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Graduate Thesis Style Guide: Biological Sciences

Intelectual Property

Dominican University of California respects the intellectual property of others.  If your thesis is based on the unreleased research, data, or other intellectual property another be sure that you have proper permissions in place to distribute that work on Dominican Scholar. The IP holder should know about:

Embargos. An embargo is a delayed release. All theses have the option to be embargoed for 1 - 3 years. Embargoes will delay the availbility of the full-text downloads of a thesis but the thesis metabdata will still be visible.

Thesis metadata. Metadata is information about the thesis. Metadata that may be visibile to the public includes:

  • Thesis title
  • Author name
  • DOI 
  • Graduation date
  • Degree and program information
  • Names of the student's thesis advisor, thesis readers, and program chair
  • Abstract
  • Author comments (optional)
  • Additional files (optional)

Biological Sciences Theses

Embargoes

Biological Science students are required to place, at minimum, a 1 year embargo on their theses when deposited in Dominican Scholar. When the embargo period is ending, the University's Scholarly Communications Librarian will notify the Director the MS in Biological Sciences Program. Embargoes may be extended at the discretion of the thesis advisors.

Thesis Abstracts and Metadata

Abstracts appearing in Dominican Scholar are visible to the public. So as to prevent the release of data through the abstract, Biological Sciences students are required to clear abstract with their thesis advisor prior to depositing their thesis on Dominican Scholar.