McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Dissertations

NOTE: Effective for Fall 2025 (December 2025 graduates), a new policy for dissertation embargoes is in effect. WashU doctoral students may request to embargo the public release of their dissertation for 6 months, one year, or two years. An embargo can only be requested pre-graduation and the initial request must be submitted through ProQuest at the time of dissertation submission. Renewals after the initial embargo will be granted by the Vice Provost for Graduate Education in rare cases.

• An embargo renewal request must be submitted in writing at least 30 days before the expiration of the original embargo. The request form will be made available online.
• Only one renewal request can be submitted.
• Renewal requests require written approval from either the graduate’s dissertation committee chair or the current chair of the department that issued the degree before being referred to the Vice Provost for Graduate Education.
• When an embargo expires the dissertation will be automatically released--graduates will not receive advance notice before an embargo ends.

The policy is referenced in the Bulletin under "Dissertation Submission" : Washington University in St. Louis doctoral students may initially request to embargo the public release of their dissertation for a specified period of six months, one year, or two years. Renewals beyond the initial embargo may be granted by the Vice Provost for Graduate Education. More details are in the Washington University PhD Dissertation Guide (May 2025). Consult with your department or school if you have questions.

Masters Theses

Current University Libraries policy (effective 2022): At the request of depositors, content can be “embargoed,” or restricted, from view for a limited amount of time of up to three years. Open Scholarship requires an end date to the embargo, at which time the content automatically becomes available for viewing in Open Scholarship. However, the depositor may submit one renewal request to extend the embargo for a maximum of three additional years, for a total maximum embargo of six years. This is dependent on academic departmental policy. "Academic departmental policy may govern the use and duration of embargoes and students should consult their department for this information." -- Open Scholarship Submission and Use Policy, under Embargoes