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Dissertation Publication

This guide provides the step-by-step instructions for publishing your dissertation on ProQuest ETD.

Required Permissions

Any necessary co-authorship or copyright permissions must be secured. If you share authorship with anyone else for any part of
your dissertation or thesis, you need to acquire their permission to include that content. If any content in your manuscript(e.g., tables, scales,appendices, etc.) is already under another copyright, you need to acquire permission from the copyright holder to use that content. All such permissions must accompany your submission.
 

Copyright & Your Dissertation

There is a decision point very early pertaining to copyright. Since the author of the dissertation is the owner of the copyright, Proquest ETD wants to know how to process payment of royalties in the event the dissertation is purchased. There are two basic choices:

  1. Does the author want Proquest ETD to keep their Social Security Number on file so payments can be automatically processed in the event of a sale? (royalties are taxable)
  2. Does the author NOT want Proquest ETD to keep your Social Security Number on fie and contact to the author in the event of a sale? The author would then provide your number upon each sale.

There are two important areas of interest under this topic:

Copyright Law and Graduate Research

  • Proquest ETD presumes that you have made appropriate attributions and references to the intellectual property of others used to support the work contained in your dissertation. 
  • Proquest ETD also presumes that you have made good-faith attempts to secure permissions to use the intellectual property of others, if needed.

Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis  You should review this document by Proquest ETD for a detailed discussion of these matters.

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

While it is true that printing your name, a copyright marking, and a date on any page of your dissertation does assert your rights to your intellectual property, you should go further and register your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office.  For a fee that you can pay during the submission process, ProQuest ETD will do this for you (see example below):

By registering for U.S. copyright, you can protect your dissertation or thesis and become immediately eligible for statutory damages and attorney fees. Registering for copyright allows for the claimant to receive statutory damages set out in Title 17, Section 504 of the U.S. Code, which range from $750 - $150,000 USD plus attorney fees per copyright infraction. This contrasts with those who do not register for copyright - authors without copyright registration can claim only actual damages and no attorney fees.

If you elect to have ProQuest ETD submit copyright for your dissertation, they will:

  • Prepare an application in your name
  • Submit your application fee
  • Deposit the required copy or copies of the manuscript
  • Mail you the completed certificate of registration from the Library of Congress

More information about copyright is available via this Copyright Guide.