Publishing Your Disquisition
You should be aware of the benefits of publishing your disquisition. For example, as a land-grant institution, North Dakota State University’s tradition and mission includes sharing research with others. By publishing your disquisition once it’s approved, you establish your copyright ownership of the work. When others cite your disquisition, it can be beneficial to you, and making your work available to others can promote contact with other researchers within and across disciplines.
All NDSU disquisitions are expected to be made available to the public shortly after they are approved by the Graduate School.
Delaying the Release of or Embargoing Your Disquisition
For a number of reasons, you may wish to delay the release of his or her disquisition. These reasons may include:
- Patent application review or the protection of proprietary material
- Sensitive information provided by a data source
- Academic or commercial publication
NDSU allows for a delayed release period of six months, one year, or two years. This period will begin on the final day of the semester in which you graduate, and will extend for the period requested. During this time, the disquisition will not be available to the public (including employers and other researchers) for the time requested. If you delay the release of your doctoral dissertation, your dissertation video will also be embargoed. Also, if any printed copies are ordered through ProQuest, they will not be delivered until the end of the requested time period.
To request a delayed release of your disquisition, complete and submit the Delayed Release Form to the Graduate School. Please note that the completed form must be approved and signed by your adviser, your department chair or program director, and the graduate dean. While obtaining these signatures, consult with your adviser and your department to make sure a delayed release is necessary.
To request an extension to an approved delayed release, you must contact the Graduate School directly and fill out the Delayed Release Extension Form. Any additional extensions to the time period requested in the initial delayed release may only be approved by the dean of the Graduate School. You will not be contacted regarding the expiration of your delayed release, and you are solely responsible for requesting any extensions to an approved delayed release.
Further Resources
In a major study published in July 2013, based on a 2011 survey, only 7 percent of scholarly presses would refuse to consider a book manuscript because a dissertation was available in a digital repository.
However — again reinforcing the need for discipline-specific guidance for students making decisions about sharing their work — publishers in some specific fields indicated they would never consider a book manuscript based on a publicly available dissertation.
The study found a strong correlation between the size of the university press and its willingness to consider manuscripts on a case-by-case basis, with larger presses indicating they would always review such proposals. In general, university press comments in this study, like those elsewhere, emphasize the fact that the book manuscript is always revised in response to editorial guidance.
- Harvard University Press has argued for the positive role of digital dissemination in allowing the press to discover worthy manuscripts.
The information provided in this section is from the memorandum “Advising doctoral candidates on dissertation embargoes and eScholarship repository,” by Joyce, R.A., 2013. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley Graduate Division, Office of the Dean. Copyright 2013 by University of California, Berkeley Graduate Division, Office of the Dean.