So, you have submitted, possibly defended your thesis or dissertation. What are the next steps? Through Marian University Libraries, graduate students have the opportunity to have their work archived and made accessible in two complementary avenues, MUShare and Proquest ETD. Each provides cost-free options for electronically housing theses or dissertations and making them accessible to the world.
While both accomplish the same goal, the difference between the two is a matter of indexing. MUShare is the library's open-source platform for campus scholarship (MUShare represents the Scholarship, History, Art, Research, and Engagement of student work within and external to the Marian University Community). Students and faculty work directly with library staff to upload content in their selected program collection. Works included in MUShare are immediately and freely available to anyone.
Proquest ETD is an indexing service that houses information content via their electronic subscription databases. Specifically, graduate works added via Proquest ETD are indexed and available within the Proquest Dissertations and Theses database, a commercial product to which Marian University Libraries subscribe.
Why not both? There are no restrictions to add works to both platforms, and the cost is free. However, with Proquest ETD authors do have the ability to utilize optional paid services such as copyright registration and print copy orders of their manuscripts. Note that it is the author's responsibility to pay for such services.
Note that electronic submission via PDF is the official format in which main documents (though Word or RTF files are acceptable for supplementary materials) are added and stored in MUShare. Marian University Libraries currently does not accept print editions for archiving.
Use the pages to the left to learn more about submitting your graduate manuscript to both MUShare and Proquest ETD. Marian University Libraries look forward to highlighting and making your work discoverable.
Before a work is published, whether through traditional mediums or not, authors have the right to decide how their work can be disseminated and utilized in the field of research. If using commercial publishers, some conditions may apply where the author may waive their rights on how the work may be disseminated.
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, (SPARC) is an organization that provides awareness to authorship issues in academia and research, providing tools such as addendums to publishing agreements in order to more clearly define authors' rights in the publishing process.
Additionally, Authors Alliance is an organization that works to help inform authors of the evolving landscape of digital information, policy, as well as dissemination in order to more widely promote their scholarly work for the common good.