Overview

DRS supports deposit of digitized theses and dissertations and associated supporting content.

A thesis object can consist of a single PDF file or multiple PDFs representing the same thesis (for example, an original PDF and a PDF/A file derived from it, an archival version and a reduced size delivery version, or the redacted and unredacted versions of a thesis). Every file with the role DELIVERABLE will be assigned a delivery URN. The deliverable files in thesis objects are delivered by the File Delivery Service (FDS). The delivery restrictions are governed by DRS access flags (P = public; R = restricted to Harvard community; N = no delivery).

Optional supporting content can consist of thesis certificates (if supplied as separate from the thesis file), thesis supplements, embargo documentation, and licenses. See more about preparing supporting content for DRS in the section Preparing Supporting Content below.

What follows are instructions on how to prepare a thesis object and supporting content for deposit.

Preparing a thesis object

To deposit a thesis object, follow the regular manual or automatic workflow for creating a Document batch. Use these metadata values:

• Object-level Role: THESIS.
• File-level Processing value: leave blank, except for a redacted version of the thesis, which should be coded as REDACTED.
• File-level Role: assign DELIVERABLE to get a Delivery URN for the PDF file. Optionally, assign role ARCHIVAL_MASTER to the original file. If there is only one file in the thesis, then assign both roles to the file (Ctrl-Click in Batch Builder to assign multiple roles).

Preparing supporting content

A thesis object may be accompanied by any of the following supporting content: thesis certificate, thesis supplement, embargo documentation, license documentation.

Supporting content must be deposited to DRS and associated with the thesis object through relationship and/or rights metadata. There are three options for depositing supporting content:

• Deposit supporting content to DRS first, in a separate batch (applies to all supporting content, including license and embargo objects).
  
  After supporting content is deposited, the supporting Object URN can be used to link it to the regular content. Use the corresponding relationships fields in Batch Builder to link regular objects to supporting content when creating a regular content batch.
   
• Deposit supporting content and regular content in the same batch (does not apply to license and embargo objects).
  
  In this case, Object Name rather than Object URN is used for linking. When placing supporting content and regular content in the same batch, make sure that the supporting objects are named in such a way that the Object Name of the supporting object (the target of the relationships) occurs alphabetically before the Object Name of the regular content object (the source of the relationship). This is needed because in order for the relationship to be created correctly, the supporting object needs to be ingested into DRS before the regular object.
   
• Deposit supporting content after regular content (applies to all supporting content, including license and embargo objects).
  
  If depositing supported content after the regular content objects have been deposited to DRS, the relationships between the supporting content objects and regular content objects will need to be created in DRS Web Admin after both types of objects have been deposited. This option is not currently recommended for large volume workflows.

See the procedure for depositing supporting content in Section  11. Adding Supporting Content.

Types of supporting content for theses

Thesis certificate: Certificate of approval that specifies a thesis or doctoral dissertation was approved in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree. Most of the time, the certificate is included as part of the thesis and thus does not need to be deposited as a separate object. When the certificate is a separate file, it should be deposited as a separate supporting object. Certificates must be in PDF format and should be deposited using content model Document. The object role for certificates should be set to "THESIS_CERTIFICATE". There can be only one certificate associated with a thesis.

To relate a certificate object to the thesis object:

• If deposited before thesis object: Get the certificate's object URN from the load report, create the thesis object batch and add the object URN to "Has Documentation Object" field in object-level optional metadata in Batch Builder.
• If deposited in the same batch with the thesis object, use certificate Owner Supplied Name in "Has Documentation Object" field of the thesis object in object-level optional metadata in Batch Builder.
• If deposited after thesis object: Display the thesis object in Web Admin, select "Relationships" tab, add a HAS_DOCUMENTATION relationship and link to the certificate by its DRS ID, URN or owner supplied name.

Thesis supplement: Supplementary material included with a thesis, such as Power Point presentations, audio, video, appendixes, raw data, CAD files, etc. There is no limit on the number of supplemental objects a thesis can have. Any of the following content models can be used for thesis supplements: Audio, Document, Opaque, Still Image, or Text. Use the THESIS_SUPPLEMENT role at the object level.
To relate a thesis supplement to the thesis object:

• If deposited before thesis object: Get the supplement's object URN from the load report, create the thesis object batch and add the object URN to "Has Supplement Object" field in object-level optional metadata.
• If deposited in the same batch with the thesis object, use supplement Owner Supplied Name in "Has Supplement Object" field of the thesis object in object-level optional metadata in Batch Builder.
• If deposited after thesis object: Display the thesis object in Web Admin, select "Relationships" tab, add a HAS_SUPPLEMENT relationship and link to the supplement by its DRS ID, URN or owner supplied name.

Embargo documentation: If there is an access embargo on the thesis object, documentation about the embargo can be deposited as supporting content. This documentation describes the embargo requirements, such as embargo start/end date and reasons for the embargo. Batch Builder can associate only one embargo document with a thesis object, and the embargo document must be deposited using the Document object content model (a PDF file). The embargo document should have the EMBARGO_DOCUMENTATION role set at the object level.

To relate embargo documentation to the thesis object:

• If deposited before thesis object: Get the documentation's object URN from the load report, create the thesis object batch, fill out the "Embargo Rights" metadata section in object-level optional metadata (insert the object URN into the "Documentation Object URN" field in that section).
• If deposited in the same batch with the thesis object, enter the documentation’s Owner Supplied Name into the “Documentation Object” field of the Embargo Rights section of the thesis document object.
• If deposited after thesis object: Display the thesis object in Web Admin, select "Rights" tab, add/fill out a Rights block and link to the embargo documentation by selecting its owner supplied name from the Rights Document pull down list.

License: If the thesis has conditions on use, a license detailing these conditions should be deposited also. The license can be deposited using the Document, Still Image, or Text content model using an object-level role "LICENSE".

The license objects can be deposited in the same batch with thesis objects.

To relate license documentation to the thesis object:

• If deposited before thesis object: Get the documentation's object URN from the load report, create the thesis object batch, insert the object URN into the "License" field in the Other Rights Documentation section in object-level optional metadata.
• If deposited in the same batch with the thesis object, enter the license Owner Supplied Name into the “License” in the Other Rights Documentation section of the object-level optional metadata.
• If deposited after thesis object: Display the thesis object in Web Admin, select "Rights" tab, add/fill out a Rights block and link to the embargo documentation by selecting its owner supplied name from the Rights Document pull down list.