Graduate College's requirements for creative component formatting

Format Requirements

Starting Fall 2025, the Graduate College will release a new Creative Component template and requirement checklist. The requirements have been carefully reviewed and discussed with the Digital Accessibility team to optimize Iowa State University Creative Components for accessibility. The updated requirements also take into account basic academic norms and variation across disciplines. This page lays out the requirements that will be put into place.

One aim of releasing these format requirement updates at this time is to ensure that the Thesis, Dissertation, and Creative Components scholarly documents comply with Iowa State University's Digital Accessibility Policy, which will go into full effect in April 2026.

Grace Period (Graduate Implementation)

To accommodate students who are currently close to completing their Creative Component, and who started with the old templates, there will be a 4-month grace period from September 2025-December 2025. During this grace period:

  • The new format requirements will be treated as recommendations.
  • Only the continuing format requirements will be treated as requirements.
  • Starting in January 2026, the new format requirements will be treated as requirements.

The following section delineates the differences between recommendations and requirements.

Requirements

Graduate College Creative Component reviewers will check all Creative Component submitted to the Iowa State University Digital Repository after the student passes their Final Oral Examination. If the submitted file fails to meet one or more requirements, the reviewer will issue a request for revisions. Students must implement these revisions and resubmit within one week of the submission deadline for that semester. If the requirements are still not met, the reviewer will issue another request for revisions. The Creative Component will not be accepted until all requirements are met.

Recommendations

Students are strongly encouraged to implement these recommendations for Creative Components. Graduate College Creative Component reviewers will check all Creative Components submitted to the Iowa State University Digital Repository after the student passes their Final Oral Examination. If the submitted file fails to meet one or more recommendations, the reviewer will issue a single request to revise. If the Creative Component is resubmitted without the recommendations implemented but with the requirements satisfied, it will be accepted.

 Creative Components cannot be revised after they are accepted.

Feature

New Requirement

Explanation of Change

Rationale

HeadingsHeadings must be tagged with heading tags.Subdivided projects must now have tagged headingsaccessibility
Non-text contentAll non-text content that is presented has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose.Non-text content, including images and video, must have a text alternativeaccessibility
Non-text contentIf non-text content is pure decoration, is used only for visual formatting, or is not presented to users, then it is implemented in a way that it can be ignored by assistive technology.Decorative content does not distract assistive technology usersaccessibility
Tabular contentTable columns and rows must be tagged. Header rows and columns must be tagged as table headers.Tabular content must be tagged to preserve relationships in alternative formatsaccessibility
Document titledThe document title must be included in the file metadata.Document properties should indicate the title of the creative componentaccessibility

Feature

Requirement

Rationale

Page numbersPage numbers must be includedusability
Title pageUse the title page example formatconsistency

Priority

Definition

AccessibilityThe quality of being able to be used by everyone, regardless of how they approach it
UsabilityThe ease with which a produce or system can be used to achieve goals effectively and efficiently
ConsistencyThe achievement of a level of performance that does not vary greatly over time