Permanent link to current and past versions of the IDEALS Withdrawal Policy

Link to the Digital Content Takedown Request Procedure for the University of Illinois Library

IDEALS strives to provide persistent access to all deposited items. However, it may be necessary under some circumstances to withdraw items from IDEALS. Triggers for withdrawal may include discovery of a copyright violation or publication of an article with a publisher that does not allow previous versions to be available. Withdrawals may be initiated by the depositor or, in the case of a copyright violation, an internal or external entity.

All withdrawal requests must go through ideals@library.illinois.edu. These will be reviewed by IDEALS staff. IDEALS staff may contact the person making the request for more information.

If a withdrawal is requested due to a copyright violation, IDEALS will notify the depositor and withdraw the item. IDEALS is not responsible for resolving copyright disputes, but will refer University of Illinois community members to the University of Illinois Office of University Counsel. If it is found that copyright was not violated, the withdrawn item will be reinstated.

Items may not be withdrawn because the depositor or author is moving to another institution. The depositor has the right to give additional copies to other institutions under the non-exclusive agreement.

When an item is withdrawn from IDEALS a copy will remain in an inaccessible archive (as specified in the deposit agreement). Since any item that has existed within IDEALS may have been cited via its persistent URL, IDEALS will always supply a "tombstone" when the item is requested. Withdrawn items will not be available for harvesting or indexing by search engines.

To avoid loss of the historical record, the withdrawal transaction will be traced via a provenance statement. The content of the note will include who requested the withdrawal and the reason for the withdrawal. IDEALS staff will alert a requester when a withdrawal is complete, or, if a withdrawal request is refused, will provide the requester with the reason why it was not accepted.

Preservation actions beyond back-ups will not be performed on withdrawn items.

It is also possible to restrict access to material within IDEALS, but withdrawal and access restriction should not be confused. Withdrawal of items should be considered a permanent action to remove access to an item in IDEALS, while items under restricted access are either accessible to a limited number of users or under embargo, i.e. completely restricted for a limited period of time. See the IDEALS Access Restriction Policy for more information.

Many dissertations and theses originally submitted in paper have been digitized and deposited in IDEALS. If authors of these dissertations and theses would like to have their work removed from IDEALS, they may submit a withdrawal request if:

1. There is a paper copy available in the Library and

2. There is a copy available on ProQuest (for dissertations)

To submit a withdrawal request, email IDEALS at ideals@library.illinois.edu. 

For all Music Doctoral Project Theses [Option 2], Music Doctoral Project Papers [Option 3], and non-thesis or dissertation withdrawal requests, see the IDEALS Withdrawal Policy.