Access to Ohio State Dissertations and Theses

Ohio State has agreements with two organizations, OhioLINK and ProQuest/UMI, that store and provide access to Ohio State theses and dissertations.

OhioLINK is Ohio’s state library network and includes a consortium of Ohio colleges and universities. 

ProQuest/UMI Dissertation Publishing has been collecting and making dissertations available to the public for purchase since 1938, and now manages a database of 90 percent of the dissertations released in the United States. Ohio State has an agreement with ProQuest/UMI to microfilm all approved Ohio State dissertations for archival purposes. This microfilmed archival copy is retained in the Ohio State libraries.

Delay Policy

Graduate students can apply to delay electronic access to their dissertations and theses for one to five years. These requests are reviewed by the Graduate School. If the initial request is granted, additional extensions can be requested up to five years. Graduate students bear the responsibility for requesting extensions. If the Graduate School does not receive a request for an extension, OhioLINK will release the document according to the original schedule. 

While a delay is applied to a student's document, the document title and abstract will be publicly available once the student's OhioLINK submission is published by the Graduate School.  

A publication delay approved for a doctoral dissertation on OhioLINK means that the document will not be sent to Proquest/UMI until the OhioLINK delay expires. If a ProQuest delay is still desired at that time, the student must request it directly through ProQuest. A separate form, the UMI Publishing Agreement, must be completed and e-mailed directly to UMI/ProQuest to request a delay of publication on the Proquest Dissertation Publishing Database.

Requesting an Access Delay through OhioLINK

Graduate student can request a delay in access when they submit their document PDF to OhioLINK and by submitting the Delay of Final Document form in GRADFORMS.

1. Check the second button in the Publication section of the Permissions and UMI Publication page.
   1. Master's students: Check "Do not upload to UMI" box in the UMI Permissions box (Master’s theses are not archived through UMI.)
   2. PhD and DMA students: Check "Upload my paper to UMI for traditional publishing."
2. Graduate students must also complete and submit the Graduate School’s Delay of Final Document Form via GRADFORM

The OhioLink and GRADFORMS processes are both required. If a graduate student checks the OhioLINK delay button but does not submit Delay of Final Document form, the dissertation will be released for access.