The School of Graduate Studies requires that all theses and dissertations be made publicly available upon degree conferral.

The School of Graduate Studies will consider requests for delay in public access to a thesis or dissertation in one-year increments if:

1. The student (which may include partnerships with advisor/collaborators) is applying for a patent on research contained in the thesis or dissertation and does not wish to make the contents public until the patent application has been filed.
2. Patentable rights in the work or other issues in which disclosure may be detrimental to the rights or interests of the author.
3. The need to prevent disclosure of any sponsor information about persons, institutions, technologies, and proprietary information that has restricted time frames.
4. The interest of an academic or commercial press in acquiring the rights to publish a thesis or dissertation as a book or composition.
5. Content that is likely to be or has already been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.

For instances in which the full text of the thesis or dissertation will be embargoed, the citation and abstract will be made available after degree conferral.

Requests must be initiated by the student and require the approval of the committee chair/co-chair prior to review and approval by the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies. When appropriate, and with proper documentation, extensions in one-year increments can be requested. A new application must be made for each request of extension.