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Thesis / Dissertation Formatting Manual (2024)


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UC Open Access Policy

The UC Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations requires that all doctoral dissertations and master's theses be made available for public access.

Electronic copies of all UCI theses and dissertations submitted to the ETD system will be routed to the UCI Libraries shortly after the formatting of your manuscript has been accepted. The Libraries will preserve and make accessible to the public all theses and dissertations submitted electronically, in accordance with the Libraries policies and best practices. This includes publishing theses and dissertations online through the University of California’s open access repository eScholarship. 

Providing such access increases the availability and dissemination of your work at no charge to you, a benefit ProQuest will provide only for a fee. If you do not wish for your work to be published immediately in eScholarship, you may request an embargo (see below).

All students who submit an ETD must complete and sign the “Open Access” agreement form, which can be found as part of the Ph.D. Form II/Signature Page and Master’s Thesis signature page listed Consent and Release. This is part of the final paperwork packet submitted via Docusign to the Graduate Division.

Embargoes: Delaying the Release of your Manuscript

If you plan to publish your work elsewhere, you can request that ProQuest or the UCI Libraries withhold your manuscript for a period of 6 months or 1-6 years. This is requesting an embargo, and it means that your manuscript will not be published online through eScholarship or ProQuest in their databases until after the embargo period concludes.

Upon extraordinary circumstances (such as high legal or safety risk to the graduate student), an extended embargo may be granted for as long as such extraordinary circumstances exist pursuant to Section IV of the UC Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations. To do so, the student must submit a memo explaining the request via email attachment to the Graduate Dean at grad@uci.edu, including "Extended Embargo Request" in the subject line.

You can request an embargo in Proquest under PQ Publishing Options

Screenshot of Proquest "Delay Release in Proquest" option