Withholding your thesis or dissertation

All approved theses and dissertations must be submitted electronically to UVic’s repository, UVicSpace. You can delay this process if you want to publish or patent your work.

To withhold, you must submit a signed withholding form. You must submit this before you load your final (post-defence) thesis or dissertation to UVicSpace.

Withholding delays your publication to UVicSpace for an initial period of twelve months. This period begins on the date of your oral examination. During this period, no one can access your thesis or dissertation, but records will show that it exists.

Extending your withholding period

You can extend this period. To do this, you’ll need:

• approval from the Dean of Graduate Studies (or a designate)
• another withholding form
• a statement showing progress toward publication or patent during the preceding twelve months

You must submit these documents before your withholding period expires. If no request is received by the expiry date, your withholding period will end. Your work will then become available in the Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Open Access Collection.

Before you withhold

Check with your potential publisher. Many publishers have regulations about prior publication of works. Some publishers permit documents to be held in campus repositories (like UVicSpace). In such a case, withholding would be unnecessary.