This page explains the access and permissions options you can set for your thesis and any accompanying materials (such as supporting video or images) during the submission process.
Before you submit your thesis, you must discuss these access and permissions options with your thesis advisor, since they will be most familiar with your work.
If you change your mind about the category at any time, just contact Research Services at researchservices-g@mtholyoke.edu, and we’ll move it for you.
Your thesis and any accompanying materials will be readable and downloadable by anyone, anywhere in the world.
All of the descriptive information about your thesis, such as the title, subject(s) or abstract, will be fully accessible, be added to Discover advanced search, and show up in public search engine results.
You will contribute to the body of scholarly work in your field in an open and sustainable way, allowing others to cite and use your work in further research.
LITS will archive and generate a permanent URL directly to your thesis, enabling you to easily link to and share it.
The full text of your thesis and any accompanying material are only accessible to MHC alums and current faculty, students and staff. Theses in this category require a valid MHC username in order to read or download.
Descriptive information about your thesis, such as the title, subject(s) or abstract, will be fully accessible, added to Discover advanced search, and show up in public search engine results, but the full text of your thesis, and any accompanying materials, cannot be viewed or downloaded unless the user has a valid MHC username.
LITS will archive and generate a permanent URL directly to your thesis, but you will not be able to share it unless the recipient is a MHC alumnae or current MHC student, faculty, or staff.
If your work contains sensitive data or content, this collection will strictly limit the number of people who can access it.
If your thesis contains very sensitive data or content, you can also set an embargo to temporarily restrict access to it. An embargo will delay access to your thesis, and any accompanying material, for a period of up to seven years from the time of submission. Once the embargo date passes, the thesis and any accompanying material will be available within the access category (public or restricted) that you originally submitted it to.
Please note that when you embargo a thesis, all of the descriptive information about it, such as the title, subject(s) or abstract, will be fully accessible, added to Discover advanced search, and show up in public search engine results; only the actual thesis file and accompanying materials are inaccessible during the embargo period.
The Institutional Digital Archive no longer supports the application of an optional Creative Commons license to theses and honors work. Licenses applied to submissions prior to the 2021 academic year will be retained.
