This post was updated on April 23, 2014

This fall, the first set of dissertation embargoes that were instituted under the Graduate School’s revised policy on Publication, Access, and Embargoing of Doctoral Dissertations will expire. This embargo policy only applies to dissertations submitted on or after August 29, 2011.

Those who wish to request a renewal of an existing embargo must email the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Cole Crittenden, in the Graduate School and provide the reason for the extension. While embargoes may be extended with the request of the student and the approval of the Graduate School, they can never be re-instituted after having expired.

Embargoes automatically expire two years from the date on which the Ph.D. was awarded (degrees are awarded five times per year at Board of Trustee meetings); this date will coincide with the degree date (month and year) on the title page of your dissertation.

An embargo renewal must be requested in writing at least one month before the original embargo has expired, but may not be requested more than three months prior to the embargo expiration date.

Graduates are responsible for keeping track of when their embargoes expire. One can find out exactly when an embargo will expire by checking the dissertation’s record in DataSpace. First, search for the dissertation by the author’s name or its title, click the button at the bottom of the item record that says “show full item record,” and view the date in the “pu.embargo.lift” field. This is the date that the embargo will automatically expire.

The Graduate School will inform the Mudd Library of all embargo extensions and Mudd Library staff will apply the extensions in ProQuest and in DataSpace.

This information can also be found on our dissertations webpage under “Embargoes.”