Embargoes of ETDs The broad availability of theses and dissertations in electronic form has raised concerns among a small number of sectors of the academy. Some graduate students have been warned by their advisors or threatened by publishers that if they allow open access to their work, it will preclude future publication of the content in certain journals or as a monograph. The key issue is that certain publishers consider that openly accessible theses and dissertations constitute publication. Disappointingly, the most prominent and vocal of these publishers seem to be primarily scholarly and professional societies, where one might hope for greater alignment with the broad interests of the academy. Charles B. Lowry notes that the level of concern about ETDs in repositories is often related to a fairly small number of specific disciplines, and that limited- period embargo policies, that keep the ETD from public view for a specified period of time, will often address those concerns.5 In our survey, 87% of the institutions had a policy allowing students to request a limited-time embargo, and 10% had a policy allowing students to request a permanent embargo. This “prior publication” issue is one that has impacted the adoption of ETD programs in the US. In the CNI survey, we asked, “In discussions among stakeholders on campus, what is your perception of the issues that discouraged implementation of an ETD program at your institution?” Respondents were asked to answer this question whether or not they had already implemented an institutional ETD program. Respondents could choose more than one concern, and most of them did. It is interesting to note that institutions that have already implemented an ETD program expressed more concerns by faculty and students over the prior publication issue than institutions without an ETD program. Presumably those concerns were addressed at least in part by policies such as embargo periods, and this helps to explain the high rate of availability of this option among institutions that have implemented an ETD program. Concerns about adequate technical support and general disinterest in change received the aggregate highest total of responses (somewhat important and important) for institutions without ETD programs. The results are displayed in Table 1 below. RLI 270 10 ETDs and Graduate Education: Programs and Prospects ( C O N T I N U E D ) JUNE 2010 RESEARCH LIBRARY ISSUES: A BIMONTHLY REPORT FROM ARL, CNI, AND SPARC