Including Helpful Accessibility Techniques in ETD Instructions and Templates. Presented by John Fudrow (University of Pittsburgh). Keywords: ETD, accessibility, theses, dissertations, formatting, scholarly publishing, instruction, tutorials.
Breakout 6: Enhancing ETD Topic Modeling: A Framework Integrating LLMs for Improved Digital Library Discovery. Presented by Pradyumna Upendra Dasu (Virginia Tech), Satvik Chekuri (Virginia Tech), William Ingram (Virginia Tech University Libraries) and Edward Fox (Virginia Tech). Moderator: ? Track: Full Paper. Keywords: Topic Modeling, Natural Language Processing, Large Language Models, Electronic Theses and Dissertations, Digital Libraries, Information Storage and Retrieval.
Plenary 2 (Panel Discussion). Open Science Across Borders: India vs. US Institutional Approaches. Panelists: Nabi Hasan (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi), OSF Representative (Virginia Tech University Libraries). Keywords: Open Science, Research Accessibility, Collaborative Platforms, National Policies, Global Research Ecosystem, India-USA Open Science Landscape.
Breakout 7: Digital Accessibility for LaTeX Theses and Dissertations. Presented by Kristin Terrill (Iowa State University) and Lily Compton (Center for Communication Excellence, Graduate College Iowa State University). Moderator: ? Keywords: digital accessibility, LaTeX, Overleaf, Adobe Acrobat.
Breakout 9: Developing Policy-Adjacent Language on Artificial Intelligence Use in Graduate Research. Presented by Ruth Lu and Greg Newton (Ohio University Graduate College). Moderator: ? Track: Research Commentary. Keywords: AI use in graduate research, Research writing practices, Policy vs. guideline from the Graduate College/Graduate School, Academic integrity, Ethical AI Use.
Breakout 15: Comparative Analysis of Software Platforms in Indian ETD Repositories: Evaluating Workflow, Metadata Practices, and Security. Presented by Mr. Vivek Ranjan (SILVER OAK UNIVERSITY) and Mr. Manoj Kumar K (INFLIBNET). Track: Full Paper. Keywords: ETD, Shodhganga, DSpace, EPrints, Fedora Commons, Metadata standards, Workflow automation, Repository security, Interoperability, Open Access
Networking Opportunities
You will have the opportunity to participate in a number of networking activities to discuss a variety of ETD topics with colleagues and special interest groups including the ETD Formatting User’s Group, ETD Administrator User’s Group, and the Community Engagement Group meetings.
Conference WorkshopsETDs for Beginners. Presented by John Hagen, USETDA, Ed Fox, NDLTD et al. Keywords: electronic theses and dissertations, ETDs, workshop, program implementation.
AI-Facilitated Literature Review Workshop: A Hands-on Demonstration of Elicit. Presented by Kristin Terrill, Lily Compton and Maryam Saneie, (Iowa State University Graduate College). Keywords: Generative AI, Elicit, Literature Review, 3E Framework.
For complete workshop descriptions, visit our Workshops Web page.
Registration
Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to learn more and share your experiences with colleagues at ETD 2025 – USETDA 2025! Member registration is only $85 or $135 at the non-member rate through September 22nd*. To register for the conference, visit our Registration Information Web page.
We hope to see you soon online at ETD 2025 – USETDA 2025!
Warm Regards,
ETD 2025 – USETDA 2025 Conference Organizing Committee
*To qualify for member registration rates, active enrollment in a paid institutional or individual membership subscription plan is required. For details visit our Membership Web page.