Third party search is no longer an option for theses or dissertations.
Previously, when a dissertation was submitted through ProQuest, one of the options was "I want major search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo) to discover my work through ProQuest."
An answer of "Yes" or "Include" meant that the full text of your dissertation (after any selected embargo period expired) would be searchable and discoverable through search engines, such as Google, so that researchers could discover your work beyond ProQuest or the WashU Scholarly Repository (formerly Open Scholarship).
The WashU repository was not able to restrict third-party search; so a "No" was treated as a permanent embargo (which displays as 100 years) until the policy was discontinued. "No" or "Exclude" means that a citation, including name, dissertation title, and abstract, will appear in Open Scholarship and can be found through online searches; however, online access to the actual dissertation or its content will not be available.
This permanent embargo takes precedence over any other embargo period that was selected. An author may change the length of your embargo and allow online access to your dissertation at any time by emailing digital@wumail.wustl.edu.
This selection explains why a number of dissertations have 100-year embargoes.
