As a public institution PSU has an obligation to make our graduates' research available to the larger community. After graduation your ETD will be made publicly available via two sources, ProQuest and the PSU Library. At the same time, we want to balance this responsibility to provide broad access with the best interests of our students, therefore embargo (delayed release) options are available for those students who would benefit from not having their ETDs made immediately available (for example while publications or patent applications are pending).
Open Access
Open access means making your ETD freely available online. It can be a tremendous benefit to you as a scholar as it makes your research more visible and increases the citation and impact of your work. While your ETD will be included in the ProQuest database, you may (for a fee) allow it to be open access there. Your ETD will also be included in the PSU Library PDXScholar repository in which there is no charge for your ETD to be open access. If you had certain types of state or federal funding, you may be required to select open access from ProQuest. If you have questions about this requirement consult the PI on the grant.
ProQuest Access
University Microfilms International (UMI) was founded in 1938 and originally microfilmed all dissertations in the U.S. for the Library of Congress. UMI is now ProQuest. They provide electronic access to full-text theses and dissertations. With more than 2 million entries, the ProQuest database is the most comprehensive collection of theses and dissertations in the world.
With ProQuest, you have a choice between Traditional and Open Access Service.
- Traditional Publishing is the standard model of the publishing industry. ProQuest makes physical copies of your thesis/dissertation available for sale; royalties are paid to you the author if sales exceed a specific threshold in a year. In addition to works for sale, the full text of your ETD will be available via the Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database that is available on a subscription basis to academic libraries; only individuals with borrowing privileges at such a library will have access to your ETD.
- Open Access Service allows the full text of your ETD to be freely accessed and downloaded, even for those who do not have borrowing privileges at an academic library. There is a $95 fee for Open Access Service through ProQuest (since there are no royalties paid to you or ProQuest, the fee is to offset ProQuest's administrative costs for providing open access).
You can embargo your ETD for six months, one year, or two years through ProQuest. A two-year embargo requires advance permission from the Graduate School.
Via ProQuest you can also specify whether or not you want major search engines to discover your work. (Even if you select "no" your work will still be discoverable online via PDX Scholar.)
PSU Library/PDXScholar Access
PDXScholar is the tool the PSU Library uses to make ETDs and other electronic materials available to the public. The full text of all ETDs are made available on an open access basis via PDXScholar (PSU does not have an equivalent to ProQuest's Traditional Publishing). There is no fee for open access in PDXScholar.
You can embargo your ETD for one or two years through PDXScholar. A two-year embargo requires advance permission from the Graduate School.
Campus Restriction is an additional option through PDXScholar that limits access to members of the PSU community; the ETD can only be accessed via an ODIN login. Campus restriction is not a one- or two-year option; it is permanent. This option was specifically designed for Creative Writing students due to the uniqueness of both their discipline and their publishing industry. Campus Restriction requires advance permission from the Graduate School.
The ProQuest and PDXScholar options operate independently of each other. For example, you can request an embargo through ProQuest but not the PSU Library. This example (and others) may not make much sense, but it is important to understand the different levels of access that are possible and the different decisions you have to make about your ETD. If you have questions about your access and embargoes options, contact the Graduate School.