Institutional Repository Support

Open Scholarship is the institutional repository for Washington University in St. Louis. Maintained by the Scholarly Communication & Digital Publishing Services Department within the University Libraries, it provides free and open access to the scholarly and creative output of faculty, staff, and students by gathering it in one place.

Open Scholarship is intended for scholarly work authored by Washington University in St. Louis faculty, staff, researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students. The focus is on larger collections of material, such as electronic theses and dissertations, undergraduate honors theses, conference posters, and white papers and reports.

For more information about Open Scholarship, contact Repository Services Manager Emily Stenberg or email Scholarly Communication & Digital Publishing Services at digital@wumail.wustl.edu.

For information about hosting data in the Washington University Research Data (WURD) repository, please reach out to Data Services.

Jump to: Doctoral Dissertation Submission Information | Master’s Thesis Submission Information | Binding Options | Finding WashU Dissertations and Theses | Submitting Undergraduate Honors Theses or Capstone Projects

Doctoral Dissertation Submission Information

Doctoral candidates on the Danforth campus submit their dissertations through their individual schools to ProQuest through an online form. If a guide is not listed below, contact your school’s registrar for more information.

Office of Graduate Studies Guides (for Arts & Sciences)
McKelvey School of Engineering Thesis & Dissertation Submission Procedures

After files for a given degree award period have been submitted to ProQuest and posted to their database, those files are then forwarded to Washington University Libraries, and library staff merge the files into the University Libraries institutional repository, Open Scholarship. This usually occurs 2-3 months after commencement.

Dissertation Access Options

Please expand the options below to learn more about the four ProQuest sections that deal with rights and access.

Select the “Traditional Publishing” option. Open Access is provided for free through the Washington University repository.

If you choose to delay the release of your work, access to the full text of the dissertation will be delayed for the period of time that is specified, though the citation and abstract of the work will be available. The University Libraries honor the embargo term selected through ProQuest for up to three years based on the University Libraries Open Scholarship Submission and Use Policy (please refer to the Embargoes section).

Embargoes expire automatically. Dissertation authors may extend or cancel an embargo, but once a dissertation is sent to the University Libraries, the author will need to contact Proquest and Scholarly Communication & Digital Publishing Services (digital@wumail.wustl.edu) to make changes. One renewal for up to three years is allowed.

Reasons to request an embargo might include that the author pursuing a patent for the work, that the research sponsor requires a specified embargo period, or that the submission includes sensitive or proprietary content, such as work conducted with a corporate partner or a risk of research participants’ identity exposure.

If the option “I do not want my work to be discoverable in Proquest through Google Scholar and other major search engines” is selected when submitting a dissertation, Proquest will not make the work available for indexing until the embargo end date.

The University Libraries cannot prevent indexing of its repository site but will honor a dissertation’s embargo date.

Dissertation authors do not need to file for copyright (or ask Proquest to file on their behalf) in order to include a copyright page in their manuscript.

Please direct copyright questions to WULIB_CopyrightHelp@wumail.wustl.edu

For more on this subject, please see the Copyright Registration on the Copyright Support page.

Master’s Thesis Submission Information

Master’s theses are submitted directly to the University Libraries repository and are reviewed by the appropriate school registrar. Anyone who submits a thesis will first need to create a free account using the following four steps:

Create an account through bepress on Open Scholarship by selecting My Account / Sign up.
You will need to provide an email address and your full name and create a password. You do not have to use your WUSTL email address, but you should use one you check regularly.
After you sign up, you will receive an email confirmation with a link you must click in order to activate your account.
If you have successfully created an account and logged in, Open Scholarship should take you to your My Account page. From here, you can submit your thesis to the appropriate collection (series).

Refer to the relevant school guide listed below or check with your school for instructions:

Thesis Submission Instructions by School

Master’s candidates in the Brown School should submit their theses to Open Scholarship’s Brown School Theses and Dissertations using the “Submit Research” option under Author Corner on the left-side menu.

Reviewers from the Brown School will approve the thesis and notify a candidate through the Open Scholarship system.

MFA in Visual Art candidates submit their approved theses to Open Scholarship’s MFA in Visual Art using the “Submit Research” option under Author Corner on the left-side menu.

MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture candidates submit their approved theses to Open Scholarship’s MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture using the “Submit Research” option under Author Corner on the left-side menu.

Master’s students in the Graduate School of Architecture are not required to submit a thesis electronically but are encouraged to do so. Please visit the Open Scholarship – Sam Fox School LibGuide for more information.

Master’s candidates in the McKelvey School of Engineering submit their theses electronically to Open Scholarship’s McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations using the “Submit Research” option under Author Corner on the left-side menu.

Reviewers from the McKelvey School of Engineering will approve the thesis and notify a candidate through the Open Scholarship system.

Students with a Master’s / MS project in Computer Science and Engineering should submit their projects directly to Open Scholarship’s All Computer Science and Engineering Research collection using the “Submit Research” option under Author Corner on the left-side menu.

Master’s candidates in Arts & Sciences should submit their theses electronically to Open Scholarship’s Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations using the “Submit Research” option under Arthur Corner on the left-side menu.

Reviewers from Arts & Sciences will approve the thesis and notify a candidate through the Open Scholarship system.

Binding Options

The University does not accept any paper copies for binding. Individuals may order a bound copy through Thesis on Demand. More information is available in the Dissertation Guide (page 15, “How to Acquire Bound Copies”).

If there are questions about using Thesis on Demand, please visit the Thesis on Demand FAQ page (enter “63130” as the zip code, even for students on the medical campus).

Finding WashU Dissertations and Theses

WashU Open Scholarship (2009 – ) | Beginning in 2009, all theses and dissertations completed at Washington University were required to be submitted in electronic form. Dissertations are submitted directly to UMI / Proquest Dissertation Services; Master’s theses are locally submitted to the Washington University Open Scholarship Repository.
Dissertations & Theses @ Washington University in St. Louis (1996-) | Full-text. Citations and abstracts of dissertations and theses submitted by Washington University and published in UMI’s Dissertation Abstracts database. View 24-page previews of dissertations and theses and download the full-text.
WashU Classic Catalog | To limit to dissertations and theses, modify search and add title=theses and/or author=Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.).
Primo | Researchers may find dissertations when filtering the Resource Type by Dissertations.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I (1743-) | The complete range of academic subjects appearing in dissertations accepted at accredited institutions since 1743, updated monthly. View 24-page previews of dissertations and theses and download the full-text. Abstracts are included from July 1980; abstracts for master’s theses begin in Spring 1988.

Not all universities require doctoral candidates to submit their dissertations to this database. For the most comprehensive search, include other sources. Learn more about the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database.

Note: Researchers cannot request full-text dissertations or theses from within the ProQuest database. To request full-text dissertations or theses found on the ProQuest database, log in to ILLiad, select Request a Thesis, and complete the form.

Finding WashU Dissertations and Theses FAQs

Submitting Undergraduate Honors Theses or Capstone Projects

Undergraduate students at Washington University in St. Louis are encouraged to participate in research opportunities organized through the Office of Undergraduate Research or through department-specific honors courses. Undergraduate Honors Theses or Capstone Projects may be submitted to Open Scholarship’s Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses using the “Submit Research” option under Arthur Corner on the left-side menu.

Students may choose Restricted (campus-only) or Unrestricted (worldwide) access and may select an embargo if needed. Undergraduate students must consult with mentors and colleagues before sharing group work openly.

Undergraduate students are encouraged to read through the Submission Guidelines for Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses and the Policies for Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses.

Why Publish Papers Open Access?

Students can include published papers on their resume(s) with a link to the full text.
WashU departments, students, and future researchers will find it convenient to have your senior projects available.
Open Access shares what you have learned or created with others worldwide.

When or Why Not Publish Your Paper Open Access?

If the work contains data that was collected, processed, or arranged by third parties.
If the work contains data that could risk the confidentiality of subjects from whom it was obtained.
If the paper is part of a larger research project involving others and should not be publicly accessible yet.