Access policy

The purpose of eCommons is to provide stable, long-term public access to digital content produced by members of the Cornell University community. By default, material deposited in eCommons will be openly accessible worldwide over the Web.

Under certain circumstances, restrictions or temporary embargoes on worldwide open access may be imposed. Access restrictions are set during the deposit process but may be relaxed or renewed at a later date.

The following restrictions and embargoes are allowed:

  • Access to a collection may be restricted to members of the Cornell community. This restriction may be temporary or indefinite. Some collections have their own policies which prohibit this restriction.
  • Access to the full text of an individual item may be temporarily blocked (to any user) for an embargo period normally not to exceed two years. After the embargo period, the content will be openly accessible worldwide.
  • Cornell Theses and Dissertations from the Graduate School: Access to the full text may be temporarily blocked (to any user) for an initial embargo period of up to two years, determined by the student at the time of submission to the Graduate School. As the embargo date nears, students may request an extension of up to two additional years by contacting the eCommons Administrator. Two extensions are allowed; additional extensions require permission from the Graduate School. Students wishing to extend the embargo on their dissertation in ProQuest should contact ProQuest directly.
  • M.F.A. theses in English Language and Literature are under permanent embargo, unless the author requests otherwise. Individual requests for access may be honored at the author's discretion.

Requests to impose or change access restrictions should be addressed to the eCommons Administrator, and are accepted only from authors using their Cornell email address. Cornell email access is available for alumni.

To request access to restricted content, see Accessing specific collections and restricted content.

Use policy

Terms of use apply. Inquiries about use of material in eCommons should be directed to the author(s). eCommons administrators do not have the authority to grant permission to use content in eCommons.