Third party discovery and access of your dissertation or thesis

ProQuest's comprehensive scholarly publishing service continues to evolve to meet the fast-changing needs of students publishing their dissertation or thesis.

Discovery through Search Engines

Graduate works published through ProQuest are made available to search engines to be indexed and appear in search results. Searches will retrieve basic metadata for each dissertation or thesis (title, author, abstract, keywords, etc), and provide links to ProQuest for purchase or access. Searches will also retrieve a preview of the graduate work's full text in Google Books.

These dissemination avenues broaden author exposure beyond the traditional research community. Most scholars benefit from increased exposure to their published work, so the ubiquity of search engines should benefit most graduate students.

Learn more about discovery of your dissertation or thesis through search engines.

Third-Party Retailer Option

The third-party retailer option has been removed from the ETD Administrator electronic submission sites and our paper publishing agreements. While we make this transition, we will continue to wind down pre-existing third-party retailer agreements with authors and institutions.

For Frequently Asked Questions, please visit: http://support.proquest.com/ click on the FAQ tab, and see the Dissertations section on the right side of the page.

Author controlled access

While some authors prefer the widest possible access of their dissertation or thesis, others are just as willing to limit publication due to "prior publication" concerns, especially if their plans include submission to scholarly journals at a future date. ProQuest has developed a number of mechanisms to assist in alleviating these concerns. For example, an author may choose to have a distribution restriction on the release of copies of their manuscript but nonetheless allow ProQuest to preserve their manuscript in microfilm and electronic form and to further include the citation and abstract information in ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. The release restriction may allow for distribution of the manuscript only after a designated period of time (an embargo) or may be in place indefinitely until the author rescinds the restriction (full restriction). If the concern arises after submission of the dissertation or thesis to ProQuest, the company is able to apply these types of restrictions prospectively upon request of the author.

If you have any questions about the publication of your dissertation or thesis, contact our Author and School Relations team directly at 1.800.521.0600 ext. 77020 or via email at disspub@proquest.com