VI. PUBLICATION ISSUES AND PROQUEST INFORMATION AND LEARNING
VI.1. The ProQuest/UMI abstract
All students must prepare an abstract of no more than 350 words which will be scanned and included in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, along with a copy of the title page. (The Dissertation Office needs an abstract and a copy of the title page also.) See the pamphlet, Publishing Your Dissertation, and the abstract format sample in this booklet for details.
ProQuest Information and Learning provides dissertation services through ProQuest and UMI. Additional information about ProQuest Information and Learning is available on their web site: http://www.infolearning.com/au-about.shtml.
VI.2. Copyright permissions
Since you are publishing your dissertation, if you use previously copyrighted material beyond "fair use," you must obtain written permission from the copyright holder to use the item in your dissertation. Written permission is not a requirement for receiving your degree, but if ProQuest Information and Learning believes that you have included previously copyrighted material without written permission, they will reproduce your dissertation without the materials requiring permission.
Materials requiring permission include, but are not limited to: photographs of prints from books, museums or archives, or the internet; questionnaires; copyrighted forms, tests or surveys; and quotations from any one source over a page and a half in length. Copyright law is complex and even experts disagree about many aspects of it. ProQuest publishes a booklet which gives an introduction to the subject and will answer basic questions. The booklet includes a sample letter requesting permission for use from copyright holders. Copies of this booklet, Copyright Law and Graduate Research: New Media, New Rights and Your New Dissertation, are available in our office and online. Students may also consult the Library of Congress web site at http://www.copyright.gov.
You own the copyright for your own dissertation. You may or may not choose to register your copyright at this point in time.
VI.3. The University of Chicago's agreement with ProQuest Information and Learning
The University's agreement with ProQuest Information and Learning includes certain provisions that are not part of ProQuest Information and Learning's standard agreement with authors.
- Dissertation authors have the option of restricting sale of their dissertations. Such restrictions may not extend beyond a period of two years from the date of convocation. Any such option shall be exercised by the author's giving written notice to ProQuest Information and Learning. Once the two-year period has elapsed, ProQuest Information and Learning will not restrict distribution without the express written instructions of the University.
- In the event that ProQuest Information and Learning removes from a copy of a dissertation copyrighted material for which no reprint permission has been obtained, the author's right to restrict sale of the dissertation with the offending portions removed shall not extend beyond the two-year period from the date of convocation.
- Authors may request at any time, without the consent of the University, that their dissertations not be sold in paper form.
- In the event that the University of Chicago revokes a degree, ProQuest Information and Learning, upon notice from the University, will cease to publish the student's abstract and dissertation, and/or purge them from ProQuest Information and Learning's records.
If you have questions about the University of Chicago's agreement with ProQuest Information and Learning, please call our office.
Do not alter or amend the ProQuest Information and Learning agreement form.
VI.4. Other publishers and your dissertation
You must sign a publication agreement with ProQuest Information and Learning before the University will award a Ph.D. If another publisher has accepted your manuscript, you should be sure to retain the right to sign the ProQuest Information and Learning publication agreement. Many scientific journals have standing agreements with ProQuest Information and Learning that permit co-publication; most academic presses, however, do not.
VI.5. Getting extra copies of your dissertation
You may wish to have bound copies of your dissertation for your own use. ProQuest Information and Learning will sell you copies that are made from microfilm at a discounted price for authors. Consult the pamphlet, Publishing Your Dissertation, for details. Alternately, the Textbook Department of the University Bookstore will bind copies that you provide. Call (773) 702-7712 for details.