How to Request Imperial College to Put an Embargo on Your Ph.D. Thesis?

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Once you have completed your thesis, you will deposit it in the Imperial College Spiral. As a result, you will make your thesis public for common users who can read it without any restrictions. For the same reason, you avail thesis writing services so that you could furnish a flawless thesis. However, there could be some special cases when you would like to put an embargo on your thesis to go public. 

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What is an Embargo?

An embargo is a type of ban on the availability of a thesis publicly. Consequently, once an embargo is activated, only a few parts of the thesis may be released for public reading. These parts may be the title, citation and abstract. Hence, common users may not be able to access the full version of the thesis. Moreover, colleges make these types of restrictions for a certain period of time.

Strong Reasons to Make Embargo Request

There may be various reasons for making an embargo request. However, you must consult with your supervisor before going to it as his approval is very important. Below are some of the very common and strong reasons: 

Future Publication

You are planning to get your thesis published and you don’t want to release it for public reading right now.

Intellectual property

The Thesis may face some sort of intellectual property issues and you don’t want to involve in any such problem.

Commercial Research

Your thesis contains some sort of secret research work that was required on the condition of the confidentiality. In addition, if you hire some thesis writing services, make sure they assure confidentiality of the information.

Personal Information

Some of the information included in the paper might have been collected on the basis of anonymity. For example, the information from a patient is part of the thesis but he does not want to expose his identity.

Public Anger

You might have conducted some sort of experiment in which you used living people or animals. Hence, putting the details of information to the public desk might pose some threats to the researcher and associates. 

National Security

Your thesis might contain some information that is related to national security and therefore, you would not want it to reach the public. 

If you have taken the decision to request an embargo, you should discuss it in detail with your instructor/ supervisor. As soon as you receive advice from the supervisor, you can choose from the above or other options in the declaration tile.

How Long An Embargo Can Be Imposed?


The embargo period may last up to 5 years depending upon the approval of the college assessment department. Different colleges may follow diverse rules and regulations as per their requirement. Therefore, it is really important to check out with your own college before going for an embargo request.  Some thesis writing services may also be helpful in understanding embargo policies.

Can I Extend My Embargo Period?

Of course, you can. Once you have requested your embargo period, this will be done for a certain period of time.  Hence you must decide if you want to lift the embargo or would like to extend it for a few more weeks or months. 

In case, you would like to get an extension to the first period, you can do it through contacting the Imperial College degrees team. However, you must make the request at least eight weeks before the prior period ends.

Requirement for Embargo Request Due to Publication

If you would like to get an extension due to publication in near future, you must include the following details in your request letter. 

  • Publication Status: Submission, Acceptance, Rejection, Review, etc
  • What is the name of the Journal in which you are publishing your thesis?
  • Mention name of the Publisher 
  • Provide evidence such as a copy of correspondence, a policy of the journal, etc 

You can request the assessment record department for consideration of your request along with details. You may also approach thesis writing services to help in making the request.

Approval of Embargo Requests

Applying for the embargo does not mean you will definitely get the approval. Eventually, it depends upon the assessment records team that how they deal with your case. You must give some strong reasons to get your embargo approved by the committee. Therefore, we strongly advise you to go for it with the support of your supervisor. 

You may be submitting the evidence to prove your reasons and therefore, you must never give any kind of misinformation. Make sure to generate authentic information to ensure an early approval of your request.

Final Words

If you need any more information regarding the thesis embargo, you can easily contact the imperial college Assessment Records department. Many students choose thesis writing services to take assistance in the completion of their work. In case you do the same, make sure to get a commitment not to share your information with third parties. 

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