Definition of an ETD (from Virginia Tech University)
An ETD is an electronic document that explains the research of a graduate student. The ETD is similar to its paper predecessor. It has figures, tables, footnotes, and references. It has a title page with the authors' name, the official name of the university, the degree sought, and the names of the committee members. It documents the author's years of academic commitment. It describes why the work was done, how the research relates to previous work as recorded in the literature, the research methods used, the results, the interpretation and discussion of the results, and a summary with conclusions.
The ETD is different, however. It provides a technologically advanced medium for expressing ideas. By providing electronic resources, everyone benefits:
- more access to research
- research is available on campus
- research is accessible worldwide
- less expense to authors and libraries
- no paper costs
- no physical shelf space
- lower cataloging costs
- better presentation of research (not available
in paper format)
- addition of multimedia files
- more dynamic presentation of data
- hyperlinks
- programs and code
- other format support
Prepare an ETD using nearly any word processor or document preparation
system. The electronic format allows graduate students to fully use
current and future technology as tools to express their research.