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Theses and Dissertations

The accepted thesis or dissertation is considered one's scholarly contribution to City College and CUNY.  Students self-submit their work to CUNY Academic Works digital repository and, in the case of Ph.D students, the ProQuest Thesis and Dissertations A&I database to make it available to the scholarly community. Submitting your work makes it available to others engaged research in the same area of study to find, use, and cite your scholarly work. This guide is your access point for submitting and finding City College theses and dissertations.

CUNY Academic WorksCUNY Academic Works

CUNY Academic Works is the official repository for research, scholarship, creative, and pedagogical work for all of CUNY. Your advisor can provide you with information about City College's requirements for submission.  For works under embargo, Academic Works allows CUNY scholars to set a date of release. Academic Works requires that you set up an account to upload your work.

Find the step by step process for submitting to Academic Works on the Submission Instruction tab above.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses A&IProQuest logo

Only the Grove School of Engineering PhD candidates are required to submit their dissertations to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses A&I database. This ProQuest resource is the most comprehensive curated collection of multi-disciplinary dissertations and theses from around the world.

Find the step by step process for submitting to the Proquest Dissertations Database on the Submission Instruction tab.

Submitting your Work

Please be sure you will have at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted access to the internet to complete each submission.

Before you start the deposit process, you will need

  • The final, approved version of your dissertation or thesis in PDF format.
  • Any supplementary files, such as copyright permission letters or accompanying data files.
  • A brief, informative abstract.
  • Advisor and other committee members’ names.
  • Subject categories to help index your work
  • A list of keywords to help identify, or classify, your work.
    • For example, geographical locations or scientific names not mentioned in your title or abstract might be listed.

CUNY Academic Works

  1. If you don't already have one, create an account in CUNY Academic Works. Be sure to use an email address that you will continue to access after graduation.
  2. Go to the City College Dissertations and Theses page in CUNY Academic Works.
    1. Read the Submission Agreement, click the checkbox to accept, and select “Continue” to proceed.
  3. Enter all required fields, following the onscreen instructions. Be sure to input your institution as “The City College of New York, City University of New York” and input the correct degree date.
  4. Input your embargo (delayed release) decision. Choose from the following options: no embargo (available immediately), 6 months, 12 months, or 24 months. This will determine when the full text of your work is made publicly available online. Title, author, and other metadata remain viewable even if a work is embargoed.
  5. When choosing subject categories, select the discipline that best describes your work. It is OK to keep it broad and simple. Adding relevant, more specific keywords will help discoverability.
  6. After you have entered your information and selected your file, double-check your entries and click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
  7. That’s it! Library deposit of your dissertation or thesis is now complete.

ProQuest Dissertation Publishing

  1. Open the ProQuest ETD Admin tool.
  2. Create an account by clicking the red button that says “Sign up and get started today!”
  3. Follow the onscreen instructions for filling out the required areas. Select “traditional” publishing with ProQuest and indicate whether you would like your work in ProQuest to be discovered by search engines.
  4. Input your embargo (delayed release) decision. Choose from the following options: no embargo (available immediately), 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years. This will determine when the full text of your work is made publicly available online. Title, author, and other metadata remain viewable even if a work is embargoed.
  5. Enter all required fields according to the onscreen instructions. After uploading your file(s), you will be given the option to register your copyright for the work with the U.S. Copyright Office through ProQuest for a $55 fee, payable by credit card at the time of submission. This service is optional. Alternatively, graduates may choose to register their copyright directly with the U.S.Copyright Office if they so desire. Please see http://copyright.gov/about/fees.html for more information. Registering your copyright is optional. You own the copyright to your dissertation regardless of whether or not you officially register it.
  6. If you would like to order personal print copies, select options according to the onscreen instructions. Single copy orders of hardcover, 8 ½ x 11” are $56.00 each, plus tax. This service is optional. Graduates may have their work printed by a bindery of their choosing.
  7. Verify the details of your submission and click “Submit Dissertation/Thesis” at the bottom of the page.
  8. That’s it! Library deposit of your dissertation or thesis is now complete.

Information about Embargoes

Master's theses and Dissertations are deposited in CUNY Academic Works. Grove School of Engineering Dissertations are also deposited in the ProQuest Digital Dissertations and Theses database

You can embargo (temporarily block public online access) to your dissertation or thesis in neither, either, or both databases — it’s up to you. If you embargo in both databases, you can select the same embargo length for both or choose different embargo lengths. For both databases, your initial embargo options are:

  • no embargo
  • six-month embargo
  • one-year embargo
  • two-year embargo

Limitations of Embargoes

Embargoed dissertations and theses are not completely invisible or inaccessible. 

  • Print copies
    • Print copies (if applicable) of embargoed works may be available in the CCNY Libraries.
  • Microfilm copies
    • Microfilm copies (if applicable) of embargoed works may also be available in the library and may be lent through interlibrary loan.
  • Electronic copies
    • Electronic copies of embargoed works remain accessible to individual researchers through interlibrary loan.
  • Metadata
    • Author, title, abstracts, and metadata are available even if an author chooses to embargo.

Changing your Embargo

If you want to change your embargo settings after you've deposited or graduated, you must contact ProQuest and the City College Library separately.

  • ProQuest
    • Contact ProQuest’s Author and School Relations group at disspub@proquest.com or 1-800-521-0600 x77020 to change your embargo settings at no cost. Provide your name, your dissertation/thesis title, your school, and, if possible, the publication number assigned by ProQuest to your dissertation/thesis. (You should have received this by email.)
  • City College Library
    • Email Digital Scholarship Librarian Ching-Jung Chent at cchen@ccny.cuny.edu to change your embargo settings in CUNY Academic Works, CUNY's institutional repository. Again, your options are no embargo, a six-month embargo, a one-year embargo, or a two-year embargo. As your embargo nears expiration, you can contact the library again to extend your embargo, if you wish. Options for renewal are the same as the initial embargo options: six-month renewal, one-year renewal, or two-year renewal.

Embargo Resources

Open Access and the Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual by Jill Cirasella and Polly Thistlethwaite. This chapter was originally published in: Smith, K. L., & Dickson, K. A. (Eds.). (2017). Open access and the future of scholarly communication: Implementation. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Hear and read some key thoughts from the CUNY Graduate Center's event “Share It Now or Save It For Later: Making Choices about Dissertations and Publishing,” featuring the MLA's Director of Scholarly Communications, two university press editors, and two alumni.

Content credit: Roxanne Shirazi, CUNY Graduate Center

Division Contacts

If you have questions about depositing your work that your advisor cannot answer, please contact the appropriate person in your school or division.

Division or School Name Title Email
Division of Humanities and the Arts Migen Prifti Director of Graduate Advising  mprifti@ccny.cuny.edu
Grove School of Engineering Belkys Bodre Director of Graduate Affairs bbodre@ccny.cuny.edu
Division of Science Elizabeth Rudolph Assistant Dean erudolph@ccny.cuny.edu
Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership Charlene Darbassie Assistant, Office of the Dean cdarbassie@ccny.cuny.edu
The Center for Worker Education Susanna Rosenbaum Director, MA in the Study of the Americas srosenbaum@ccny.cuny.edu

Find a Thesis or Dissertation in CUNY Academic Works

Theses and dissertations dated from the last ten years can be found on CUNY Academic Works.

Search the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses A&I Database

City College content can be searched and downloaded from the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses A&I. Search by entering a name, title, or subject into the search field. Advanced search offers a windowpane of search fields you can use for focused search. Browse over 200 City College items by entering the School ID 1606.

Find Bound Dissertations and Theses at The City College Libraries

Search author names or titles in CCNY's OneSearch discovery tool. Copy the record information and  request the bound copies at the Circulation Desk in the Library where the item is located. If you need assistance, ask a librarian.