Helpful Resources
Embargo Options
Dissertations are available through three primary venues: ProQuest, ScholarlyCommons. Students may apply for a delay in publication/embargo in ProQuest and in ScholarlyCommons.
ProQuest
ProQuest is a third-party, commercial resource that provides full-text access to electronic dissertations to Penn faculty, students, staff, and anyone else with a ProQuest institutional subscription. Members of the public may view the first 24 pages of a dissertation before being prompted to purchase a copy of the dissertation.
ProQuest offers the following embargo options: 6 months, 1 year or 2 years, with the option to extend indefinitely.
ScholarlyCommons
ScholarlyCommons is the University of Pennsylvania’s open access institutional repository for gathering, indexing, storing, and making widely available to the public the scholarly output of the Penn community. Since December 2015, Penn has required open access publication of dissertations in ScholarlyCommons. Full-text access to electronic dissertations is available to all members of the public (except dissertations that are embargoed). For more information about ScholarlyCommons, visit http://guides.library.upenn.edu/scholarlycommons/.
ScholarlyCommons offers the following embargo options: 3 years only, with the option to extend to a total of 9 years from the date of graduation.
Full-text dissertations available in ScholarlyCommons can be seen by anyone in the world, whereas the full-text of dissertations in ProQuest are only available to those with an institutional subscription. Dissertations prior to 2015 can be added at the request of the author by contacting grad-degree@provost.upenn.edu.
Note that dissertations may have two records in ScholarlyCommons: one in Publicly Available Penn Dissertations and one in Dissertations Available From ProQuest.
How to Request an Initial Embargo
Enter embargo preferences, if any, when submitting the dissertation using ETD Administrator. Students’ first embargo requests are granted automatically.
ProQuest
The PQ Publishing Options tab in ETD Administrator requires you to indicate your selections for ProQuest publishing. You must choose whether you wish to publish on ProQuest immediately or delay the publication of your dissertation for 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years.
ScholarlyCommons
The IR Publishing Options tab in ETD Administrator requires you to indicate your selections for publishing in Penn’s Institutional Repository. You must choose whether you wish to publish on ScholarlyCommons immediately or delay the publication of your dissertation for 3 years.
How to Request an Embargo Extension
ProQuest
ProQuest Embargo Extensions must be requested by the dissertation author directly from ProQuest at disspub@proquest.com. The University does not process ProQuest embargo extensions.
ScholarlyCommons
- A request for an additional three-year delay (beyond the first three-year embargo) in ScholarlyCommons requires approval by the Graduate Group Chair. Complete and submit the Embargo Extention Request Form.
- The completed Embargo Extension Request Form must be submitted one month before the end of the initial embargo to grad-degree@provost.upenn.edu.
- In the event that a further delay (beyond six years) in ScholarlyCommons is needed, a graduate may petition their school’s Graduate Dean for an extension.