Tilting at Windmills: Creating an Embargo Policy Disclaimer | The information contained herein is accurate to the best of the Graduate School’s knowledge, as of September Renee E. Babcock, Ph.D.

Background

1.11,000 graduate students* fields of study doctoral degrees and 3000 master’s degrees awarded annually. *Does not include Law school or MBA.

1.2002: First electronic dissertations electronic dissertations sent to UMI/Proquest 3.Spring 2009: pilot project transitioning to Texas Digital Library 4.Spring 2010: all dissertations required to be submitted to TDL.

1.Fall 2010: all master’s students required to submit theses/reports to TDL. a.MFA creative writing students allowed to submit bound hard copies 2.All ETDs published Open Access. 3.Doctoral students may also opt to publish their ETD with Proquest a)Traditional option only b)Even if restricted publication chosen through Proquest, UT will still publish the dissertation Open Access 4.More information at

Number TDL ETD submissions * Fall 2010 all master’s and doctoral students required to submit ETD to TDL FallSpringSummerTotal *

Embargo Policy

Wait, don’t publish your ETD yet!

: 1 year, no extensions a.Overriding concern of making our scholarship publicly available : students more concerned about open access a.Likely driven by reduced time to publication with switch to TDL 3.We thought we were working toward the same goals, but we weren’t Embargo policy

1.Policy fine tuned in a.Meant to address needs of student and needs of institution. b.1 year automatic, upon written request of supervisor. Possible to request extension. 2.Not meant to allow student extra time to change file. We do not allow any content changes, will not redact portions of file. 3.Not meeting the needs of one small but important group: MFA writing Embargo policy, cont.

Creative writing 1.MFA creative writing students exempt from the electronic submission requirement a.Allowed to submit 2 bound copies, 25% cotton paper b.After degree conferred, we had to transfer both copies to the library to be cataloged and shelved 2.Workflow issues 3.Creative writing students publish their theses with few if any changes. Open access to thesis could impact ability to publish their work.

Creative writing, cont. 1.Met with Michener Center for Writers (MCW) and Department of English faculty advisors and program directors. Promised them open-ended embargoes on MFA theses. 2.April 2013 met with 4 MCW students. a.Prior to this meeting we would talk to students individually to encourage uploading thesis. 3.May 2012: 1 MFA student submitted thesis to TDL. 4.May 2013: 18 MFA creative writing students submitted thesis to TDL. 1 submitted bound copies. 5.May creative writing students submitted their theses to TDL.

Number embargo requests FallSpringSummerTotal% of submissions % % % *25615% % *AHA statement released July exception granted to Creative Writing students for open-ended embargo 1.No permanent embargoes. + 2.Currently 368 files embargoed. a)284 (77.17%) 1 yr or less b)84 (22.82%) submitted more than 1 year ago c)24 (6.5%) submitted more than 2 years ago d)39 (10.59%) open ended embargo (MFA writing)

July 2013: Don Quixote encounters some windmills 1.July 2013 AHA releases recommendation on embargoing history dissertations.July 2013 AHA releases recommendation on embargoing history dissertations. 2.Confusion among our students. 3.Relationships among some faculty with OGS adversarial. 4.Many on campus felt this was a turning point.

Number embargo requests FallSpringSummerTotal% of submissions % % % % % Number embargo requests after AHA statement August 2013: 467 ETDs submitted, 59 embargo requests: 12.6% December 2013: 446 ETDs submitted, 65 embargo requests, 14.5% May 2014: 810 ETDs submitted, 153 embargo requests, 18.8% August 2014: 442 ETDs submitted, 80 embargo requests, 18.09%

Next steps

1.2011: New Dean of Graduate Studies, increase in embargo requests 2.Associate Dean put together a faculty committee to review policy 3.They recommended 1 year embargo, no extensions, and only in limited circumstances. 4.New Dean of Graduate Studies requested Graduate Assembly form a committee and formalize a policy. 5.AHA statement in July 2013 Time to rethink embargo policy

1.Drafted spring 2014, passed April Get student’s supervisor more involved in the process before students are submitting dissertation. 3.New policy recommends student make decision about embargo at time of scheduling their defense. 4.Supervisor must submit written request for embargo to be official. Graduate Assembly proposal

A student may request permission from the Graduate Dean to delay making the dissertation available to the public through the Texas Digital Libraries for up to two years in order to protect patent or other intellectual property rights, subject to the policies of the funding agency that supported the research. …with the consent of his or her supervisor, [a student] can select from three options: (a) no embargo, (b) an embargo for a period of two years where the student may elect to remove the embargo at any future date, and (c) an embargo for two years without the student option to remove the embargo during that period. …If the “no embargo” selection is made, the dissertation will be searchable on the web and available for free from UT. An alumna/us and/or supervisor could later request an exception to have the embargo extended beyond two years. *Takes effect Fall 2015 with introduction of new Graduate Catalog New embargo policy passed by Graduate Assembly April 2014*

1.New Associate Dean appointed August Not convinced this is the best policy. 3.May ask the Graduate Assembly to revisit this again this academic year. Final Graduate Assembly decision?

1.Think about needs of various constituents, talk to them before implementing your policy 2.Do some research among peer institutions a.Recommend reading the Guidance Documents for ETD Lifecycle Management a. Some lessons learned

Questions