Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Submissions

Select Publishing Options

UMass Lowell-ProQuest/UMI offers three levels of electronic publication; graduate students submitting their ETD should choose the level which fits their situation:

1. Open Access $ 95: The first option makes the information freely available worldwide on the Internet (via ProQuest). 

2. Traditional Publishing $0: This second option means that interested parties must buy the dissertation through ProQuest and enables you to receive royalties based on those purchases.

3. Embargoed: The third option is to embargo the thesis or dissertation for some period of time, usually no longer than 2 years. The university will determine, with guidance from the student and advisor, whether the embargo is for patent (or similar) purposes, and will so designate the ETD as “embargoed for patent/proprietary purposes.”

To embargo a thesis/dissertation, you must have the prior written approval of your graduate program director and the Dean of Graduate Studies. Please note that embargoes ARE NOT used to indicate that you are submitting a draft at time of upload.

EXAMPLES OF ETD

This step-by-step guide includes examples that provide a preview of what you see when you actually submit your document through the ETD portal.

Select the publishing options below that best fit your interests and scholarly publishing obligations. Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

Consult the Publishing Guides for additional information.

Select Type of Publishing *

Traditional Publishing View agreement

• I want to make my work widely available and I want to be eligible to receive royalties on the sale of my work.
• I understand that I must maintain a current mailing address with ProQuest in order to be eligible to receive royalties.
• I understand that ProQuest does not charge a fee for Traditional Publishing.
• I understand that my work will be available through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, iParadigms and Dissertation Express, and that a citation/abstract may appear in some indexes (e.g. SciFinder, MathSciNet, PsycINFO, etc.).

Open Access Publishing PLUS View agreement

I want the broadest possible dissemination of my work, and I want to provide free global access to the electronic copy of my work via the internet.
I understand that I will not be eligible to receive royalties.
I understand that the ProQuest fee for Open Access Publishing PLUS is $95.00 USD.
I understand that I will pay the fee.
I understand that my work will be available through ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, iParadigms and Dissertation Express, and that a citation/abstract may appear in some indexes (e.g. SciFinder, MathSciNet, PsycINFO, etc.).

Select Publishing Options*

I want major search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo) to discover my work through ProQuest.  * Learn more 

• Yes
• No

Access options (e.g., delaying the release of your work)

If you choose to delay the release of your work, access to the full text of your work will be delayed for the period of time that you specify. The citation and abstract of your work will be available through ProQuest and may be available through your institutional repository.

Note: Most institutions have delayed release (or embargo) policies. Please consult your advisor for more information.

Delaying release in ProQuest

I want my work to be available in ProQuest as soon as it is published.* 

• Yes
• No - I have patents pending, or another reason why I need to delay access to the full text of my work.

Traditional Publishing Agreement

This Agreement is between the author (Author) and ProQuest LLC, through its ProQuest® Dissertation Publishing business (ProQuest). Under this Agreement, Author grants ProQuest certain rights to preserve, archive and publish the dissertation or thesis, abstract, and index terms (the Work) provided by Author to ProQuest.

You will be asked to AGREE to the terms.

Acknowledgement:  I have read, understand and agree to this ProQuest Agreement, including all rights and restrictions included within the publishing option that I have chosen.

FULL AGREEMENT