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E-theses Embargo Periods

Once your thesis is deposited in Open Research Exeter (ORE) the full content of your thesis will be freely available online unless your request an embargo.

You will need to consider an embargo if:

  • Your work contains politically sensitive material.
  • Your work contains commercially sensitive material. The University’s Intellectual Property Policy provides guidance on the ownership, management and commercialisation of research results. For more information see the intellectual property and commercialisation pages in the Research Toolkit.
  • You subsequently want to publish papers from your thesis/dissertation. When a thesis/dissertation is available in a repository it acquires published status. This change has implications if you subsequently wish to publish papers from your thesis/dissertation. You may wish to request an embargo to allow time for papers to be published.

The standard embargo period is 18 months.

If an embargo is in place information in the thesis record such as the title, author and abstract will still be publically available and accessible via search engines such as Google.

If your thesis is embargoed it is recommended you still include an abstract in your record to give an overview of the research to those interested in your work. If you feel including an abstract could compromise you or somebody else in some way you may be able to deposit the full text with an extended embargo of up to five years.

Requests for extended embargoes and exemptions must be made to the Postgraduate Administration Office via your submission form with a letter of support from your supervisor.

If an embargo or extended embargo is approved you must still deposit the digital copy of your thesis/dissertation in ORE and indicate the terms of the embargo on the online deposit form by noting the date when the embargo will expire and the reason for the embargo.

It is your responsibility to work with the Postgraduate Administration Office to ensure your sensitive thesis is protected to your and your supervisor’s satisfaction.

Before submission

You must request an embargo on your submission form when you submit your thesis for examination - the request must be supported by your supervisor.

The embargo is put in place by you during the ORE depositing process‌. If you did not request an embargo prior to submission contact the Postgraduate Administration Office to discuss your options.