Theses & Dissertations in OpenKnowledge@NAU

Open access (OA) is when a book, article, theses, dissertation becomes “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.”  Making publications open access ensures the widest distribution of knowledge on a global scale, and thus increases the chances that research will be used and cited (compared to research only available through a purchase or subscription). ProQuest charges $95 to make theses & dissertations OA, while OpenKnowledge@NAU does not charge a fee.

Not really, both ProQuest and OpenKnowledge@NAU make your work freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection.  Both systems make items discoverable through search engine indexing. Paying to make your thesis or dissertation OA in ProQuest would be redundant.

Yes. Most students will want to make their theses or dissertations accessible to others as soon as possible to promote the use of their research, but there are some who will want to delay publication. This is known as an embargo period.  Students may choose this option for several reasons including:

• allowing time to explore publishing part of the thesis/dissertation in other forms, such as journal articles or a book;
• the thesis/dissertation contains material for which a patent might be sought;
• the thesis/dissertation contains sensitive or confidential information.

If you are thinking of using your thesis or dissertation for publishing or for a patent, keep in mind a general timeframe for how long these processes take when choosing your embargo period.  Embargoes can be placed within both the ProQuest system and OpenKnowledge@NAU.  Your advisor can assist you with making an embargo decision.

You can extend an embargo period in either system by contacting OpenKnowledge@nau.edu and/or ProQuest, disspub@proquest.com. By default, the embargo you select in your initial submission to ProQuest will be honored in OpenKnowledge@NAU any changes made after submission will need to be sent to both OpenKnowledge@NAU & ProQuest.

During the embargo period, OpenKnowledge@NAU will contain a record of the work (title, author, abstract), but the full-text will not be accessible.

OpenKnowledge@NAU allows you to choose a CC license for your electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD), which designates how users can cite, copy, and further disseminate your work.  There are a number of different CC licenses available.  If you would like to include a CC license on your OpenKnowledge@NAU deposit or get more information about CC licenses, e-mail OpenKnowledge@nau.edu or contact Brittany Blanchard, Research Programs Librarian, Brittany.Blanchard@nau.edu.

Yes, in general.  Publisher policies vary by discipline, but two surveys of publishers in the sciences and the humanities and social sciences were open to article submissions based on open access theses and dissertations, or would consider them if the submission was “substantially different” from the thesis dissertation. A similar proportion of university presses surveyed would consider publishing a book based on a thesis or dissertation.   Other disciplines view open access ETDs differently, such as the American Historical Association, which encourages students to choose an OA embargo period.

These policies vary by discipline and you may want to ask your advisor for guidance.

Typically, when this happens it is usually for one of two reasons:

• the author submitted the changes to ProQuest but did not request that those changes be made in OpenKnowledge@NAU. Any changes made after submission will need to be sent to both OpenKnowledge@NAU & ProQuest.
• the request was made on a weekend or holiday. Those requests will typically be honored once staff return during the workweek.

For more information or to request a change please contact us.