University of Richmond

Graduate Thesis - Electronic Guidelines

Any student submitting a master’s thesis is required to submit the thesis electronically.  This requirement is additional to the requirement for submission of paper copies.  It is not a substitute for submission of paper copies.

Students must also complete the electronic thesis agreement form and submit it along with the paper thesis to Suzanne Blyer in the Graduate School. 

Access Choices

The author of a thesis can designate one of three levels of access to his/her thesis:

1. Worldwide Distribution
The University of Richmond recommends this option. It makes the thesis freely available worldwide. This option may be viewed by some book or journal publishers as publishing the work. They may see a conflict with this level of distribution of the thesis.

2. University of Richmond Only Distribution
The second option is to make the thesis freely available only to authorized users of the University of Richmond network.  This option addresses situations such as when a book or article is planned, and the book or journal publisher is concerned that prior publishing through a digital library will negatively impact on sales. UR only distribution will continue for a period of three years after the submission date, at which time it will revert to worldwide distribution. The author of a thesis who designates UR only distribution may request that his/her thesis’s status be changed to worldwide distribution prior to the conclusion of this three-year period.

3. Restricted Access
The third option is to embargo the thesis.

  1. The student, with the written approval of his/her advisor, may select embargoed status. Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives, will, upon request, explain the significance of embargoed status. The student will indicate the initial embargo time period up to the maximum allowed. The maximum is 5 years.
  2. A student may not select embargoed status in lieu of obtaining appropriate copyright permissions, since theses are intended to be public documents.
  3. The university will determine, with guidance from the student and advisor, whether the embargo is for patent (or similar) purposes, and will so designate the thesis as "embargoed for patent/proprietary purposes." Otherwise, the thesis will be designated as "embargoed by personal request."
  4. A thesis put in embargoed status will be placed on the electronic theses server in an encrypted form with password(s) determined by Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives. The passwords will be stored in the database in a form that is accessible only to Chris Kemp.
  5. A thesis, in its entirety, will be governed by only one level of distribution at any given time. Theses may not be subdivided with sections distributed under differing levels of distribution.

Embargoed by Personal Request
For theses holding the status of "embargoed by personal request,"

  1. The student must work with Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives, to submit the thesis and obtain the "read-only" password.  The password will be given to the student for his/her use. Students will be free to share their thesis and password as they see appropriate.  The encrypted file will be made visible to users in the same manner as UR only access.
  2. The University of Richmond will provide theses "embargoed by personal request" to ProQuest Information and Learning (formerly University Microfilms International) in unencrypted form. The student is responsible for specifying the embargoed status of their document to ProQuest by submitting a cover letter with their ProQuest form.  UMI allows a document to be embargoed for a period of time set by the author.
  3. For theses "embargoed by personal request," the initial embargo period will be 3 years. Students, or their proxy, may request an extension of the status up to a maximum of 5 years within this distribution type.  Students may request removal of embargoed status at any time, or may designate a shorter initial embargo period.  When the embargo lapses, the thesis will be placed into worldwide distribution.

Embargoed for Patent/Proprietary Purposes

  1. The status of "embargoed for patent/proprietary purposes" should be only rarely used and is designed to secure the work, even disallowing access to users of the UR network. This procedure addresses situations such as when a patent application is planned or when proprietary interests are at stake.  In certain cases, the University of Richmond may have rights related to intellectual property, and therefore does not want to release the work without its (i.e., the University’s) permission. The graduate student will be asked to provide the reason this option has been selected.
  2. Theses "embargoed for patent/proprietary purposes" will be placed on the server in encrypted form, but will not be made visible. The password will not be provided to anyone.
  3. The status of "embargoed for patent/proprietary purposes" will lapse after 1 year. To extend this time period for one additional year, the student must contact Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives, to obtain the extension. When the thesis is released it will move to UR only distribution. Five years after submission the document will be moved into worldwide distribution unless an exception has been granted by Chris Kemp.

Electronic Format and Submission

Electronic theses must be in PDF format at the time they are submitted to Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives. The PDF file may be sent to Chris Kemp as a document attached to an e-mail or on CD-ROM or some other portable digital medium approved by Chris Kemp.

Conversion of Microsoft Word Documents to PDF
A number of computer labs across campus, including the Technology Learning Center (TLC) in Boatwright Memorial Library, have the software needed to convert Microsoft Word files to Adobe PDF files.  Staff in the TLC can provide training to students on the file conversion process.

Intellectual Property Rights Management

Authors of theses may copyright their work. The Graduate School's paper thesis guidelines include a section on copyright.  Authors may also apply a Creative Commons license to their thesis. “Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators…[They are] built upon the ‘all rights reserved’ concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary ‘some rights reserved’ approach.’"  Chris Kemp, head of digital initiatives, can help students with a Creative Commons license.