Description

If, once your doctoral thesis has been completed and always before it has been deposited, you inform that your thesis includes the involvement of companies with confidentiality agreements or the possibility of generating patents linked to its content, and you declare yourself as the author and confirm that you have created it entirely, you can request a special process. This process will ensure the evaluation and electronic archiving of the doctoral thesis, preserving the confidentiality of certain aspects.

 Procedure

  1. Application (PROCEDURE TO BE COMPLETED PRIOR TO THESIS DEPOSIT)
    Prior to depositing your thesis, and well in advance, you must submit an application at any UPF Registry office, addressed to the Academic Committee of your Doctoral Programme, to request that the thesis be submitted with protection and/or an associated confidentiality agreement. In this application, you must attach:
     
    • A complete copy of the thesis (unencrypted version) and an encrypted copy, which is the version that will be published in the TDX repository. This encrypted copy must provide an overview of the research work and indicate the elements that have been removed or encrypted; only the parts essential to ensuring the protection or transfer of the results should be encrypted. If the Academic Committee has not provided specific instructions regarding encryption, you may contact La Factoria (UPF Library/CRAI) for technical support.
       
    • The original or a certified copy of the documents proving that your thesis is subject to protection or knowledge and technology transfer processes.
       
    • A favorable report from your doctoral thesis supervisor supporting the application.
       
  2. Authorization from the Academic Committee
    The Academic Committee will evaluate your request and notify you of the resolution within a maximum of 10 working days. The application will only be accepted if it is demonstrated that confidentiality is essential to the success of the protection or transfer process. The Committee may request that you modify the content or format of the encrypted copy and submit any necessary additional documentation. The resolution will be communicated to the doctoral student, the thesis supervisor, and the tutor (if applicable). The members of the Academic Committee are required to maintain the confidentiality of the thesis content and shall sign a non-disclosure commitment to this effect.
     
  3. Authorization for thesis deposit (Public display at the Library)
    Once authorization to deposit the thesis with protection and/or associated confidentiality agreements has been obtained, you must request permission from the Academic Committee to deposit it. IMPORTANT: The copy of the thesis submitted for deposit authorization must be the same encrypted version that has already been authorized by the Academic Committee. When you submit your deposit request online, you must upload both versions, the encrypted and the unencrypted. You should upload the encrypted version to the ‘Thesis File’ section of STES and the unencrypted version to the ‘Documentation Provided by the Student’ section for archiving purposes.

 Please note

The members of the thesis assessment board must be provided with the full version of the thesis and be expressly informed that it is subject to protection. Therefore, before receiving the thesis, they must sign a confidentiality agreement.

 Publication in the TDX repository

Only the encrypted version of the thesis will be published in the TDX repository. If you wish, once the protection or knowledge transfer process is complete, it can be replaced with the full version.

 Regulations

Procedure approved by the Doctoral School's Directing Committee on 19 May 2014, in accordance with article 14.6 of Royal Decree 99/2011, of 28 January, which governs official doctoral programmes and empowers universities to establish the procedures necessary to ensure that certain parts of doctoral theses are kept confidential in exceptional circumstances that require such confidentiality.