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Research Guides

Can I make changes to my ETD's access levels?

Yes, under the following conditions. Contact rworks@uw.edu to make changes.

I want to make my ETD openly available

Great! We'll happily oblige.

I want to restrict access to my ETD

You may make changes based on the access levels and restriction lengths that were initially presented to you at the time of submission. For example:

In November 2016 a student contacts the library and requests that their Spring 2015 thesis be embargoed. In Spring 2015, the restriction options were: 1) 1-year embargo, or 2)1, 2, or 5 year restriction to the UW community. Had the student chosen 1-year embargo initially, that period would have already passed; therefore, full embargo should not be presented as an option. However, had the student chosen 2 or 5 year UW-restriction, that would still be in effect. The student may therefore choose UW-restriction up until June 2021.

I want to extend my embargo

If you are considering patenting material within the thesis or dissertation, an additional year of full embargo may be granted. Otherwise, restrictions may be extended as above.

I want to permanently embargo or restrict access to my ETD

This may only be done with explicit permission from the Grad School. This would be extremely rare, and would most likely mean that openly publishing the ETD would risk:

  • Safety of the author
  • Exposure of culturally sensitive information
  • Exposure of non-anonymized personal health information, personally identifiable information, or student records

Most likely if an ETD posed such risks, it would not in fact be appropriate to upload it through the ETD Administrator system. You will need to work with your advisor and the Graduate School to determine the best course of action.

 

Can I make changes to my ETD's content?

As a general rule, no changes may be made to the thesis or dissertation after it has been approved by the Graduate School. However, the Graduate School may make an exception. Any changes require the review and approval of the Chair (or Co-Chairs) of the committee and the Graduate School. Contact uwgrad@uw.edu to begin the review process.

Potential examples of successful change requests could include cases that involve legal or contractual issues, or if there are serious mistakes that de-legitimize the final publication.

The version you submitted is an official record of the work that was evaluated and approved for the purposes of your graduation, and it is important to preserve that record. If you find that there are small changes here or there that you would like to make, you will need to find another venue to make it available. It cannot serve as a representation of your academic thesis or dissertation.

What about the metadata?

Unless explicitly permitted by the Graduate School, only minor edits to the metadata may be made (spelling errors, etc.).

Can my ETD be hidden from search engines?

Unfortunately, no.

ResearchWorks does not have the technical capacity to hide ETDs from search engines. Similarly, we do not have the ability to hide metadata, so be sure that your abstract does not contain any sensitive information.

For embargo changes, contact rworks@uw.edu. For content changes, contact uwgrad@uw.edu.