University of Rochester

University of Rochester: Research Authorization Form

Instructions for Electronic Dissertation UR Research Authorization Form 

Please note there is a ProQuest Embargo Process that you complete upon ProQuest submission and the University of Rochester Embargo process that is completed with the form below. 

Permission for or Removal of Copyrighted Material(s): Written permission is required from the copyright owners of material you may have used in your work that does not fall under the guidelines of fair use. (Click here to see the University's guidelines regarding fair use.) This might be content taken from articles, books, web pages, music, poetry and lyrics, sound recordings, etc. The owner of the copyrighted material may be the author or the publisher. In addition, if you signed over copyright for papers you’ve authored to the publisher, you may need written permission to include your own papers in your dissertation. Proquest/UMI also requires you to submit permission letters allowing distribution of third party copyrighted materials. 

If you are not able to obtain written permission to include copyrighted materials in your dissertation, the materials should be removed from the dissertation, placed in an appendix that will be restricted from public view, and provided to the UR Graduate Education Office. If transmission through email/PDF is not possible, please  email to discuss means of transmission to the office. 

Removal of Proprietary and Confidential Information: University of Rochester Medical Center authors are expected to conform to the American Society of Microbiology’s Code of Ethics  and use their knowledge and skills to advance human welfare and discourage the misuse of scientific information. 

If there is proprietary or confidential information in your dissertation, such as industry trade secrets or studies using a reagent obtained under the Material Transfer Agreement (MTA- Powerpoint) with restrictions on publishing, the information should be removed from the dissertation, placed in an appendix that will be restricted from public view, and provided to the UR Graduate Studies Office on a CD or flash drive. Text should be in PDF format. 

Limiting Access to Protect Your Ability to Publish: Some publishers may consider worldwide access to your dissertation on UR Research to be prior publication of the work. If your dissertation includes chapters or data that you plan to publish in the future, you should opt to restrict access to the University of Rochester community only, which this form permits for up to 2 years after the date your degree is awarded by the Trustees. Extensions of the UR-only restriction in order to delay worldwide access are permitted in some circumstances on request to the University Dean of Graduate Studies. 

The option of a complete embargo (blocking access to anyone, including those within UR) is limited to 3 months. Use this option if your dissertation contains new information that could lead to a commercially viable invention. It will be completely embargoed for a 3-month period after the date your degree is awarded by the Trustees, during which time you can submit an Invention Disclosure Form to URVentures, the University's technology transfer office, which will review your invention for potential patent protection. 

Additional Information: Questions about UR Research can be sent to urresearch-help@rochester.edu or contact the UR Research representative for your campus: 

Additional questions about intellectual property can be sent to URVentures: 

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