eGrove User Guide

Embargoes are temporary publication holds placed on works submitted to eGrove. Embargoes may be placed by the entity who holds copyright for a work, such as an author, publisher, or institutional sponsor. Examples of works with appropriate use of embargoes are:

• A dissertation containing confidential, restricted, or sensitive information that creates an ethical need to delay publication.
• An article containing research for which a patent is pending.
• A long-standing journal whose issues are made openly available on a rolling basis, ten years after they are published.

Options for embargo are:

Date-Specific Embargo: An item’s full content is made available after a specified period from the date the item is posted to eGrove. Options are: 1 year, 18 months, 2 years, or 3 years. Embargoes are renewable by request. A specific end-date is required; vague parameters (i.e., “10 years after my retirement”) are not permitted.

Rolling Embargo: A serial publication’s issues become available on a rolling basis, typically a set number of years after each issue is originally published. Options are customizable based on copyright specifications.

Supplementary Material Only: Supplementary material accompanies the metadata of a closed access or embargoed work, which is not included in the repository. This can be used to share research and satisfy a grant’s open data requirement. See an example here.

If an item under embargo is submitted to eGrove, its metadata (author, title, abstract, etc.) will be visible and searchable on the website. The date that embargo expires will be on display on the right side of the screen.

When a work submitted to eGrove is not under embargo, it becomes available immediately to users worldwide. Its use is still determined by the terms and conditions in the copyright publication agreement or license agreement between the item’s author and publisher.

For work containing patent pending research, authors are responsible for determining when a title and abstract can be visible and should not submit their work to eGrove until that time. For electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) related to patent pending research, or if you have additional questions, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu.

To extend or change a work’s embargo settings, or for a non-ETD work requiring a longer embargo period, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. Permanent embargoes are not permitted.

This section describes factors authors, especially students, should consider when deciding whether to place an embargo on their article, thesis, or dissertation.

Reasons to Consider Embargo:

• There is a patent pending on your research or any member of your team intends to apply for one in the future.
• Your research was funded by a grant that places restrictions on public access.
• Your research uses classified, restricted, or sensitive information about persons, entities, etc. that for legal or ethical purposes should not be made public.
• You want to publish your research and are concerned that distributing your work through ProQuest and eGrove will limit your ability to do so. However, depending on the field, the presence of a thesis or dissertation online may or may not affect publication prospects. Studies indicate that many publishers do not consider the release of an ETD a prior publication. For more information, consult:
  • Cirasella, J., & Thistlethwaite, P. (2017). Open access and the graduate author: A dissertation anxiety manual. In K. L. Smith & K. A. Dickson (Eds.), Open access and the future of scholarly communication: Implementation (pp. 203-224). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Ramirez, M., Dalton, J., McMillan, G., Read, M., & Seamans, N. (2013). Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers. College & Research Libraries, 74(4), 368-380. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crl-356
  • Ramírez, M., McMillan, G., Dalton, J., Hanlon, A., Smith, H., & Kern, C. (2014). Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?. College & Research Libraries, 75(6), 808-821. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.75.6.808
  • Truschke, A. (2015). “Dissertation Embargoes and Publishing Fears.” Dissertation Reviews. Introduction. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

Reasons to Post Your article or ETD on eGrove Without Embargo:

• Increased visibility of your work, which can potentially lead to publishing opportunities and ways for prospective employers to see your work.
• Increased citations, which will broaden the impact of your work and help you become an active scholar in your field.
• You will receive metrics on where and how often your work is being viewed and downloaded through eGrove and the PlumX Metrics extension.
• Releasing your thesis or dissertation supports open access initiatives and will help shape the future of scholarly publishing.