The University of Oregon is a public academic institution conducting research ultimately for public benefit. Oregon Administrative Rules stipulate that, as a state university, graduate theses and dissertations constitute records for permanent retention. UO theses and dissertations are unique among state records defined as permanent due to their scholarly value. To support the University’s goal of advancing the public good, all theses and dissertations will be made available as open access documents.
The UO Graduate School policy states, in the Thesis and Dissertation Overview for students:
“Your thesis or dissertation will be made available to the international academic community and the public through the UO Libraries and ProQuest/UMI.”
UO Libraries supports the retrospective digitization and archiving of print theses and dissertations in the open access institutional repository, Scholars’ Bank. UO authors or library patrons may request this service through Digital Scholarship Services at no cost. Requests will be processed as capacity allows. Find links at the bottom of this page.
The following rights statements will be added to metadata fields for each record of a retrospectively converted theses or dissertation:
- UO theses and dissertations are provided for research and educational purposes, and may be under copyright by the author or the author’s heirs. Please contact us with any questions or comments. In your email, be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items that you are inquiring about.
- In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted This Rights Statement can be used only for copyrighted Items for which the organization making the Item available is the rights-holder or has been explicitly authorized by the rights-holder(s) to allow third parties to use the Work for educational purposes without first obtaining permission.
Note: Availability may be delayed (or placed under embargo) for patent/proprietary or publication reasons, at the author’s request and in accordance with Graduate School policies, although this is unlikely in the case of retrospective digitization.
If you would like to make your pre-2008 UO thesis or dissertation available, please fill out this online permission form or contact the repository manager with your digitization request if you are not the author.
Last updated February 3, 2023