As the author of your thesis or dissertation, only you are legally entitled to authorize publication or reproduction of your intellectual property, although you may assign your rights to others. Copyright is secured automatically when a work is created, which is when it is fixed in a tangible form for the first time. Under present U.S. copyright law, the term of the copyright is the author's life plus 70 years.
Registering your copyright is optional, as your work is automatically copyrighted when it is published. If you wish to further protect your rights in a copyright dispute and to be eligible for damages caused by infringement, you may choose to register your copyright. You are eligible to register your copyright at any time within the term (author's life plus 70 years). You may register your copyright yourself through the U.S. Copyright Office's online registration portal.
ProQuest provides an optional copyright registration service for a fee ($75 in 2024) at the time of submission only. If you pay for this service, ProQuest will register your copyright and submit your manuscript to the Library of Congress.
U.S. Copyright is a collection of rights about how a work fixed in a tangible medium or expression can be used. By applying a Creative Commons badge you let readers know which features of the document can be used/reused/recited with attribution and if there are limits. Application of the Creative Commons badge through Proquest is optional.
Off-campus? Please use the Software VPN and choose the group UCIFull to access licensed content. For more information, please Click here
Software VPN is not available for guests, so they may not have access to some content when connecting from off-campus.