ETD Embargos: Are There Discipline-Based Differences in Candidates' Selections?

Abstract

It is frequently assumed that graduate students seeking to embargo their Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) are either scientists/engineers planning to patent their discoveries or liberal arts majors planning to publish their manuscripts in book form. A study has been undertaken to discover if the data available on embargo selection by degree candidates at a research university supports that assumption. Since embargo restricts access to valuable research, it is important that we have a better understanding of how it is being applied.

This poster compares selection of embargos by students in five divisions of the university—the colleges of agriculture, engineering, science and mathematics, liberal arts, and education. Embargo selection data will be compared for the academic years of 2009/2010 through 2014/2015.

Students submitting ETDs to the university repository have three embargo options: (1) no restriction, (2) access provided only to users with university credentials, and (3) global embargo. Previous research has shown the overall use of both option (2) and option (3) at this university has increased every year from 2009 through 2014. This study will show whether this trend has continued into 2015 and if the same trend is observed for all five colleges or if there are discipline-based differences.