thesis embargo

What’s a thesis or dissertation embargo, and when to use it?

As part of the degree requirements for theses and dissertations, students hold a public defense and will have their document published electronically in the ASU Digital Repository and with ProQuest. Publication in the ASU Digital Repository is required; however, students may elect to delay (known as “embargo”) publication of their thesis/dissertation for a period of two years with support from their committee.

Why embargo a thesis/dissertation?

Delayed publication can protect:

• information of commercial value
• patentable rights
• sensitive or classified information
• academic or commercial press from acquiring publishing rights
• other relevant scholarly issues related to the release of your work

How can a student establish an embargo?

• Consult with committee at the time of the defense (or earlier) to decide whether an embargo is necessary
• Complete the Delaying Publication of Thesis/Dissertation form and include the chair’s (or a co-chair’s) signature.
• Include the embargo form with the completed Pass/Fail form that will be submitted to the Graduate College.

If approved, an embargo allows for a temporary delay of the publication of your document for two years through the ASU Digital Repository, KEEP. Embargo requests made after publication cannot guarantee non-viewing or downloading.

Other considerations

In unique cases, students may be granted an embargo of their document for an additional two years by emailing [email protected] before the original embargo expires. The maximum allowable embargo period for the ASU Digital Repository is four years, while ProQuest may allow for an indefinate embargo. Those requests are to be emailed to [email protected] .

These embargo guidelines apply to other culminating experience documents (such as bound documents and DMA research papers) that are required to go through format review and submission to ProQuest. Please check with your academic unit if unsure if this applies to your culminating experience.

Embargo questions can be directed to [email protected] .  

Dissertations & Theses: Understanding Embargoes

• Introduction
• Task Definition
• Information Seeking Strategies
• Location and Access
• Use of Information
• Searching for Dissertations & Theses
• Accessing ETDs from Off-Campus
• Writing & Submitting ETDs

Understanding Embargoes

What is an embargo.

In academia, an "embargo" is a restriction placed on a thesis or dissertation that allows only the title, abstract, and citation information to be released to the public, while the full text of the work is kept hidden for a limited period of time. Embargoes typically last from one to five years following publication of a thesis or dissertation via the college or university's Institutional Repository or some other publishing service (e.g., ProQuest). Colleges and universities have different rules about whether and how theses and dissertations can be embargoed; however, most embargos can be extended under certain circumstances.

Why Embargo a Thesis or Dissertation?

Most theses and dissertations are not embargoed, but are made  publicly available following their formal defense as part of completing a masters or doctoral degree. Some reasons to embargo a thesis or dissertation include:

• The author wants to patent something described in the work.
• The author wants to publish the work in whole or in part in the future and is concerned that making the work public will interfere with this.
• The author has previously published the work in whole or in part, and the publisher is restricting public release of the work in some way.
• The dissertation includes data covered by a nondisclosure agreement for a specified period of time, including personal information, company secrets, or intellectual property.

Some colleges and universities encourage all authors to embargo their work, while others discourage embargoes except when they are absolutely needed. 

What are Georgia Southern's Embargo Guidelines? 

As a condition of enrollment at Georgia Southern University, each student grants the University a limited, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce and make publicly available the student’s dissertation or thesis, in whole or in part, in electronic format via Georgia Southern Commons  subject to the following voluntary elections:

• The student may elect to restrict access to the work to the Georgia Southern University campus.
• The student may embargo the work for a period of one or five years. After the ending date of the initial embargo period, the work will be made publicly available unless the student submits a written request, signed by the major professor, to the College of Graduate Studies for an extension. This request must be received prior to the ending date of the initial embargo period.

Embargoes are intended only for documents that meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Includes potential patent pending information
• Includes prospective trade secrets
• Includes sensitive security information that could be detrimental to the institution, agencies, state, or country if released.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the College of Graduate Studies at [email protected] or 912-478-2647.

Should I Embargo My Thesis or Dissertation?

Always discuss the pros and cons of embargoing your thesis or dissertation with your graduate committee prior to submitting your work to Georgia Southern Commons . In addition, to help you with this decision, here are some recent articles that address this question:

• Dissertation Reviews: Embargo Your Dissertation, or Not?
• Indiana University: Should I embargo my dissertation?
• Daily Nous: Should PhD Students Embargo Their Dissertations?
• ScienceBlog: Why I Placed A Digital Embargo On My Dissertation, And Maybe You Should Too
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Embargoes Can Go Only So Far to Help New Ph.D.'s Get Published, Experts Say

How Do I Get Access to an Embargoed Thesis or Dissertation?

If you learn about a thesis or dissertation that you want to read but it currently is embargoed, your best bet is to contact the author. If you are having difficulty finding contact information for the author, try contacting your library or the library at which the author earned his or her degree. 

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Formatting your Thesis and Dissertation:Tools,Tips and Troubleshooting

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• Do I need to embargo my thesis or dissertation?
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Understanding Embargoes

What is an Embargo?

In academia, an "embargo" is a restriction placed on a thesis or dissertation that allows only the title, abstract and citation information to be released to the public, while the full text of the work is kept hidden for a limited period of time. Embargoes typically last from one to five years following the publication of a thesis or dissertation via a university's Institutional Repository or some other publishing service (e.g. ProQuest). 

Some colleges and universities encourage all authors to embargo their work, while others (such as Florida Tech ) discourage embargoes except when they are absolutely needed.

Reasons not to Embargo

• The more accessible your thesis or dissertation is, the more likely it is to be cited.
• Making your thesis or dissertation accessible allows it to be scrutinized by others in the field, prompting collegiality.
• If you are worried about copyright infringement and/or plagiarism, then you should get your idea out there as soon as possible so that it is documented and accessible. That way, you have proof that the idea originated from you and that the alleged infringer had access to your work. While copyright protection is automatic, people who are concerned about copyright infringement can also register copyright in it with the U.S. Copyright Office. ProQuest will do this for you for an additional fee, or you can do it yourself at http://copyright.gov/eco/. Registration provides statutory damages and attorney's fees in the event of an infringement.
• Having theses or dissertations available helps future scholars about the process of scholarship.
• You do not intend to pursue a tenure-track position.

Why Embargo a Thesis or Dissertation?

Most theses and dissertations are  not  embargoed but are made publicly available following their formal defense as part of completing a master's or doctoral degree. Some reason to embargo a thesis or dissertation include:

• The author wants to patent something described in the work.
• The author wants to publish the work in whole or in part  in the future  and is concerned that making the work public will interfere with this.
• The author has  previously  published the work in whole or in part, and the publisher is restricting the public release of the work in some way. 
• The dissertation includes data covered by a nondisclosure agreement for a specified period of time, including personal information, company secrets, or intellectual property.

What are Florida Tech's Embargo Guidelines?

The standard embargo options for theses and dissertations at Florida tech include: Six months, One year, and Two years. If needed, you can also specifiy a different desired embargo timeframe. All requested embargos require a justification. The standard options for embargo justification are publishing process and patent filing process, However, if needed, you can specify a different justification.

Image o f Embarg o Options section of Electronic Theses and Dissertation (ETD) Access Form

Select access Option 1 or Option 2

Option 1: Immediate worldwide access - The thesis will be freely available on the Internet to all users. (Recommended)

Option 2: Embargoed access – Graduate students and their faculty advisor may request to embargo the release of their thesis or dissertation for up to 2 years (or longer by special request). The Embargoed Access Option is recommended if, for example, you plan to submit patent application or publication (although most publishers will not automatically dismiss papers derived from online theses). The thesis will not be available to anyone outside Florida Tech for (choose only one time period and indicate your justification):

Should I Embargo My Thesis or Dissertation?

Always  discuss the pros and cons of embargoing your thesis or dissertation with your advisor  prior  to submitting your work. Below are links to recent articles that address this question:

• Dissertation Reviews: Embargo Your Dissertation, or Not?
• Indiana University: Should I embargo my dissertation?
• Daily Nous: Should PhD Students Embargo Their Dissertations?
• ScienceBlog: Why I Placed A Digital Embargo On My Dissertation, And Maybe You Should Too
• Chronicle of Higher Education: Embargoes Can Go Only So Far to Help New Ph.D.'s Get Published, Experts Say

How Do I Get Access to an Embargoed Thesis or Dissertation?

If you learn about a thesis or dissertation that you want to read but it currently is embargoed, your best bet is to contact the author. Additionally, if you try to access a document that is embargoed, you will be directed to a form where you can request access.

If you are having difficulty finding contact information for the author, try contacting your library or the university library at which the author earned his or her degree. 

Many thanks to Kay Coates, Zach Henderson Library at Georgia Southern University and  Shayna Pekala , Scholarly Communications Office at Indiana University, for permission to reuse content.

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Theses & Dissertations

• Submitting your Thesis or Dissertation
• Depositing with ProQuest
• Understanding Copyright
• Understanding Embargoes
• Frequently Asked Questions

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Jessica Benner , Library Liaison for Computer Science and GIS, for compiling the information on which this page is based. 

What is an Embargo?

Authors who share their work openly will gain more visibility for their research and are contributing to the scholarly record of work conducted at Carnegie Mellon University. Even so, a n embargo on your work may be appropriate in certain circumstances. An embargo is a specified time period to delay online access . Applying an embargo to your thesis or dissertation does not mean that your work will be completely hidden. A public record of your thesis will exist online, including the author’s name, title of the work, keywords, and an abstract. In either KiltHub or ProQuest, the embargo options can range from 6 months to 5 years, and will automatically expire. In most cases, an embargo is not needed, but you should discuss your options with your thesis advisor.

Embargo Dos and Don'ts

• When to apply an embargo
• When not to apply an embargo

Embargoes are recommended for a few typical cases: 

Non-disclosure agreement, patent agreements or commercially valuable research.

In this case, the authors believe the research is commercially viable and may want to protect intellectual property rights while securing a patent. The embargo period should be used to obtain the patent not for conducting more research.

Publisher Requirements

An embargo is not recommended if: .

• The author wants to do more research or believes the quality of the research is poor. Conducting more research is not an appropriate cause for an embargo.
• The author is against depositing their work in open access venues. They can deposit their dissertation in ProQuest, a subscription based database.
• The author believes everyone else in the department is obtaining embargoes so they want to follow the crowd. Each dissertation is unique and should be evaluated independently.
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• Dissertation Embargo Guidelines
• Dissertation Copyright
• Dissertation Templates
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• Sample Dissertation Title Page

In cases where papers are in press, patents are pending, or where there are other intellectual property concerns, it may be beneficial to delay publication (“embargo”). Students should discuss with their advisor whether a delay in publication is necessary or advisable, and may also reach out to their  subject librarian  for guidance.   

Embargo Options

Dissertations are available through three primary venues: ProQuest, ScholarlyCommons, and for dissertations prior to 2020, the Penn Libraries stacks. Students may apply for a delay in publication/embargo in ProQuest and in ScholarlyCommons. 

ProQuest  is a third-party, commercial resource that provides full-text access to electronic dissertations to Penn faculty, students, staff, and anyone else with a ProQuest institutional subscription. Members of the public may view the first 24 pages of a dissertation before being prompted to purchase a copy of the dissertation. 

ProQuest offers the following embargo options: 6 months, 1 year or 2 years .

ScholarlyCommons

ScholarlyCommons  is the University of Pennsylvania’s  open access  institutional repository for gathering, indexing, storing, and making widely available to the public the scholarly output of the Penn community. Since December 2015, Penn has required open access publication of dissertations in ScholarlyCommons. Full-text access to electronic dissertations is available to all members of the public (except dissertations that are embargoed). For more information about ScholarlyCommons, visit  http://guides.library.upenn.edu/scholarlycommons/ .

ScholarlyCommons  offers the following embargo options: 3 years only.

Full-text dissertations available in ScholarlyCommons can be seen by anyone in the world, whereas the full-text of dissertations in ProQuest are only available to those with an institutional subscription. Dissertations prior to 2015 can be added at the request of the author by contacting  [email protected] . 

Note that dissertations may have two records in ScholarlyCommons: one in  Publicly Available Penn Dissertations  and one in  Dissertations Available From ProQuest .

How to Request an Initial Embargo

Enter embargo preferences, if any, when submitting the dissertation  using ETD Administrator . Students’ first embargo requests are granted automatically. 

The  PQ Publishing Options  tab in ETD Administrator requires you to indicate your selections for ProQuest publishing. You must choose whether you wish to publish on ProQuest immediately or delay the publication of your dissertation for 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years.

Embargo Extensions

ProQuest Embargo Extensions must be requested by the dissertation author directly from ProQuest at  [email protected] . The University does not process ProQuest embargo extensions.

• A request for an additional three year delay (beyond the first three year embargo) in ScholarlyCommons requires approval by the Graduate Group Chair. Complete and submit the Embargo Extension Request Form .
• The completed Embargo Extension Request Form must be submitted  one month before the end of the initial embargo  to  [email protected] .
• In the event that a further delay (beyond six years) in ScholarlyCommons is needed, a graduate may petition their school’s Graduate Dean for an extension.
• Click here to download the Embargo Extension Request Form

Frequently Asked Questions

Students should discuss their embargo options with their dissertation supervisor or may reach out to a  subject librarian  who is familiar with their discipline for guidance. Your choice to embargo may depend on your discipline (it is more common in some fields than others especially if there are patent rights at issue) as well as your publishing goals.

Yes. If you choose to delay the release of your work, access to the full text of your work will be delayed for the period of time that you specify. The citation and abstract of your work will be available through ProQuest and may be available through your institutional repository.

When you upload your dissertation in ProQuest ETD Administrator, please select the option to delay release in the  PQ publishing options  menu. You can select a 6 month, 1 year, or 2 year delay.

At the same time, you may request a delay of publication through  Penn’s Institutional Repository (ScholarlyCommons)  in ProQuest ETD Administrator’s  IR publishing options  menu. The IR embargo is a only available in a 3-year term.

If you wish to release your dissertation for publication before the end of your embargo term, please contact  [email protected]  to withdraw your embargo in ProQuest and contact  [email protected]  to end your embargo in ScholarlyCommons, Penn’s institutional repository.

No; separate requests must be made for each embargo, and requests may not be made until the previous embargo is nearing its end (1-3 months before the embargo ends).  

For instance, if you graduate in May 2021 with a three-year ScholarlyCommons embargo, in April 2024 you may request an additional three years to extend the ScholarlyCommons embargo to 2027 with approval from the Graduate Group Chair using the  Embargo Extension Request Form . In March 2027, you may petition for an additional three-year embargo with approval from the Graduate Group Chair and the Graduate Dean. The dissertation will become publicly available once the embargo period has passed.  

No, you may choose to embargo in either ProQuest and/or ScholarlyCommons, and the period of the embargos will differ.

You may ask to retroactively have your dissertation embargoed in ScholarlyCommons with the  Embargo Extension Request Form , but it may only be embargoed until the date it would have originally ended. So, for example, if you graduated in May 2022, your dissertation could only be embargoed until May 2025, regardless of when you request the embargo to be added. Further embargo periods would follow the procedures outlined above and are subject to the maximum allowed embargo period.

To retroactively embargo a dissertation in ProQuest, contact ProQuest directly  online .

Note that choosing to embargo your dissertation after it has already been made openly available cannot ensure that your dissertation is not circulated or read; it just ensures that others are no longer able to access your dissertation.

Dissertations, Doctoral Projects, and Theses: Embargoes

Should i request an embargo for my dissertation.

If you are concerned that public release of your research may be inadvisable, you may request an embargo, which will restrict access to your work for a limited period of time. Reasons for an embargo include: making public information about a pending patent application, violating privacy rights; disclosing sensitive data or information; and adversely affecting your chances of publishing a revised dissertation. In these cases, you should consult with your advisor and dissertation committee to determine whether an embargo would be appropriate.

In 2013, the American Historical Association released its Statement on Policies Regarding the Embargoing of Completed History PhD Dissertations  suggesting that doctoral students should be permitted to embargo online access to their dissertation for up to six years, with access being provided only for those on campus or with the student’s explicit permission off campus. If you are concerned that the availability of your dissertation in an open access repository will negatively affect your future publication prospects, you may find our Revising Your Dissertation for Publication page and the articles below of interest.

• Cohen, Philip N. " Sociologists: Don’t Embargo your Dissertation ." Family Inequality. 2021.
• " Can't Find It, Can't Sign It: On Dissertation Embargoes ." Harvard University Press Blog. 2013.
• Gilliam, Christian and Christine Daoutis. " Can Openly Accessible E- Theses Be Published as Monographs? A Short Survey of Academic Publishers ."  Serials Librarian  no. 1–4 (July 2018): 5–12.
• Gold, Alexandra. " The Great Embargo Debate ." Inside Higher Ed. 2018.
• McCutcheon, Angela M. Impact of Publishers' Policy on Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (EDT) Distribution Options within the United States . 2010
• Ramirez, M. L., J. T. Dalton, G. Mcmillan, M. Read, and N. H. Seamans. " Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers ." College & Research Libraries 74.4 (2013): 368-80.
• Ramirez, M. L., G. Mcmillan, J. T. Dalton, A. Hanlon, H. S. Smith, and C. Kern. " Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences ?" College & Research Libraries 75.6 (2014): 808-21.
• Rosen, Rebecca J. " You've Spent Years on Your Ph.D.: Should You Publish It Online for Free? " The Atlantic . 2018.
• Dissertation Embargoes and Publishing Fears
• Open Access and Dissertation Embargoes
• Publishing a Revised Dissertation
• To Embargo Your Dissertation, or Not?
• Dr. Audrey Truschke's follow-up tweets on this subject (2019)
• Weinberg, Justin.  Should PhD Students Embargo Their Dissertations?   Daily Nous. 2018.

If my work is embargoed, what information will be available?

The Graduate School allows two types of embargoes:

Common Embargo

The citation and abstract will appear in DigitalGeorgetown and ProQuest. The full text of your dissertation, doctoral project, or thesis will be withheld from public distribution but will be available to the Georgetown community (current faculty, student, and staff). Your work will also be available to any researcher who contacts the Georgetown University Library in advance and comes to campus to read it. Visiting readers are not permitted to print or download your work.

Restrictive Embargo

The citation and abstract will appear in DigitalGeorgetown and ProQuest. The full text of your dissertation, doctoral project, or thesis will not be available to anyone. This most restrictive option could be requested for a patent pending application and must be supported by a letter from your mentor or Director of Graduate Studies.

How do I request an embargo?

The Graduate School's embargo policy is set out in Part V.B. of the Graduate Bulletin, " Publication of Theses, Doctoral Projects, and Dissertations ." Additional information about requesting an embargo is on the Graduate School's Embargo Policy page. For questions about how to place an embargo, email [email protected] .

Is there a time limit on the embargo?

Both ProQuest and DigitalGeorgetown allow an embargo for up to two years. In rare circumstances, an extension beyond two years might be granted. Such request must be made before the expiration of any previously granted embargo and must be addressed in writing to the Dean of the Graduate School, accompanied by a letter of support from your mentor or the Director of Graduate Studies. The decision whether or not to grant such an extension will rest with the Dean. 

Requests to extend your embargo in ProQuest should be made directly to ProQuest by emailing [email protected] .

If you submit your thesis or dissertation through the ProQuest submission portal without requesting an embargo, your work will be made available openly in DigitalGeorgetown within a few weeks after graduation.  

Can I embargo my work after it has already been submitted to ProQuest and DigitalGeorgetown?

Requests to embargo a dissertation that has already been publicly available will not generally be approved. Even if an embargo is allowed, it is important to note that if your work has already been freely available in DigitalGeorgetown, and any copies made by others won't be affected by a later embargo.

W&M Theses & Dissertations

• Submission Guidelines
• Take-Down Policy This link opens in a new window

Embargo Options at W&M

When you submit your thesis or dissertation, you have an option to set an embargo for a limited time which will limit the availability of your work. For sensitive content, you may also opt to have minor portions of your thesis or dissertation redacted. 

Embargoes are set periods through which the full-text for an electronic publication is not freely available online. For example, a publication embargoed until January 1, 2020 won't be accessible online until that date.There are some embargo alternatives, such as redaction, that can also be implemented. 

W&M honors theses

Effective May 2021, access to undergraduate honors theses by default are restricted to the W&M Community (William & Mary IP and W&M credentials) unless, after consultation with your advisor, you elect to make your work freely available online, as Open Access. Embargo terms of 1-3+ years are offered.

W&M masters theses and doctoral dissertations

• Graduate School of Arts & Sciences: W&M masters theses and doctoral dissertations in the Arts & Sciences may be embargoed up to 12 years per the wishes of the student. For embargoes of 2 or more years, students will need to fill out the petition form with the rationale for embargo and the signature of their committee chair and the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research. For embargoes lasting more than 6 years, it's required that the student also meet with a  Research Librarian to learn more about the embargoes and that the librarian then sign off on the embargo form . For more info, see the relevant A&S embargoes page .   
• School of Education: W&M School of Education dissertations may be embargoed for up to 2 years during the submission process. For more info, see the SOE  FAQ .  
• Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS):  VIMS master theses and dissertations may be embargoed up to 2 years during the submission process. For more info, see VIMS ETD page .
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Publishing Dissertations and Theses: Embargoes

• Master's Thesis FAQ
• Dissertation Research
• Publishing a Dissertation

What is an embargo?

An "embargo" is a restriction placed on a thesis or dissertation that allows only the title, abstract, and citation information to be released to the public, while the full text of the work is kept hidden for a limited period of time.

Embargos in ProQuest

From ProQuest: "Authors have the ability to embargo their work indefinitely or for a certain period of time. ProQuest honors the author’s wishes and can accommodate as needed... Contact [email protected] to make a request."

The author of the embargoed work is responsible for contacting ProQuest and coordinating their embargo request.

Should you embargo your dissertation?

Most theses and dissertations are not embargoed, and are made publicly available following their formal defense as part of completing a masters or doctoral degree. As your dissertation is your introduction to a scholarly conversation in your field, the LTU Library discourages aribtrary embargoes of your work .

Some valid reasons to embargo a thesis or dissertation include:

• The author wants to patent something described in the work.
• The author wants to publish the work in whole or in part in the future and is concerned that making the work public will interfere with this.
• The author has previously published the work in whole or in part, and the publisher is restricting public release of the work in some way.
• The dissertation includes data covered by a nondisclosure agreement for a specified period of time, including personal information, company secrets, or intellectual property.
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• Research, Partnerships and Innovation
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• Thesis and Examination: The Code of Practice

Embargoing a thesis

Guidance on the appropriate circumstances where an embargo of a thesis may be necessary.

All research degree theses are expected to be made publicly available as soon as possible following the award of the degree, for anyone to read, download, print, copy and reuse. The University fully endorses the principles of open access and requires all researchers to make their research open access where possible to maximise research impact and to comply with funder policies where applicable.

Public funders recognise that factors such as commercial, collaborative or publication arrangements may necessitate a delay in the process of making a thesis openly accessible, and where this is the case, an embargo may be necessary. The maximum length of embargo permitted is usually 12 months, other than in exceptional circumstances. Universities are expected to have in place a process for considering where exceptions can be granted to the requirement for publication within 12 months.

Reasons for requesting an embargo

Students are permitted to embargo their thesis under certain conditions, e.g. where there are commercial sensitivities or where it is necessary to delay access to a thesis until after publication of results. Students should discuss with their supervisor whether they require an embargo and, if so, for how long. This discussion should take account of the need to ensure that research is made available as soon as possible and a consideration of the benefits that early publication can bring.

Some faculties have their own additional guidance regarding the maximum length of embargo that is permitted, and this should also be taken into consideration. Students should check with their supervisors whether such guidance exists.  Students are reminded that it is not good practice to delay the publication of their research without good cause.

Requests for embargoes that exceed 12 months require faculty approval and must be accompanied by a clear rationale as to why a longer period is required. A form is available to request an extended embargo. Extended embargoes beyond five years will not normally be approved unless there are very exceptional reasons. Examples of this may include where a contract has been signed requiring a longer embargo, or where there is a threat to personal security. Where relevant evidence is available to support a request for an extended embargo, e.g. a copy of the contract, this should be attached to the request form.  

If an embargo is required, this must be indicated on the Access to Thesis form, otherwise, the thesis may be made publicly available. Students are responsible for setting any embargo options at the point they upload their eThesis to White Rose eTheses Online  and for requesting extensions to embargoes, if required. Failure to set or extend an embargo will result in the eThesis being made publicly available.

Access to Thesis (Word, 39.6kb) Extended embargo request form (Word, 21KB)

Examples of exceptions for granting an extended embargo

Planned publication (details of publication plans should be included).

• There is often a long lead-time to get papers published in academic journals.
• Cross-disciplinary research may also take longer to publish.
• Where we are able to demonstrate that reaching the highest levels of academic excellence also has a long lead-time, and where the thesis contains data likely to be included in future research by the supervisor or collaborator.
• To account for plans to publish, however, the extension should be for a maximum of a further 12 months and it is expected an agreement has been reached with the publisher that this is acceptable.

Commercial confidentiality (a copy of the contract should be included)

• Where there are contractual restrictions imposed by a sponsor. This could include industrial sponsors, overseas governments, etc. The contract must specify the details of the required embargo period and it is recommended that, wherever possible, this should not exceed 5 years.
• Where the research might lead to a commercial application or patent and IP needs to be protected.
• Where commercial confidentiality is a consideration details should be provided as to how these issues were dealt with at other stages of the research, e.g. ethics review, examination.

Contains personal data

• The thesis contains personally identifiable or ethically sensitive data.  However, the implications of undertaking research involving identifiable participants should be considered at an early stage via the ethical approval process. Where possible, research participants should not be identifiable within the thesis.
• Material obtained in the thesis was obtained under a guarantee of confidentiality.

Third-party copyright

• Where third party copyright has not been obtained, students may submit an edited eThesis, as an alternative to requesting an embargo. They would also need to submit an unedited copy.

Could endanger health and safety

• The thesis contains sensitive material (political or otherwise) which could put at risk the authors or participants if made openly available. However, details should be provided as to the steps taken throughout the research to ensure data security, such as the storage of data and sharing of material, e.g. with supervisors and examiners.

Could prejudice national security

• The thesis contains sensitive material, which must not be made publicly available. However, details should be provided as to the steps taken throughout the research to ensure data security, such as the storage of data and sharing of material, e.g. with supervisors and examiners.

Related information

Contact the Research Degree Support Team

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Q. How do I embargo my thesis or dissertation?

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Answered By: Repository, digital pub, open scholarship, embargo *SCDPS Last Updated: Apr 22, 2024     Views: 2209

Dissertations For your dissertation, the embargo options are on the form you submit to ProQuest. Your selections apply to both ProQuest and Open Scholarship, the digital repository maintained by the Washington University Libraries: • no embargo = the full text of your dissertation (as a PDF) would be available on Open Scholarship, the university's digital repository, as soon as we process the files. • 6 month embargo = when we process the files, there will be a record of your dissertation (with your name, title, abstract, advisor information, etc.) available through Open Scholarship, but the full-text would not be available for 6 months. • 1 year embargo = same as above, except one year • 2 year embargo = same as above, except two years • 3 year embargo = same as above, except three years

You may change the embargo period, either extending or reducing it, after your original submission, but you would need to contact the library (Digital Library Services – [email protected]) and ProQuest ([email protected] or http://www.proquest.com/en-US/support/contact.shtml) separately.

Theses The embargo options are the same as above, except that they are only applied locally to Open Scholarship as theses are not submitted through ProQuest.

For more information, please contact Digital Library Services: [email protected] or visit http://libguides.wustl.edu/etds

University Libraries Policy Current University Libraries policy (effective 2022): At the request of depositors, content can be “embargoed,” or restricted, from view for a limited amount of time of up to three years. Open Scholarship requires an end date to the embargo, at which time the content automatically becomes available for viewing in Open Scholarship. However, the depositor may submit one renewal request to extend the embargo for a maximum of three additional years, for a total maximum embargo of six years.

"Academic departmental policy may govern the use and duration of embargo es and students should consult their department for this information." https://library.wustl.edu/about/policies/open-scholarship-policies/#ossubuse   [under Embargo es]

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Embargo policy for theses and dissertations.

This policy lists conditions under which a student may seek an embargo on a thesis or dissertation and provides instructions for requesting an embargo.

Dissertations and theses produced by graduate students on the Lawrence and Edwards campuses

When an exception to the immediate release of a thesis or dissertation is necessary, an embargo provides a temporary, delayed public release of the work. Embargo periods of six (6) months, one (1) year, or two (2) years are available. While embargoes are not intended to be permanent, renewals of the original embargo period are permissible. Considerations that may be deemed reasonable for granting permission for an embargo include, but are not limited to:

• Patentable rights or other issues are contained in the work, the disclosure of which may be detrimental to the rights or interests of the author.
• There is a need to prevent disclosure of government information about persons, institutions, technologies, etc. that is contained in the work.
• An academic or commercial press has expressed interest in acquiring the rights to publish the work as a book that may require an embargo.
• The work contains content that has already been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal that may require an embargo.
• Approval for delay has been granted by the KU Restricted Research Committee (see Restricted Research link below for more information).

Requests for an extension of the embargo should be directed to [email protected] and must be received at least one (1) month prior to the expiration of the current embargo to ensure sufficient time to process the request. A request for an embargo submitted to the University of Kansas affects only the publication of the thesis or dissertation in KU ScholarWorks.  It is the graduate student’s responsibility to request an extension from both the University of Kansas for the copy in KU ScholarWorks and separately through ProQuest/UMI. ​  

While there is no limit to the number of times a student can request an embargo extension, embargoes that have been allowed to expire without a request for an extension will result in the thesis or dissertation being made publicly available. 

The embargo period will be calculated beginning at the end of the semester in which the student graduates with the specific dates being: December 31 st , May 31 st , August 31 st .

Theses and dissertations at the University of Kansas are made available in two (2) electronic databases: KU ScholarWorks and ProQuest/UMI Dissertations and Theses. Items in KU ScholarWorks are publicly accessible on the world-wide web and can be indexed by search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others. 

A student who does not wish to have a thesis or dissertation made public in these two (2) venues for some limited period of time must receive permission to embargo the thesis or dissertation from the director of graduate studies in the student's department, the committee chair, the department chair, or the dean of the pertinent school/college. The student must request this permission with the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Release Form. The University of Kansas will accept the thesis or dissertation—thereby completing all degree requirements—only if the student signs this release form. Likewise, the University of Kansas will only entertain requests for an embargo on the publication of a thesis or dissertation through submission of this same form.

To ensure that embargoed work is restricted, students must take two (2) steps after receiving the appropriate signatures before graduation.

• First, the student must submit the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Release Form to the school office. If an embargo has been approved, this form will ensure that the work is temporarily restricted in KU ScholarWorks.
• Second, during the electronic submission process to ProQuest/UMI, the student must select the embargo option under the publishing restrictions section. If an embargo has been approved, this step will ensure that public view of the work is temporarily restricted in the ProQuest/UMI Dissertations and Theses database. See the related documents section below for more information.

Note : If a student does not receive permission for an embargo and/or does not submit the required documentation requesting such an embargo to Graduate Studies prior to graduation, the work will be made publicly available through KU ScholarWorks, and search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others will find and index the work. For this reason, once a work is released publicly, it is impossible to deploy an embargo in its entirety, because copies of a released work are likely to be stored on the web even if the KU ScholarWorks or ProQuest / UMI copies are retracted. It is therefore crucial for students who desire the embargo option to request it prior to graduation and to request extensions, if needed, prior to the work being exposed to public search engines.

Dissertation defenses are open to the public. In the event that an embargo is deemed necessary for a dissertation, the committee should consider holding an additional question period for the defense that is closed to the public. Any sensitive data may be discussed in the closed session.

Students from the following programs are permitted to request a permanent embargo of their thesis or dissertation (also see Related Forms section below):

• Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing offered by the Department of English
• Ph.D. in English: Literature and Creative Writing tracks

Graduate Studies 785-864-8040 [email protected]

Statement on Restricted Research (applies to externally funded projects that contain contractual stipulations regarding required delays of publication)

Additional information on the steps necessary for placing an embargo

Doctoral Dissertation

Master's Thesis Submission and Publication

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Release Form 

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Release Form for Creative Writing MFA/Ph.D. Students Only

07/18/2023: Approved by changed to Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, fixed broken links, updated renewal request contact to [email protected] . 07/05/2016: Updated to remove gendered pronouns. 10/17/2014: Graduate Studies added the link to the electronic thesis/dissertation release form for Creative Writing MFA/PhD students. 11/25/2013: Revisions approved by the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. 09/06/2013: Revisions approved by Graduate Studies, KU Libraries, Office of the Provost, and General Counsel. 10/20/2011: Revisions approved by Graduate Studies, KU Libraries, Office of the Provost, and General Counsel. 10/29/2010: Revisions approved by Graduate Studies, KU Libraries, Office of the Provost, and General Counsel. This policy pre-dates the KU online Policy Library. The dates listed in the approval and effective date fields reflect the date it was moved into the Policy Library.

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Research Guides

Submit and publish your thesis.

• The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
• Thesis Defences
• Deadlines and Fees
• Formatting in MS Word
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• Making Thesis Accessible

Thesis Embargo

• Review and Release
• Your Rights as an Author
• Re-using Third Party Materials
• Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
• Turning Thesis into an Article
• Turning Thesis into a Book
• Other Venues of Publication

The preservation and public dissemination of original dissertation research is a principle to which the University, as a publicly funded institute of higher education, is strongly committed. Unrestricted release of theses means permanent worldwide access through the Internet. Students retain copyright on the thesis as the thesis author. However, in exceptional cases, the author, in consultation with the thesis supervisor and with the approval of the chair of the graduate unit, shall have the right to postpone distribution and publication for a period up to two years from the date of acceptance of the thesis. Discuss placing an embargo on your thesis with your supervisor.

When you choose to embargo your thesis, you must still submit the thesis. On the ProQuest website, there is an option to choose an embargo of six months, one year or two years. The Chair of your graduate unit must also sign a form, which you will submit to the Program Completion offices at the SGS. Your thesis will be virtually held until the date of release.

Students must agree to the ProQuest and University agreements when submitting their theses, providing ProQuest and the university with a non-exclusive licence to publish your thesis on ProQuest and in TSpace, the universitys repository.

►►The SGS form to  restrict thesis release date  - needs to be dated and signed by your graduate unit chair.

For further  submission instructions  see the  Electronic Thesis Submission section of the SGS website .

• << Previous: Submission Process
• Next: Review and Release >>
• Last Updated: Sep 15, 2023 3:23 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.utoronto.ca/thesis

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Guide to CaltechTHESIS

• Caltech Theses
• Deadlines and Letters of Completion

Annual Deadlines

Submission timeline, deposit your thesis, what you can do while you're waiting for final approval, what happens on the library's end, help where are my files, avoid common mistakes made during submission, handling special types of files.

• Grad Office Regulations and Required Forms
• Templates and Formatting Information
• Thesis Updates and Corrections
• CaltechDATA for Supplementary Material
• Thesis Embargo Policies and Forms
• Copyright Considerations
• Publishers' Policies on Publications in Theses
• Printing & Binding
• Senior Thesis Deposits
• 3MT: Caltech's Three Minute Thesis Competition This link opens in a new window

Author Services and Thesis Librarian

Library Staff

Final 2025 deadlines

Please call the Graduate Office if you have any questions about these dates, or if you know you will not be able to meet theses deadlines! It is easier for them to remove you from the graduation list than to add you! They may also be able to make special accommodations, especially if your defense date is what is causing the delay.

If you are in a hurry to get your Letter of Completion from the Registrar, it is your responsibility to notify the Grad Office. The best time to do so is right after you have deposited your thesis.

• IMPORTANT:   The final corrected version of a thesis must be uploaded to CaltechTHESIS by the fifth week (~2 months) of the succeeding term if the candidate defended his or her thesis during the previous summer or the first and second terms; or two weeks before the degree is to be conferred if the candidate defended during the month of May.

(Please check official academic calendar as needed)

• Per the Graduate Office, "the defense should be scheduled (i.e., posted) in REGIS by May 16 (the last day to schedule PhD examinations) and can be taken any time up to the last day to present the final thesis (May 30) as long as the thesis is ready to submit and all committee members have signed off" .
• Last day for presenting (defending) graduate theses (PhD and EngineerD): Friday, May 30, 2025
• Deadline for depositing thesis into CaltechTHESIS is always about two weeks before commencement in order to participate in current year's ceremony:  Monday, June 2, 2025
• Last faculty meeting of the academic year: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
• Commencement: Friday, June 13, 2025
• Your official graduation year will be 2025, even if you defended in 2024 but did not graduate in June.   Please mark your thesis title page accordingly.
• Once all your PhD requirements have been met, you will be able to download a letter of completion from REGIS, which you will be able to share with any future employers.

Please note: If you are defending in April or May, expect that the Proofreader will need extra time, so adjust your timeline accordingly.

• Make sure you have taken care of all  copyright considerations  related to your thesis - GIVE YOURSELF EXTRA TIME! 
• Publishers' policies  vary on how they handle thesis copyright issues, but most no longer require embargoes of accepted versions of published or submitted papers. 
• If you are not an author/creator, you will likely need to contact the copyright owners (usually the publishers) by email.  Save the email responses for future uploads to your CaltechTHESIS record.
• Expect to turn it it in much sooner during the busy season (March-June, but especially May) if you want it back in time for your defense.
•   The electronic files of both your thesis and the Proofreader's Agreement can be sent to the  Grad Office  either via email or via the  Caltech Dropbox . The file size of your thesis is the main determining factor.
• Yes, this is required . The Grad Office hires the Proofreaders.  The Library is not involved in the proofreading of theses, and is merely providing a link to the Agreement form.
• The thesis does not have to be perfect or in its absolute final version, but it should be substantially complete for the proofreader to make useful comments.
• Receive the proofread copy of your thesis in electronic format via email or Caltech Dropbox.
• The Results of your examination should be added to REGIS.  Signatures are required each member of your committee in REGIS.
• If you have a subject minor, a faculty representative of the minor option must sign in REGIS.
• Fill out the Survey of Earned Doctorates .  A certificate of completion will be automatically sent to the Graduate Office.
• Check REGIS to make sure all your signatures have been added (advisor, committee, division chair, etc.) to your account.
• Submit BOTH THE FINAL PDF AND THE SOURCE (pre-PDF) FILES of your  thesis to CaltechTHESIS
• Log into your REGIS account to check on the status and to see if any paperwork or signatures are missing - be pro-active if anything is missing!
• Once the Grad Office has approved your thesis deposit and made sure that all requirements have been met, it will notify the Library who will then release your thesis record. 
• The Registrar will receive an automated email generated by the release of your thesis record, and they will finalize your REGIS account.  You should be able to download your Letter of Completion soon after.
• TIP:  If you are in a hurry to get your Letter of Completion from the Registrar, it is your responsibility to notify the Grad Office.  The best time to do so is right after you have deposited your thesis.

Deposit your Thesis into CaltechTHESIS

• If you have already left campus and your IMSS credentials are no longer valid, contact [email protected]  for help.
• Click Submit a Thesis to open the CaltechTHESIS record form.
• You can move from tab to tab in the form, or click the Next or Previous button.
• Any starred field is a required one.
• If you have not filled out a required field, you will get "missing information feedback" in orange.  
• Thesis Details : Do not delete or change any pre-filled fields: Collection, Record Number, Persistent URL, Institution.
• Related URLs : Add the DOIs or other links for any previously published chapters or parts of your thesis into the URL subfield.  Add descriptive phrases for the URLs in the Description subfield - EXAMPLE: "Article adapted for ch.1".
• Funders : If you have funders that need to be acknowledged, add funder names, and grant numbers if possible.
• DOI : This DOI field is where the DOI for your thesis will be located. Library staff will generate a DOI for your thesis once the Grad Office has given its final approval of the thesis. 
• Research Advisor : Add requested information in the whole line, including Role, email, and ORCID if available.
• Thesis Committee : Add ALL members of your thesis committee including your advisor. Indicate Roles, email addresses and ORCID if available.
• Pretty self-explanatory.
• Leave them all as Public even if you are requesting an embargo. If you mark them as Staff Use Only, they will disappear from your view into a dark directory. Reviewers will move the necessary files for you during the review process.
• Change the Content field for each file: Show Options/Content. Update Metadata to save.
• For source files that are Word docs with a docx extension, manually change the Format to MS Word: Show Options/Format. Scroll to MS Word and highlight. Update Metadata to save.
• Leave all your attached files as "Public". Reviewers will make all necessary status changes for you.
• TeX source files can be uploaded in a zip file.
• All source files are always permanently embargoed. They are accessible only to Library staff who may use them to recreate the PDF if it is ever corrupted.
• Briefly describe the contents of the files in the Description field (Click "Show Options" to see the field).
• Data sets can be loaded or linked to as supplementary material. We highly recommend adding your datasets to  CaltechDATA  and linking them back to your thesis record. 
• If you decide to add them to CaltechTHESIS, upload them as zipped files if they are extremely large (>100 Mb - use your judgment).
• Add short descriptive phrase for each of the supplemental files: Show Options/Description. Update Metadata to save.
• Deposit your record for review and approval.
• Click-through license gives Caltech permission to hold your thesis

After you deposit your thesis, you may wonder what's next to do on your end.

• If you are in a hurry, notify both the Library and the Grad Office of your need for expedited processing.   This is particularly helpful for them to know when it's not the usual crunch season (mid-May-early June).
• Be proactive.
• Make sure all the required signatures have been added - committee members, division chair, etc.
• Make sure all required forms have been submitted, including your Survey of Earned Doctorates (PhD only) .
• Make sure that the only things missing are the thesis approval with the Graduate Dean's signature, and the last checkmark from the Registrar.
• REGIS auto-notifies the Grad Office once you have everything else turned in.  They rarely look at students' REGIS accounts otherwise, unless there are extenuating circumstances.
• If you cannot access your REGIS account, contact the Registrar's Office for help.

Library Reviews your Submission

• are all the required fields in the CaltechTHESIS record filled in?  Is anything missing?
• Have all required files have been uploaded? Both PDF AND Source Files?
• Has an embargo request been submitted?
• The reviewer will email the student to let them know what changes are required.
• The CaltechTHESIS record is returned to the student's Manage Deposits work area for corrections.
• The student makes the corrections, and resubmits the CaltechTHESIS record for further review.
• The Library notifies the Grad Office that the student has satisfactorily submitted their thesis.
• Library staff wait for the Grad Office to notify them that thesis has received official final approval.

Library Releases your CaltechTHESIS Record

• After the Grad Office gives the official approval, library staff update the CaltechTHESIS record with the new status and approval date.
• The Registrar's Office is automatically notified that the thesis has been approved and they add the final checklist item in the student's REGIS account.  This also triggers the generation of the student's Letter of Completion.
• Library staff automatically embargo from public view all thesis for 7 days, even those marked as immediate Public View.
• If embargo request have been submitted, thesis files will be embargoed for as long as necessary - see The Thesis Embargo section for more details .
• You will receive an automated email letting you know that your thesis record has been released into the public side of CaltechTHESIS.
• It is likely that you marked the file as "Staff Use Only".  When you do that, the file is moved to an dark directory that is not visible to anyone but CaltechTHESIS library staff.
• Mark/leave all your files as status Public, including your source (pre-PDF) files.  We will change the file status as needed when we are reviewing your deposit.
• We grant an automatic 7 day full embargo to every student who deposited a thesis without requesting an embargo. This is in case either the student or the advisor has second thoughts about not having requested one. If we don't hear from either of you in those 7 days, we release the files to public view.

How to Avoid These Common Mistakes During Thesis Submission

We will likely return the submitted thesis record to you for corrections if the following common mistakes have been made:

• DO NOT CREATE a new version of the original record in CaltechTHESIS. We will have to transfer all your changes from the new to the original record, and delete the new version. This slows everything down for everyone.
• Simply make the required changes on the original record and resubmit that one.
• If you are graduating in the same calendar year that you defended, use the calendar year as your Degree Date
• If you are graduating in the following June of a different calendar year than when you defended, your Degree Date should be the following calendar year.
• Your defense date needs to be on your Title Page, under your graduation year.  Example: (Defended March 1, 2019).
• Add your ORCID iD to the title page verso, below the copyright statement.
• If you do not have an ORCID iD, either create one or remove the statement from the page.
• Include a bibliography of published articles or other material that are included as part of the thesis. Citations must include DOIs or publisher URLs if available electronically.
• Describe your role with each article and its contents.
• The Published Content and Contributions section is not meant to be a bibliography for your overall publications during your graduate career.  It is only supposed to be used for content that you have authored or co-authored that is actually included as a full or partial chapter in your thesis.  IF anything in that section is not included in your thesis, please remove it.
• If you have publication citations listed in your Publications and Contributions page, you must list the DOIs or links in the Related URLs field
• Also add the DOI links for any previously published chapters or parts of your thesis into the Related URLS field in the CaltechTHESIS record's Thesis Details area in the Description section.,/li>
• You may also use this field to provide links to related material that is not included in your thesis but might be of interest to your readers.
• Add your NON -Caltech email address in the Author's field in the Description tab.
• If you do not choose the visibility of your email address, we will change it to "No".
• If the advisor is also on the committee, his/her name must appear in both subsections.
• Advisor and committee member email addresses must appear in both subsections.
• Individuals' roles for advisor/committee section must be designated. Use the pull-down menu options.
• Email addresses must be included.
• Read the section  Thesis Dissemination Policy  carefully to see if your reasons apply.
• Read the section on "Important Information Expected by the Thesis Embargo Review Committee" to make sure you are including enough information in you Reason for an embargo.
• Library staff will add a copy of your embargo request to your CaltechTHESIS record, forward the request to the Thesis Embargo Review Committee if required, and update the information once the Committee has rendered its decision.
• You did not upload a full thesis file, even though chapter files have uploaded separately. You must provide a full thesis file.

Other Types of Mistakes That Could Affect Completion and/or Graduation

• If not redeposited, the thesis will sit in your buffer, and will not be sent to the Grad Office for final approval .
• The Library does not have access to REGIS, You must do this yourself.
• The Grad Office will wait on giving final approval of your thesis until all paperwork, forms, and signatures have been turned in.
• Check your REGIS list carefully, and have someone in the Grad Office double-check the paperwork you hand in to make sure nothing is missing.
• The Survey of Earned Doctorates is the form missed most often.  Once you have filled out and submitted the electronic form, a notice of completion will be automatically sent to the Grad Office.

Handling Special Types of Files

• Upload all your files into the Upload Files tab in your CaltechTHESIS record. 
• Click on the Show Options link in each file's box to see more functionality available to you.

Source Files:

• Library staff will move them to an internal dark directory for you. 
• If you mark the files as "'Staff Use Only", they will disappear on you because you do not have access to the internal directory.  They have not simply vanished.  Just contact us if you need them pulled back.
• In Show Options, choose Archival Material as your Content type. Add "source files" to the Description field.

Copyright Permissions Files:

• Upload either PDF or .txt files of any copyright permissions letters you've gathered for your thesis content.
• In Show Options, choose Copyright Permission as your Content type. Add descriptive information, such as the article or copyright owner information, to the Description field.

Supplemental Material Files:

• CaltechTHESIS simply does not make it easy for readers to open non-textual files.
• CaltechDATA will give you DOIs for your supplemental material, which you can then add to your CaltechTHESIS record's Related URLs field.

Partially Embargoed Thesis Files:

• See more information in the Thesis Embargo section on Partial Embargos
• If a partial embargo will do, upload both your full thesis file AND a redacted thesis file.
• The redacted thesis file can have the relevant material omitted.  On the page in the thesis where the omitted content would normally be, and add a statement to the reader saying something like "[This chapter is temporarily embargoed.]" or "[Intentionally redacted.]"
• << Previous: Deadlines and Letters of Completion
• Next: Grad Office Regulations and Required Forms >>
• Last Updated: Aug 28, 2024 9:27 AM
• URL: https://library.caltech.edu/theses

Embargo — withholding a thesis

In keeping with worldwide academic practice, the University of Waikato endorses the principle that research theses are, by their very nature, available for public inspection. In so doing, it helps to ensure that intellectual developments can be appraised, used, and built upon by all interested parties. It is usually possible to write a thesis that can be made public based on research and data that may be confidential. Candidates and their supervisors should design their research to that end.

However, the University also recognises that in unusual situations, theses contain material that, for commercial or security reasons, should be withheld from the public for a period after the thesis has been completed.

The withholding of a thesis is an injunction against the release of the thesis for public consultation in the University Library and Research Commons which is an open access digital repository.

The request to withhold a thesis may be submitted by the student (with endorsement from the Chief Supervisor) or the Chief Supervisor. The request must clearly demonstrate that the thesis contains material of such a confidential or sensitive nature that its release to the public would do one of the following:

• breach prior contractual arrangements with, or seriously damage the interests of outside organisations connected with the candidate's research, or
• endanger the confidentiality of material that might be the subject of an application for a patent, licence or registration by the candidate, the University, or other interested parties, or
• contravene legislation or threaten national security.

Approval will not normally be granted for any other reasons. Material that the candidate would not wish to be available to the public on grounds other than those above should not be included in thesis.

Application to withhold a thesis

Once the need to withhold a thesis has been identified the appropriate university staff at the School of Graduate Research and/or  Research & Enterprise Office should be contacted so that all options can be explored to minimise the extent of the restrictions on the thesis.

Candidates who wish to apply for an embargo should complete the Embargo Application form . All applications are forwarded by the School of Graduate Research to the Research & Enterprise Office for approval.

An application for withholding a thesis should normally be made when the candidate applies for registration as a higher degree student of the University. If a candidate is receiving support from a commercial or governmental establishment for whom he/she is carrying out the thesis research, then it will usually be clear at the time of registration that conditions (a) or (b) for an embargo are likely to be fulfilled when the thesis is completed.

However, there are circumstances when the confidential/sensitive nature of the thesis research does not become clear until that research is near completion. For that reason, requests for an embargo may be made up to the time of submission of the thesis for examination. Applications will not normally be accepted after the thesis has been submitted.

Length of withholding period

The normal maximum period that a thesis is withheld is two years from the date on which the hardbound thesis has been submitted for final acceptance and confirmation of the student's grade.

A one-year extension to this limit will be granted only in the most exceptional circumstances, and where the lack of an extension would cause significant hardship to the author.

Related documents

To apply for an embargo, or restriction of access to your thesis, please complete the Embargo Application form , and return to Research & Enterprise Office.

Related info

Intellectual property

Ethical approval

Ethical and legal considerations

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University Catalog 2024-2025

3.6 theses and dissertations, b. dissertations, c. company-funded research, d. submission procedures for theses and dissertations, e. publication in compliance with nondisclosure provisions.

• F.  Artificial Intelligence policy for dissertations and theses *

In degree programs requiring preparation of a thesis, master’s students must undertake an original investigation into a subject that has been approved by the student’s advisory committee. All theses must be submitted in accordance with the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Guide . Theses should be submitted to the advisory committees at least two weeks prior to the final defense.

The doctoral dissertation must present the results of the student’s original investigation in the field of primary interest. It must represent a contribution to knowledge, adequately supported by data, and be written in a manner consistent with the highest standards of scholarship. All dissertations must be submitted in accordance with the ETD Guide. Publication is expected and encouraged. Dissertations should be submitted to the advisory committees at least two weeks prior to the final defense.

For thesis or dissertation research that is funded by a company, students and their advisors must ensure that there is a clear agreement as to the ability to place the results in an ETD and, should there be proprietary information, that a mechanism be in place to ensure that the ETD remains viable. Furthermore, if a company’s requires approval of the document prior to a defense, this will require additional lead time to insure that only the appropriate information is included.

All advisory committee members must approve the thesis/dissertation prior to submission to the library for publication.

After receiving an unconditional pass on the final oral exam, the student must submit the thesis/dissertation electronically to the ETD system.

A thesis/dissertation must be submitted by the ETD deadlines as published in the Graduate School Calendar.

At the time of dissertation submission, students are also required to submit the required forms and fee as outlined on the ETD website. The Graduate School will not award the degree until these forms and fees have been submitted.

Theses and dissertations containing disclosures of patentable discoveries may be embargoed by submitting a request through the ETD system. They may be granted for up to one year. Placing an embargo on a thesis or dissertation until a patent application is filed will not prevent a student from graduating on time.

F.  Artificial Intelligence policy for dissertations and theses  *

Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT and, more generally, tools from Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) have impacted academic work by assisting in research and writing as well as by providing feedback and assessment, among other emerging applications. These tools offer promises of increased efficiency but also bring to the fore delicate questions about the very nature of our work.  The goal of this document is to propose a framework to allow our graduate students to use these tools ethically while developing their dissertations and theses. 

The debate on the use of LLMs within Academia is raging and is somewhat reminiscent of the debate on the use of calculators at school.  In fact, LLMs are sometimes described as “calculators for words”. We summarize the position of the NC State Graduate School on the matter as follows:

• Our students would benefit from receiving training on how to use GAI tools efficiently, ethically and reliably. 
• The mere use of LLMs does not constitute plagiarism; the uninformed and/or poorly documented inclusion of outputs from LLMs into dissertations and theses may constitute a form of plagiarism. 

The Graduate School follows one main guiding principle which largely matches the approach proposed in Nature and other publications, such as Science.  

Guiding principle 

• Candidates utilizing GAI tools must document their use clearly and thoroughly in their dissertation or thesis.

General guidance for graduate students and advisors 

• Graduate students should discuss general authorship principles and issues as well as acceptable use of LLMs or other GAI tools as early as practically possible with their advisor. 
• Advisors need to be direct and transparent about what tools students are permitted to use, and about the reasons for any restrictions. Additional guiding principles and approaches for the use of GAI in their specific field(s); if such principles are adopted by the program, they must be clearly communicated to the students and applied uniformly by advisory committees.
• GAI tools raise issues of privacy and intellectual property. Material submitted can become part of the application’s database, user’s information may be collected and cookies installed to track further activity.

Bias and Statistics

• LLMs are models; therefore, there are inherent biases associated with them. Users must, at a minimum, be aware of the existence of such issues. For instance, LLMs may attempt to ``average” the set of opinions they are trained on which may lead to surprising and/or unwanted results (statisticians will tell you that averages may be low probability states…). 
• The accuracy, or lack thereof, of detection tools for AI-generated texts has been studied. Due to their unreliable nature, the use of AI tools claiming to detect LLM generated text is discouraged.

Other editorial issues

• The guidelines from Nature also state that no LLM tool should be credited as co-author on a research paper. That is because any attribution of authorship carries with it accountability for the work, and AI tools cannot take such responsibility. 
• The above guiding principle does not directly address the use of GAI in generic courses. For additional guidelines, please, refer to the Navigating the Landscape of Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence page from the Office for Faculty Excellence or to Developing an AI Syllabus Statement for Your Course from Delta.   
• The use of writing assistance tools such as Grammarly is generally allowed and rarely acknowledged. Grammarly, for instance, is in fact based on GAI. If in doubt, students should contact their advisory committee and/or err on the side of caution and acknowledge use. This very document was typed using the Google Docs Editor with Smart Compose (another AI based tool) turned on and hereby acknowledged. Clearly, legislating all this to the n-th degree will not be possible because of the constant evolution of the tools available to us; good judgment from all sides is likely to be needed.      

Definitions

• Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is the broad category of AI capable of generating new data such as text, images, video, music and other forms of media.
• Large Language Models (LLM) are a subset of GAI and are designed to work with human language (language is the focus) such as ChatGPT.
• Writing Assistant Tools are designed but not limited to checking spelling and grammar, such as Grammarly.

This document has benefited from consultations with the NC State  Office for Faculty Excellence  and with the  Data Science Academy .

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Option to Embargo

As part of the graduation requirements for students completing theses, dissertations, or doctoral projects, students must submit their final approved document electronically to ProQuest and Digital Scholarship@UNLV , both digital repositories of intellectual output.

Some students may have a compelling reason to embargo their thesis or dissertation for a period of time to protect intellectual property rights or due to other publication restrictions. Common reasons for embargoes include:

• Publishing conflicts
• Patent applications
• Potential to publish in the next few years
• Monograph publication timeline
• Funding contracts

Have questions? Let us know!

Email : [email protected]

Phone : 702-895-2702

Requesting an Embargo

In order to embargo their thesis or dissertation, students must complete the Embargo Request Form, which can be found in the Grad Rebel Gateway (click Forms, then Additional Forms). Since the author owns the copyright to the document, embargoes can only be filed by the document’s author.

Embargo Length Options

Embargoes are available for one, three, five, or seven years at a time. Students can also request a permanent embargo in ProQuest, coupled with a seven-year embargo with Digital Scholarship@UNLV .

Embargoes must be renewed, a minimum of one month prior to the embargo lift date, if students would like to continue to embargo their work longer than was approved in their original request. It is the student's responsibility to monitor their embargo in ProQuest and Digital Scholarship@UNLV . Please email [email protected] for the renewal form.

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A student who seeks to embargo a thesis or dissertation should review   PROV-014: Submission of Electronic Theses & Dissertations policy and thoroughly discussed electronic submission options with their advisor and department chair before concluding that an embargo is desired.  If the group agrees an embargo is warranted, the student should send a statement to the advisor outlining a substantive rationale for the embargo and the desired end date (within five years) after which the thesis or dissertation will become publicly accessible. The advisor and department chair will review the petition and forward it to the Assistant Dean of Graduate Education with their comments.

The Dean’s office will review the petition and notify the student and department of the outcome of the petition and alert the University Library to any approved embargo period so that it can work with the student to upload the thesis or dissertation to LIBRA with the embargo in place.

Please note the following :

▪ In order to avoid delays in uploading theses and dissertations to LIBRA that will prevent them from graduating, students who are considering an embargo should discuss this option with their advisors and submit petitions  at least six weeks  in advance of the LIBRA submission deadline for the semester in which the degree will be conferred.

▪ Requests for embargos should address significant and concrete circumstances. General concerns about the prospect of publishing portions of a dissertation in journals or revising the dissertation into a scholarly monograph will typically be accommodated through the limited access option, unless the student has documented guidance from a journal or publisher that this remedy is insufficient. That information should be included in the petition. 

▪ Departments should establish a standard process for the evaluation of petitions for embargo in order to ensure consistent and equitable handling of this issue within and across cohorts. Programs with a graduate faculty governance committee, for example, might choose to route all petitions through that body. Chairs may delegate the review of petitions to DGSes, but the chair should be copied on the transmission of the petition to the Graduate School with the department’s comments.

▪ At the conclusion of an embargo period, former students may utilize the petition process described above to extend the embargo.

▪ If a former student had initially selected a period of limited access that is fewer than five years at the time the thesis or dissertation was deposited with LIBRA, that former student may contact the Library directly at  [email protected]  to extend limited access up to the maximum five-year period from the original date of submission. A former student who seeks to extend the period of limited access beyond the standard five-year maximum must pursue the petition process described above.