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Atrium Institutional Repository

What should I review before submitting my thesis/dissertation to the Atrium?

To use the Atrium, you (the author(s) or copyright owner) grant the University of Guelph the non-exclusive right to make available, reproduce, translate, and distribute your submission worldwide in any format or medium. Please review the Digital Repositories Policy or make a Publishing and Author Support Request for more information.

Please review the Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies’ (OGPS) Thesis Completion Guide prior to beginning the submission process. Please refer to the Accessible Theses guide for best practices in creating an accessible thesis document. 

Additionally, before beginning your submission, please ensure your file is saved in tagged PDF format. The file name should contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores and should not include any spaces, hyphens, or accented characters. The following file naming convention is mandatory for thesis submissions:

familyname_firstname_finalsubmissionyearmonth_degree.pdf

  • An example of a file name for a Master of Science thesis authored by Seán O’Leary-Jones in May 2022 would be: OLearyJones_Sean_202205_MSc.pdf
  • Supplemental files (e.g., reports, systematic reviews, conference proceedings, articles, plain language summaries, etc.) should be deposited separately from your thesis/dissertation file. If you would like to deposit supplemental files, please make a Publishing and Author Support Request for guidance.
  • Supplemental research data files should be deposited in the University of Guelph Research Data Repositories to improve access and discovery of your data. For more information regarding depositing your data in the U of G Research Data Repositories, please make a Publishing and Author Support Request.

How do I use the online submission form?

  1. Go to the Atrium home page.
  2. Click on the ‘Log In’ button at the top right of the page and log in to the Atrium using your U of G central ID and password. Once logged in using your U of G central ID, you will have immediate deposit access to all collections in the Atrium and can begin your deposit.
  3. Click on the profile icon at the top right of the page and select ‘Submissions’ from the drop-down menu.
  4. To start a new submission, on the Your Submissions page, drag and drop your thesis/dissertation file onto the 'Drag & Drop your files here or browse' bar or click 'browse'.
  5. In the New submission window, select the 'Theses – Theses & Dissertations (2011 – present)' collection.
  6. In the Edit Submission window, you can enter descriptive information about your thesis/dissertation and apply an end-user license to your work. Use the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page to save your work as you go. Use the ‘Save for later’ button if you need to come back to your work later. If you wish to delete the draft submission, click on the ‘Discard’ button.
  7. Describe: Complete all mandatory fields (*) and any other fields that are applicable to your submission.
    • Authors*: Enter the Last name and First name of the author as listed on the title page of the thesis/dissertation. Please enter only your own name as the author of the thesis/dissertation.
    • Title*: Enter the full name by which this thesis/dissertation should be known and cited.
    • Other Titles: Use this to indicate any alternative titles for the thesis/dissertation, such as a translated title.
    • Language: This field is auto populated with the option ‘English’. If your thesis/dissertation is written in a different language, use the drop-down list to select the language of the content of your thesis/dissertation.
    • Programme: Select your program from the drop-down list.
    • Degree: Select the degree that you have earned from the drop-down list.
    • Department: Select your home department from the drop-down list.
    • Advisor*: Enter the name of your advisor. If you have multiple advisors, click the ‘Add more’ button to create additional advisor name input boxes.
    • Date of copyright*: Enter the date that appears on the title page of your thesis/dissertation. Only the year and month are required. The day should be left blank.
    • Related Publication: If you have published any portion of your thesis/dissertation work (e.g., journal article, conference proceeding, etc.), enter the full citation information including the digital object identifier (DOI) for the publication in your preferred citation style. Use one input field per related publication. For additional input field, click the ‘Add more’ button.
    • Embargo lift date: Enter the embargo expiry date (Year, Month, Day). This is the day on which the thesis/dissertation file will be available for public viewing. Note that if you wish to request an embargo on access to your thesis/dissertation, you must apply to the Office of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies (OGPS) stating the reason for your request. Refer to the OGPS Submission Checklist for information about requesting an embargo using the Request to Restrict Circulation of Thesis form. If you enter an embargo at the time of submission without first submitting the ‘Request to Restrict Circulation of Thesis’ form to OGPS, the embargo date will be removed from your submission.
    • Subject keywords: Enter three to five keywords. Provide appropriate keywords for your work. Choose keywords that broadly represent what your publication is about, for example "pesticides" rather than a brand name. Capitalize terms only when necessary. To provide multiple keywords, click on the ‘Add more’ button.
    • Abstract*: Enter the abstract for your thesis/dissertation. You may copy and paste as plain text directly from your thesis document.
    • Sponsors: If your thesis/dissertation is a product of funded research, select the funder's name from the drop-down list. To select additional funders, click on the ‘Add more’ button to create a new selection field. Please note that this list is not an exhaustive list and only includes the most common funding agencies.
  8. Upload files: If you have already dragged and dropped your thesis file, the uploaded file will be visible in this section of the form. Note that you can drag and drop file(s) anywhere on the page to if you would like to include supplemental file(s) in the record.
  9. Creative Commons license: In the Atrium you may choose to reserve all rights, assign a Creative Commons license, or waive all rights to your work. For information about copyright please consult the Intellectual Property Issues guide or the Copyright and your thesis guide. You can also consult the Creative Commons License Chooser or book a Publishing and Author Support Request to learn more.
    1. If you wish to reserve all rights, in the ‘Select a license type’ drop-down menu, select 'No CC License’. You can then move to the next step in the submission form.
    2. If you wish to assign a license to your work, in the ‘Select a license type’ drop-down menu, select ‘Creative Commons’.
      1. By selecting ‘Creative Commons’, you automatically indicate that users must provide attribution (citation/credit) if they use your work. To set additional conditions on use, select a response to the two prompts: Allow commercial uses of your work? Allow modifications of your work? The jurisdiction of your license is set by default (and cannot be changed) to International.
      2. Once you have made your selections, the link to the license deed you selected will be displayed.
      3. Check the box beside “I grant the license above”.
    3. If you wish to waive all copyright to the extent possible under law, in the ‘Select a license type’ drop-down menu, select ‘CC0’ (I.e., Public Domain Dedication - No rights reserved). This also means is that you will no longer hold copyright, and therefore are unable to assign copyright or license rights to a publisher for any future publication of the work.
      1. Once you have made your selections, the link to the waiver deed you selected will be displayed.
      2. Check the box beside “I grant the license above”.
  10. Distribution license. Your agreement to this non-exclusive license is required before your thesis/dissertation can appear in the Atrium and Theses Canada (Library and Archives Canada). By agreeing to this license, you grant the University of Guelph and Library and Archives Canada the non-exclusive right to make available, reproduce, translate, and distribute your submission worldwide in any format or medium. After reviewing the Digital Repositories Policy, check the box beside 'I have read and agreed to the full terms outlined in the Digital Repositories Policy’.
  11. To complete your submission, click on the ‘Deposit’ button to submit your thesis/dissertation for review.

How are thesis/dissertation submissions reviewed?

Your submitted thesis/dissertation will be reviewed by the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (OGPS).

While your submission is under review, you will not be able to make changes or edits to it. If any corrections to your submission are required, you will receive an email notification that your submission has been rejected with an explanation of required changes. Upon rejection, your thesis record will again be tagged as “Workspace”, and you will be able to make the necessary edits and resubmit.

When your submission has been accepted into the Atrium, you will receive an email notification with a persistent URL (a handle) for your thesis/dissertation, that you can use to cite and share your work.  Once approved, your thesis record will be tagged as “Archived” in the Atrium.

To track the status of your submission, in the ‘Your submissions’ view in the Atrium, if your thesis record is tagged as:

  • Workspace - this means your thesis record is in draft, and you will need to finish filling out the submission form and click on the ‘Deposit’ button to submit your thesis for review. Note that if your submitted thesis record has been rejected for corrections, upon rejection, it will again be tagged as ‘Workspace’, and you will receive a rejection notification email with a description of the required updates/corrections. You can make the necessary edits to your thesis record and resubmit it.
  • Workflow - this means you have successfully submitted your thesis record, and it has been placed in the queue for the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to review.
  • Archived - this means your thesis record has been approved and is publicly available (with appropriate file-level embargoes if applicable) and you will receive an ‘approved and archived’ notification email.

Making corrections to a rejected submission

Please do not create a brand-new submission but edit the rejected submission and resubmit for review. To edit a rejected submission:

  1. Go to the Atrium home page.
  2. Click on the ‘Log In’ button at the top right of the page and log in to the Atrium using your U of G central ID and password.
  3. Click on the profile icon at the top right of the page and select ‘Submissions’ from the drop-down menu.
  4. On the ‘Your submissions’ page, in the Filter pane under the Status section, click on the check box beside ‘Workspace’.
  5. In the ‘Workspace’ result listing, find your rejected submission and click on the Edit button. This will reopen the item submission form.
  6. Under the ‘Upload files’ section of the form, to delete the old version of your thesis file, click on the ‘Delete file’ (red garbage can) button.
  7. Drag and drop the corrected version of your thesis tagged PDF file anywhere on the submission form to upload the file.
  8. Make any other edits to the submission form as required.
  9. Click on the ‘Deposit’ button to resubmit your thesis for review.

Who do I contact for support?

The Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies manages the Theses & Dissertations collection in the Atrium. Questions about formatting requirements, submission of required forms, graduate fees, and the status of your submission should be directed to the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

If you have questions about the Atrium online submission form or require technical assistance, please make a Publishing and Author Support Request.

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