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SEAS Thesis Portfolio Guide

A complete overview to the thesis portfolio from the history to submission.

Limiting Access

There are two options for limiting access to your work. 

The only odd part of this is that we can’t just hide one piece – it applies to the entire contents of the Thesis Portfolio (and that is made up of the Technical, STS4500 Prospectus, STS4600 Research Paper, and SocioTechnical Synthesis/Executive Summary).

UVA Only, Limited Access

The first option is you can make your portfolio UVA-only. This will ensure that the files of your Thesis Portfolio are only accessible if someone is physically on-grounds or can log onto the UVA VPN.

You don't need to do anything to have this option. It's automatically available when we get to the phase to start submitting the Portfolio and you log into Libra

Embargo

The second option is to embargo. This completely hides the files from everyone for a period of time. The regular options are a series of times that range from 6 months to five years. But we can also set up a custom embargo if you or your team needs.

To embargo, you need to email three people to confirm you need an embargo: email Maggie, your technical/major professor, and your STS 4600 professor.
The Libra policy is that we need the request in writing with approval from at least one advisor to add the embargo option to your account. Once you do that, Libra staff turn on the embargo option for you.

We recommend that you can wait until you get approved to submit to Libra and then you can email us. That way you’re in the Libra system and it’s easy for us to do. 

What if I already know my professor wants to embargo the Portfolio? 

We still need that in writing but feel free to forward an email from your professor saying that you need an embargo to Maggie. As long as there is written notice that you need an embargo that is fine. 

What if I already submitted and then realized that I need the Limited/Embargo option?

That is something we can fix! You still need to send the email saying you need an embargo and for how long to Maggie, your technical/major professor, and your STS 4600 professor. But we can take care of that on the backend.