Management of dissertations at Boston College is online-only. The public dissemination of research fits with university social justice values supporting global access to scholarship. The University policy with regard to dissertations is as follows:
All final dissertations must be submitted and published online through ProQuest/UMI, as well as BC’s open access institutional repository, by the University required deadline.
The ProQuest ETD Administrator system is used for student submission, school administration approval, and library management of the process, as it is at the vast majority of Carnegie Tier 1 schools. BC also supports an institutional repository (IR) as its system of record, in which we are legally obligated to preserve all dissertations, and where materials are made available Open Access online according to Creative Commons licensing of the student’s choosing. For both repositories, embargoes may be placed for up to two years. Embargoes can be extended up to five years with school approval. Each system carries its own set of licenses, terms and options (e.g. ProQuest license, BC IR license.)
Exceptions to the requirement to submit digitally will be based on decisions made by individual schools or by the Provost. BC Libraries provide support, instruction, and infrastructure to enable the collection, approval, description, security, access and preservation of all Boston College dissertations and theses.
(February 2021)
