Starting Fall 2023, TTU Graduate School Guidelines specifies the following:
TTU requires the public presentation of thesis and dissertation research and making theses and dissertations publicly available immediately after approval by the Graduate School through release into the institutional repository, ThinkTech. There may be situations for which delay of release into the institutional repository may be warranted. Such delay, or embargo, is only appropriate under limited circumstances; these include the following:
1) protection of intellectual property interests (e.g., pending invention disclosure/protection of intellectual property via patent),
2) protection of a larger body of work resulting from the disquisition (e.g., a monograph), or
3) work related to national security interests (classified status or export control of results).
In the limited cases for which embargo is warranted, it should be requested only for a finite period of time. At TTU, embargo periods for theses and dissertations are as follows:
1) one (1) year
2) three (3) years
3) six (6) years
Permanent embargo of student research/scholarly work conducted in fulfillment of a master’s or doctoral degree is not allowed. Students engaged in research/scholarly work that is classified, subject to export control restriction, conducted under a non-disclosure agreement, or of a highly-creative nature MUST have a portion of the work, in addition to the abstract, made publicly accessible. Requests for embargo must be made in consultation with and approved by the faculty research advisor. Questions about the embargo of theses and dissertations should be addressed to The Graduate School. The dean of the Graduate School will adjudicate any disputes and that decision will be final.
Authors may request an embargo / publication delay change by contacting Digital Scholarship Librarian via email.
Patrons can request the author send a copy of an embargoed title through the ThinkTech form that generates on the dissertation or thesis record.
The library can also assist in finding related publications that are accessible through the library's subscriptions and holdings. You can contact Digital Scholarship Librarian via email for specific titles.
