In late spring 2016, UC Provost Aimee Dorr asked that a Systemwide Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Policy Task Force be convened to develop a systemwide policy on archiving and public access to electronic theses and dissertations produced by UC graduate students.
To date, there has been no systemwide policy and campuses have had an array of practices in place, from having a detailed policy on the subject to having no specific guidance or practices.
Following the UC Senate and the UC Presidential policies on Open Access, covering all UC faculty and staff (but not graduate students), the proposed policy now extends UC open access policy systemwide to graduate theses and dissertations.
The Office of the President invites comments on a proposed Presidential Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations.
The proposed new policy is available online and addresses the following key issues:
- There is currently no systemwide uniformity or policy for ensuring open access to UC graduate students’ theses and dissertations. This policy will provide systemwide consistency for these works.
- Allowance for embargoes that delay the date theses or dissertations are made available in an open access repository.
Those who wish to provide comments on the proposed policy may submit them to the UC Santa Cruz Policy Coordination Office at pco@ucsc.edu by close of business February 23, 2018.
