The new policy for the Publication, Access, and Embargoing of Doctoral Dissertations, which was approved on May 14, 2012, is now in full effect.

The new policy enables each graduate student to request a two-year embargo on his or her dissertation, with the potential for renewal. When approved, the embargo applies to the dissertation’s availability in ProQuest, as well as in Princeton’s digital repository, DataSpace. If not embargoed, dissertations are made available in full-text to subscribing institutions via ProQuest, and in full-text on the Internet through DataSpace.

Individuals who submitted their dissertations between August 29, 2011 and June 19, 2012 had an opportunity to request an embargo retroactively. They were contacted by email on June 19, 2012 (and again on September 7, 2012) and given until October 15, 2012 to request approval for their embargo. The dissertations that were not embargoed during this period were released to universal accessibility via DataSpace on November 5, 2012.*

The process of gaining approval for an embargo is governed by the Graduate School. Students who wish to embargo their dissertation should fill out the Dissertation Embargo Request and Approval Form, obtain an approval signature from their advisor or a committee member, and submit the form as part of the Advanced Degree Application Process. Written confirmation of the embargo approval from the Graduate School must be presented in hard copy at the time of submission to the Mudd Manuscript Library.

Details about submitting your dissertation to the Mudd Manuscript Library are here: http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/thesis/index.shtml

*As an interim measure while the new policy was being developed, on March 23, 2012, all dissertations that had been deposited in DataSpace in the fall of 2011 were restricted to the Princeton network. Those submitted in the spring of 2012 were also limited to the Princeton network. All dissertations from August 29, 2011 and forward that were not embargoed were released universally via DataSpace on November 5, 2012.