Holy Spirit University of Kaslik | Article 17: Confidentiality Period on Thesis publication and Embargo

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Article 1: Introduction Article 2: Council of Doctoral College (CDC) Article 3: Admission to Doctoral Studies Article 4: Registration Article 5: PhD Thesis Supervisor(s) Article 6: Interruption of Study Article 7: Exclusion and Withdrawal from Doctoral Studies Article 8: PhD Thesis Charter Article 9: Appeal Article 10: Doctoral Studies Program Article 11: PhD Thesis Evaluation Article 12: Jury Designation and Defense Authorization Article 13: Composition of Jury Article 14: Role of the Members of the Defense Jury Article 15: PhD Thesis Defense Article 16: PhD Thesis Defense: Deliberation and Verdicts Article 17: Confidentiality Period on Thesis publication and Embargo Article 18: Final Submission of the PhD Thesis After a Successful Defense Article 19: Plagiarism Article 20: Implementation and Amendment Article 21: Rules Compliance

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Article 17: Confidentiality Period on Thesis publication and Embargo

1. Confidentiality: PhD student and/or supervisor(s) (6) who are applying for patents, are including sensitive controlled material, have a contract on file or are including a non-disclosure agreement may request confidentiality of their PhD theses. Confidentiality can be requested for one or two years and PhD students and/or supervisor(s) who have contracts or agreements on file may request longer periods.

2. An application for restricted access of a PhD thesis, Embargo, may be made by the PhD student and/or the supervisor(s) subject to the approval by the dean of the Doctoral College. Such requests will be considered only on the grounds:

that the thesis contains confidential and/or sensitive material; or
that the patent application needs time to be lodged and/or the commercialization process is pending; or
that it was a condition imposed by the owner of private records and material used by the author; or
that the PhD student and/or supervisor(s) was in contract relationship with a third party that made the restriction a condition of the contract; or
that the thesis contains creative, critical, academic, or equivalent material with a required delay for publication, performance, or equivalents.
that the publication of the thesis carries a significant risk of harm to individuals or Institution.

3. A Confidentiality Request Form (CRF) must be completed, sent to, and approved by the dean of the Doctoral College before the student submits the final electronic version of the thesis to the USEK Library. The approval must be sought and granted not later than the time at which PhD defense arrangements are approved.

4. Where an application for confidentiality has been granted, the thesis will be retained and secured in a vault inside USEK, with restricted access and will only be made available to those directly involved in the project.

5. An embargo on thesis publication cannot be requested after the thesis has been submitted and approved in the workflow system.

(6) The Intellectual Property (IP) ownership is dealt with according to the USEK Intellectual Property Policy. The IP is divided into two categories, industrial property and copyright. The advice from the concerned CDC members should be sought if the PhD thesis involves any form of intellectual property.

Doctoral College

Article 17: Confidentiality Period on Thesis publication and Embargo

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