ETD Administrator- Electronic Submissions

ETD Administrator will provide both standard Resources & Guidelines for each student submitting a dissertation or thesis.  These may be added to with locally important information when the local ETD Administrator access is enabled.  Among those items that will be available for student reference are the following:

• Formatting Guidelines & Authoring Tools -- proper formatting for all submitted materials
• Intellectual Property & Publishing Agreements, Guides & Policies -- copyright options and Creative Commons (optionally available)
• Publishing Guides -- Supplemental files to be included; proper subject categories; Open Access or Traditional Publishing; delayed release; third party discovery and access to dissertations or theses.

Publishing options are clearly outlined and in detail, providing links to important external information as well as details of the costs of each option and the potential benefits or limitations.  Publication delay options are also provided.  

The two main publishing options include:

• Traditional Publishing -- This option makes a dissertation or thesis available through the international community of subscribers to ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, and it provides for the sale and receipt of royalties, provided the author maintains a current mailing address with ProQuest.  There is no cost for Traditional Publishing, and work will be available through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, Turnitin and similar services, including Dissertation Express.  A citation/abstract may appear in Google Scholar, as well as other indexes such as MLA, MathSciNet, PsycInfo, and others.
• Open Access Service -- This option provides the broadest possible dissemination of an author's work, with free global access to the electronic copy via the Internet.  This publishing option does not provide royalties.  To use Open Access Service, there is a fee of $95.  Some institutions may choose to purchase this on an author's behalf.  If so, arrangements may be made directly with ProQuest by contacting Author and School Relations.  Otherwise, the author will pay this fee.  Work will be available through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, Turnitin and similar services, including Dissertation Express.  A citation/abstract may appear in Google Scholar, as well as other indexes such as MLA, MathSciNet, PsycInfo, and others.  Work will also be available freely and in its entirety through open web entry to the ProQuest platform.  Open Access Service is not required -- it is provided as an option.

If an author requires delayed release (or embargo), it is available.  A citation and abstract will be available in ProQuest during the embargo period, and if requested, in an institutional repository.

Specific options are provided for sites with an Institutional Repository (IR).  The author submitting may select from the appropriate options:

• I want my work included in my school's Institutional Repository (IR) -- Yes or No.
• I want my work immediately available in my school's Institutional Repository (IR) -- Yes or No.
  • If "No", then options to delay availability are provided for
    • 6 months
    • 1 year
    • 2 years
    • 4 years
  • Notes to an administrator providing further explanation may be provided.
  • A reason for the delay of availability is required.
• Author may choose access options for their Institutional Repository (IR):
  • Open Access
  • Campus Use Only

For U.S. institutions choosing to make the offer available, choices may be provided to students for Creative Commons (CC) License.  These licenses are independent of ProQuest's agreement, so this is provided as a service, when offered, at the university's request.  Options provided to authors include:

• No thank you -- Not interested in participating
• Attribution -- CC BY
• Attribution-NoDerivs -- CC BY-ND
• Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike -- CC BY-NC-SA
• Attribution-ShareAlike -- CC BY-SA
• Attribution-NonCommercial -- CC-BY-NC
• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs -- CC BY-NC-ND 

Creative Commons (CC) is a way of letting others know how they can use an author's work. For instance, an author can indicate if others may distribute or build on their work as long as they credit the author. There is no registration to use a CC license, or any cost. The author simply selects one of the Creative Commons (CC) licenses and marks their work in some way to indicate which license applies. 

More may be learned about Creative Commons at their website:

Submissions in the United States will provide an optional service for ProQuest to file for U.S. Copyright protection with the U.S. Copyright Office, upon an author's dissertation or thesis approval and delivery.  This service is not required, as authors may choose to do this on their own.

Copyright protection assures that rights are secured to the fullest extent allowable under United States law.  Once registered for copyright, an author's dissertation or thesis becomes eligible for statutory damages and recovery of attorney fees should the copyright be violated.  A work must be registered as a requirement in order to sue for copyright infringement, and authors may claim statutory damages and attorney's fees only for infringements that occur after a work is registered.  Statutory damages are set out in Title 17, Section 504 of the U.S. Code, and range from $750-$150,000 USD per infringement.  Infringements occurring prior to copyright registration are only eligible to recover actual damages with no recovery of attorney's fees.

If an author chooses to have ProQuest register for copyright, ProQuest will do the following:

• Prepare an application in the author's name.
• Submit the author's application fee.
• Deposit the required copy or copies of the manuscript.
• Triage any issues that arise with filing.
• Mail the author the completed certificate of registration from the Library of Congress.

If choosing to have ProQuest file, an author must read, understand, and agree to the following:

• I will pay a fee of $75.00 (U.S. dollars) to ProQuest for filing on my behalf with the U.S. Copyright Office.
• I am the sole author or the dissertation or thesis I submitted to ProQuest.
• I do not acknowledge any co-authors or co-claimants of my work.