Online Ph D thesis processing with ScholarOne

Click here for getting into the thesis Processing portal

The Deans of the Faculties of Science and Engineering, on behalf of Director, IISc, are delighted to announce the launching of online Ph.D. thesis processing through a customized version of ScholarOne, a product of Clarivate Analytics Inc. The ScholarOne tool has been customized to IISc’s requirements by the Clarivate team and tested by the DIGITS team and the Academic Section, and a pilot-run of the same has been successfully carried out. The tool ScholarOne is now ready for use.

The tool covers all activities of PhD thesis processing commencing with the submission of thesis by a student up to the receipt of all thesis reports. The process that is involved after the receipt of all the reports will continue to follow the current manual process. The latter process will be eventually automated as well. A detailed workflow is sketched below.

Workflow for Online Ph D Thesis Processing with ScholarOne

Student – gives his/her colloquium
Guide – prepares the list of examiners
Dept.Office – (i) Gets the list of examiners signed by the members of the comprehensive examination board.(ii) Sends email to Academic Admin (thesisadmin@iisc.ac.in) about the student completing the colloquium, (iii) attaches (a) pdf version of the synopsis and(b) scanned (pdf) version of the list of approved examiners.“Academic Admin” and “Admin” are synonymous and used interchangeably throughout this document. In addition, the Department Office intimates the Admin about Co-Guide(s), if any. If the Co-Guide(s) wish to submit separate review reports, this is also indicated to the Admin.
Admin – Uploads the credentials of the above student to ScholarOne. Student will now receive an alert with his/her login credentials on ScholarOne.
Student – Logs into ScholarOne and uploads (i) the thesis, (ii) synopsis,(iii) pdf version of announcement of the colloquium, and(iv) pdf version of scanned receipt of fees paid. Once the uploading is done, the Admin gets an alert.
Admin – On receipt of the above alert, the Admin checks for the completeness of the uploaded documents, and selects and assigns the Guide and the Dean on ScholarOne. This will trigger an alert to the Guide and the Dean. If there is a Co-Guide, the Admin will have to include the Co-Guide as cc manually in the email alert sent to the Guide.
Guide–Following the above alert, the Guide logs in and approves the thesis submission after verifying the same. Approval happens only after the guide is convinced about the acceptability of the submitted thesis. This approval triggers an alert to the Admin.
Admin – On receipt of the above alert, Admin logs in and enters the examiners’ names as provided (many of them may already be in the ScholarOne database); also enters the Guide as first examiner on ScholarOne. Admin also sends an invitation to the Guide (with cc to the Co-Guide(s)) to examine the thesis. If each Co-Guide wants to submit a separate examiner report, then each Co-Guide will be assigned an examiner role by the Admin. Admin will revise the number of reviews required to two plus the number of guides and co-guides who want to submit separate reviews.
Dean–Once the Admin enters the names of all examiners in the above step, the Dean receives an email alert, logs in, and sets the order of priority of examiners.
Admin – sends an invitation to the examiners in the order set by the Dean, attaching in the email: (a) the synopsis (b) guidelines on research conferments.
Examiner– Receives invitation and either accepts or declines. ScholarOne will send reminders at predetermined intervals to remind the examiner to accept or decline.
Examiner accepts: When an examiner accepts, the thesis is made available to the examiner automatically and an email is also sent automatically stating that the report is to be sent within six weeks (the deadline of six weeks counts from the time the invitation is accepted).
Examiner declines: When an examiner declines, ScholarOne will send a “Thank You” message to the examiner who has declined. The Admin then sends an invitation to the alternative examiner in the order set by the Dean, attaching the synopsis. This step can be made manual if the Dean would like to dynamically change the order of priority.
Examiner submits report – Review report submitted is available instantly to the Admin and the Deanon submission by the examiner.
Reminders–ScholarOne will send reminders automatically as per predetermined schedule.
Admin and Dean – Once all the reports are received, the Dean and the Admin get an alert.
Dean – will go through the reports and forward them to the Guide with a suitable recommendation.

Advantages of Thesis Processing through ScholarOne

The uploaded thesis is securely stored in the cloud. This eliminates emailing the thesis. The files can be of any size.
Once an examiner agrees to examine the thesis, a softcopy of the thesis is automatically moved to the examiner’s workspace on ScholarOne. Similarly, once the examiner uploads the report, it is available to the Admin and the Dean. This saves time and avoids human errors.
The correspondence (about 15 different letters) which currently happens through manual emailing by the staff will now be automated, completely eliminating manual errors. This will reduce the cycle time for sending these letters.
All reminders are automatic. All “Thank you” , letters are automatic.
As soon as the required number of reports are available, the Dean can take a decision.
The Dean will have a dashboard which gives a big picture of all theses being processed
Many steps in the current process will now have negligible lead time:
sending email requests to examiners;
tracking whether an examiner has accepted or not and if necessary, checking with the Dean for an alternative examiner, and sending request to another examiner;
making copies of the synopsis and the thesis available to examiners;
sending email reminders;
eliminates an unnecessary step that was often encountered in the manual system, namely, the examiner sends the report but forgetsto send the checklist;
sending “Thank you” letters;
preparing the file after three reports are received and presenting it to the Dean;
preparing various statistics
The online process concludes once all the reports are received and presented to the Dean. The rest of the process will be as per the current manual process. Automation of the entire end-to-end process will happen over a period of time.

Roles and Responsibilities

Student

Gets the thesis cleared by the Guide(s) when it is ready for submission, logs into ScholarOne and uploads: (i) the thesis, (ii)synopsis, (iii) pdf version of announcement of the colloquium, and (iv) pdf version of scanned receipt of fees paid. Once the uploading is done, the Admin gets an alert.
May have to upload some of the documents again if they are not found acceptable; this is indicated by an alert message from the Admin

Guide

Prepares the list of examiners and emails the list to the Department Office.
When the Admin assigns the Guide after the uploading of a thesis by a student, the Guide gets an alert. The Guide logs in and approves the thesis submission after verifying the same. This approval triggers an alert to the Admin.
Gets access to the reports after all the reports are received and receives an appropriate recommendation from the Dean after all the reports are received

Department Office

Receives list of examiners from the Guide and gets the list signed by the members of the comprehensive exam board.
Sends an email to Academic Admin about the student completing the colloquium, and attaches (a)pdf version of the synopsis and (b) scanned (pdf) version of the list of approved examiners. In addition, the Department Office intimates the Admin about Co-Guides, if any. If the Co-Guide(s) wish to submit separate review reports, this is also indicated to the Admin.

Admin (same as Academic Admin)

On receipt of an email from the Department Office (with a student’s synopsis attached), the Admin uploads the credentials of the above student to ScholarOne. Student will receive an alert with his/her login credentials on ScholarOne.
Checks for the completeness of the uploaded documents and assigns the Guide and the Dean in ScholarOne, immediately on the receipt of the above alert. This will trigger an alert to the Guide. If there is a Co-Guide, the Admin will have to keep the Co-Guide manually in cc list of the email alert, sent to the Guide.
On receipt of the above alert, Adminlogs in and enters the examiners’names as provided (many of the names may already be in the ScholarOne database); also enters the Guide as first examiner on ScholarOne.Admin also sends an invitation to the Guide (with cc to the Co-Guide(s)) for examining the thesis. ScholarOne generates an alert to the Dean. If each Co-Guide wants to submit a separate examiner report, then he/she will be assigned an examiner role by the Admin to get approved by the Dean.
Sends an invitation to the examiners in the order set by the Dean, attaching in the email: (a) the synopsis (b) guidelines on research conferments.
When an examiner declines, ScholarOne sends a “Thank you” message. The Admin then sends an invitation to the alternative examiner in the order set by the Dean, attaching the synopsis. This step can be made manual if the Dean likes to dynamically change the order of priority.
When an examiner submits the review report, it is instantly available to the Admin and the Dean
Once all the reports are received in ScholarOne, both the Dean and Admin get alerts.

The Deans

Once the Admin enters the names of all examiners in the above step, the Dean receives the same, logs in and sets the order of priority of examiners if required.
When an examiner declines, ScholarOne sends a “Thank you” message to the declining examiner. The Admin then sends an invitation to the alternative examiner in the order set by the Dean, attaching the synopsis. This step can be made manual if the Dean wants to dynamically change the order of priority.
When an examiner submits the review report, it is instantly available to the Admin and the Dean.
Once all the reports are received, both the Dean and Admin get alerts. The Dean will go through the reports and forward them to the Guide with a suitable recommendation.
From time to time, the Dean may view the Dashboard all the thesis under processing and can take suitable action.