Information for students

Graduate theses and dissertations are important sources of original research. We add them to our open access collection and preserve them for future generations.

How do we acquire theses and dissertations?

We harvest Canadian university repositories for theses and dissertations. Some small universities without repositories submit them to us using a web form. Not all universities take part in the Theses Canada program. We don't accept material directly from students.

We can accept theses and dissertations from non-Canadian universities when there is significant Canadian content. Contact Theses Canada to ask about this.

Removal of theses and changes to metadata

To request removal of your thesis or dissertation, contact your university library or graduate studies office. We will remove a thesis or dissertation from our collection upon written request from the university.

For metadata changes, you'll also have to contact your university, unless you want us to remove a birthdate, which we can do at your request.

Submission process

• Submit your thesis or dissertation to your university.
  • Check their submission guidelines and include any mandatory copyright permissions.
• Your university will ask you to sign a licence agreement. This allows LAC and the university to provide open access to your thesis or dissertation online.
• Theses Canada harvests institutional repositories of participating universities. We retrieve any new theses or dissertations and their associated metadata.
• We add your thesis or dissertation to our library catalogue and the Theses Canada database.

Private or restricted information

Make sure your thesis or dissertation doesn't include personal information, such as:

• student numbers
• birth dates
• home addresses
• telephone numbers
• original signatures

If a patent is pending or your work contains sensitive or restricted information, your university can place an embargo on it. This will delay its submission to Theses Canada. You'll need to arrange embargoes in advance with your university.

Copyright permissions

You own the copyright and keep the intellectual property rights for your work. People can download a copy of your thesis from our site for research or private study purposes. Apart from those reasons, they can't reproduce it without your consent.

Co-authors of your thesis or dissertation must also sign the university's licence agreement.

If your thesis or dissertation includes content from other copyright-protected works, it can't exceed the fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act. If it does, you'll need permission from the copyright owner to include it.

For more information, contact:

• your university's copyright office
• the Canadian Intellectual Property Office