If you are a doctoral candidate at the University
of Chicago, you will use the ProQuest ETD
Administrator to submit your dissertation.
As you move through the submission process,
you will be asked how you would like your
work published.
This tutorial includes a brief overview of
your publication options and recommendations
from the Dissertation Office.
In the ProQuest ETD Administrator, you will
have to make decisions regarding Traditional
or Open Access publishing with ProQuest, Search
engine access, Embargoes, Inclusion in the
Institutional Repository, And Creative Commons
Licensing
As a condition for receipt of the doctorate,
you are required to give ProQuest non-exclusive
rights to reproduce and distribute your dissertation.
This means your dissertation must be available
in ProQuest’s subscription database, ProQuest
Dissertations & Theses Global.
However, you retain copyright and may publish
your material elsewhere as well.
Choosing the traditional ProQuest publishing
option is free to you and allows you to receive
royalties.
ProQuest’s Open Access option costs 95 dollars,
and you are not eligible to receive royalties
if your dissertation is purchased from ProQuest.
Allowing search engines to index your dissertation
permits major search engines such as Google,
Yahoo, and Bing to provide links to your dissertation
in ProQuest for purchase or access.
Additionally, 20% of your dissertation will
be available in Google Books.
Embargoing your work delays your dissertation’s
release.
Choosing to embargo means that ProQuest makes
only your work’s citation and abstract available
for a period of time.
Talk to faculty in your field and research
collaborators to decide if your work’s release
should be delayed.
Reasons for an embargo include concerns that
making your work available could endanger
research subjects or yourself, a pending patent,
or publication of a revised dissertation when
an embargo is required by the publisher.
Including your work in the University’s
Institutional Repository is free to you.
Material in the repository is openly accessible,
freely searchable, and safely preserved.
This means that your work will have increased
visibility, usage, and impact.
Your dissertation will be safely preserved
with a digital object identifier or DOI, which
is a permanent hyperlink.
Creative Commons is a way of letting others
know how they can use your dissertation.
By adding a Creative Commons license, you
are indicating other scholars may distribute
or build on your work, as long as they cite
you.
The Dissertation Office recommends that you
choose ProQuest’s Traditional Publishing
and include your work in the University’s
Institutional Repository if you are interested
in open access.
Search engine access, embargoes, and Creative
Commons options are more likely to vary from
dissertation to dissertation.
If you have questions about your publishing
options or your rights as an author, or if
you are struggling to make a publication decision,
please contact the Dissertation Office.
