Requests for Delayed Publishing/Embargo
THIS IS IMPORTANT AND TIME SENSITIVE. Occasionally there are special circumstances in which a student does not want all or part of the dissertation to be published. Such circumstances may involve disclosure of patent rights, disclosures of facts about persons or institutions that violate professional ethics regarding protection of confidentiality, or other circumstances that would be detrimental to the rights of the author. In such cases, the Graduate Division Dean's Office may permit the entire thesis, dissertation, manuscript, or an appendix to be held for a specified period of time — usually not longer than one year. The Graduate Division Dean's Office does not automatically approve embargoes strictly for the purpose of providing additional time to prepare published works.
All requests for a publishing embargo must contain the embargo duration (min 6 months; max 1 year) and reason, and must be formally made to the Graduate Division Dean's Office, submitted in the form of a letter (on letterhead) sent from your graduate adviser, PI, or the chair of your thesis, dissertation, or manuscript committee. The letter should be sent as an email attachment. Unless there are extreme circumstances, the maximum length of the embargo request should not exceed one year. All requests for embargoes require time for review and add time to the dissertation filing process.
Requests should be emailed from the appropriate person (NOT from the student) to [email protected] at least 10 business days before the manuscript deadline. Failure to submit your request well in advance may result in a requirement to re-register in the following term.
Publishing in a peer reviewed journal or other publication? See additional guidance on our FAQ page.
Copyright
- To retain the exclusive right to reproduce, publish, or sell your work you must copyright the material. To copyright your work, you must include in your manuscript a copyright page, which directly follows the title page.
- To protect your rights in a dispute or to be compensated for damages caused by infringement, you should register your copyright with the Library of Congress. Students may designate ProQuest to act as their agent in registering the copyright, which can be done during the submission process. ProQuest will file the appropriate forms, submit the fee, and provide a copy to the Library of Congress. You may also register the copyright yourself by paying the registration fee and following the directions provided by the Library of Congress.
Using Previously Published Materials
- With the approval of the thesis, dissertation, or manuscript committee and your graduate program, published materials may be accepted as part of the master's thesis or doctoral dissertation when:
a. The publication(s) represents research or scholarship comparable in scope and contribution to the portion of the standard thesis or dissertation it replaces.
b. The published material is substantially the product of the student's period of study at UCSF and was primarily conducted and written by the student. - An introduction showing the historical development, methods used, and result is required. This may be summarized if already part of the published material. The usual preliminary pages are required for a thesis, dissertation, or manuscript that includes previously published material. The Acknowledgment of Previously Published Materials page of your preliminary pages should include a reference to the publication in which the material originally appeared. The published material and preliminary pages must meet all other formatting requirements for the thesis, dissertation, or manuscript.
- If several papers from the thesis, dissertation, or manuscript have been published they may be used as individual chapters. Conventional thesis, dissertation, or manuscript chapters may be combined with published papers in the thesis, dissertation, or manuscript. Theses, dissertations, or manuscripts at press should be treated as published papers.
- If the published material lists a co-author, and the co-author is the person who directed and supervised the research, then only the student's name is listed as the author in the preliminary pages. However, the acknowledgment page should state: “The text of this thesis/dissertation/manuscript is a reprint of the material as it appears in ______________ (name of publication). The co-author listed in this publication directed and supervised the research that forms the basis for the dissertation/thesis.”
- If the published material lists co-authors other than the research adviser, a statement from the research adviser clarifying what work the student completed should be included in the acknowledgment page. This statement should also explain how the work is comparable to a standard thesis or dissertation.
Continue to Steps to completing dissertation or thesis and related requirements for approval.
Return to Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines main page.
