About CTS Digital Commons

The CTS Digital Commons is an openly accessible, digital representation of theses and dissertations created by CTS students in various degree programs.

CTS students who contribute to the CTS Digital Commons can benefit from participating as follows: 

1.     Greater online visibility of your scholarly work to a broader audience. 

2.     Protecting your scholarly work from being appropriated by others without giving you credit. 

3.     Online and open access scholarship is cited more often, and cited sooner, than work only available through print copies or subscription/fee-based thesis and dissertation repositories. 

4.     Students can include a stable URL for their work in a CV or e-mail it to colleagues and hiring committees.

If I submit a work, will I continue to own the copyright?

Authors maintain full copyright to works posted in the CTS Digital Commons. The Chicago Theological Seminary claims no ownership over the content but maintains a non-exclusive right to make the materials accessible for non-commercial use. This non-exclusive right does not interfere with the copyright holders' rights or ability to reuse content.

How does participating in the CTS Digital Commons increase access to my scholarly work? 

The CTS Digital Commons through Atla is part of a network of open-access digital repositories for graduate programs of study related to ministry, theology, and religion. 

What kinds of works can be submitted?

At this time, only student theses and dissertations for the various graduate programs at CTS may be contributed to the Digital Commons. In the future, the CTS Digital Commons may be able to accept other works such as published articles, presentations, conference proceedings, creative activities, media, etc.

Can a work be removed from the CTS Digital Commons?

Generally, no. Once students agree to submit their work, it serves as a permanent record of the Seminary’s scholarly output. This is similar to students contributing a bound copy of their thesis/dissertation to the Learning Commons. Doctoral students may place an embargo on when their dissertation may be publicly available.

Can a previously submitted work be modified or updated?

A student may update a contribution they’ve made, but the recommended practice is to keep all versions posted rather than removing previous iterations.

May I use items from the CTS Digital Commons?

You are free to download, save, and print materials found here for your own personal use. However, you should not re-publish, re-post, or redistribute materials without the permission of the author. Linking to resources is always permitted.

Who do I contact for assistance?

Contact the Lapp Learning Commons at CTS at: library@ctschicago.edu