Master's theses and other graduate level capstones
Service profile
The SDR is open for use by graduate students who author a Master's Degree thesis or produce other work (practicum report, capstone, etc.) as part of their culminating academic experience at Stanford. Using the online deposit application, students are able to upload their work directly to the collection managed by their department or academic program. These works are preserved in the repository and published for discovery and access by other students and scholars. (Note: Students enrolled in a PhD program or the School of Engineering Master's program deposit using the Electronic Theses and Dissertations service.)
Because the SDR provides a centralized, long-term home for these works, Stanford schools, departments, and other academic programs benefit by being able to develop an online archive of student publications to share with the world without having to store, track, and host the files on their own.
Students enjoy the benefit of having their work discoverable and published online at a persistent Stanford link which can be reliably cited throughout their academic and professional careers.
Read our Guide to Student Publishing which explains why students should publish their academic works in a repository, how to make the most of depositing their works, and where to get started.
The video below provides a brief overview of the process of depositing a student work in the SDR.
Features
- Easy-to-use system for adding files and descriptive information for the deposit
- Configurable workflow to allow for faculty or staff review of student deposits before they are published
- Configurable settings for access levels (world or Stanford) and a menu of optional licenses
- Option to embargo the publication (delay the release) for up to 3 years from time of deposit
- Each deposited work is published at a persistent URL (PURL) where it can be reliably accessed in the future
- Each deposited work is added to the library catalog, SearchWorks, where it can be discovered along with other works by Stanford students and faculty
Available to
Current faculty, staff, and students
Requirements
Users must have a valid, active SUNet account and must have been granted permission to create collections or to deposit, manage or review works in a collection.
Data security
The SDR allows deposit of low risk and medium risk information as defined by the Information Security Office. Note that deposits to the SDR are subject to the Terms of Deposit.
Rates
Free of charge
Get started
- Check out the list of current participating departments and programs
- Students: Contact your program's Student Services Officer to inquire about using the SDR deposit service for your thesis or similar work. If your program does not currently maintain a collection, and you choose to independently deposit your work in SDR, contact the SDR team.
- Department administrators: you can contact your subject librarian or the SDR team who can advise on the process and help with setting up a new collection or updating an existing one
Get help
- Contact the SDR team
- Visit the Documentation section, including the FAQs
- Customizable student instructions for collection managers (.docx, please download your own copy to edit)
Learn more
- Guide to student publishing - prepared by Stanford librarians
- SDR Terms of Deposit
- SDR submissions workflows