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Holiday Closure Notice

By cIRcle Office on Dec 16, 2025

Close up photo showing a round paper ornament that says 'Oh What Fun' hanging on a tree decorated with garland, lights, and other ornaments.

Photo courtesy Jamil Rhajiak / UBC Brand & Marketing

 

With the upcoming holiday season, the cIRcle Office will be operating under reduced capacity from Monday, December 21, 2025 to Monday, January 5, 2026. During this period, submission processing and responses from our team will be limited. From Thursday, December 25, 2025 to Thursday, January 1, 2026, the cIRcle Office will be closed. Submission requests and queries will be addressed upon office re-opening in January.

If you want to finish the year strong by sharing your work openly, read on to find various resources to help guide you through the process!

UBC Faculty Research Articles

Find out more about how cIRcle can help you meet grant-funding agency open access requirements by reading our blog post, Publishing grant-funded research articles in cIRcle: The Green Open Access Route.

Once you’re ready to deposit, review the process and submit your work through our Faculty and Staff Work page.

UBC Graduate Thesis and Dissertation Submissions

Learn more about the graduate thesis submission process and relevant deadlines:

cIRcle:

Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (UBC Vancouver): Dissertation and Thesis Submission

College of Graduate Studies (UBC Okanagan): Post-Defence Submission

Non-Thesis Student Works

Graduate students can upload their non-thesis works in cIRcle at any time. Our graduate non-thesis deposit blog post will get you started.

If you are an undergraduate student or a faculty member wanting to sponsor an undergraduate student submission, all the details are available on our Undergraduate Submissions page.

Everything Else

Does your work fall into a different category? Review our cIRcle Submissions page to find out more about how to submit your work to cIRcle.

If you have questions, check our cIRcle FAQ for answers to some of our most common questions.

If you’re still looking for more information or have a question not answered by our website, you can Contact Us and we’ll be in touch in the New Year.

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Explore cIRcle: Award-winning student publications

By Sonia Comstock on Dec 02, 2025

Students at the UBC AMS Nest.

Image courtesy of Martin Dee / UBC Brand & Marketing

Explore cIRcle’s growing collection of award-winning publications written by UBC undergraduate and graduate students, including winning papers from UBC Library’s Undergraduate Prize in Library Research! cIRcle has supported the deposit of student work since its inception, and encourages UBC’s students to explore how cIRcle can amplify their work by making it openly accessible to their peers around the world. These items showcase the unique intellectual output of UBC by highlighting the valuable and meaningful work that UBC students consistently produce, through their coursework and beyond.

Undergraduate Prize in Library Research

The Undergraduate Prize in Library Research acts to showcase students’ innovative and effective use of library services, information experts, and UBC library resources. Student award winners have created a variety of engaging and unique works that are currently available in cIRcle:

Ciara Albrecht’s project, A Memory of Skin and Bone : Lace as a Lifeline in Nineteenth Century Ireland, follows the relationship between Irish Lace and the lace-making artisans, utilizing visual and textual sources from the Music, Art & Architecture Library.

(Extra)ordinary People : Familial Memory and Heterotopia in the Visual Chinatown of Yucho Chow, by Alexei Villareal, focuses on five families photographed by Chinese-Canadian photographer Yucho Chow. In this report, Villareal explores the ways in which Chow’s portraits establish a ‘visual Chinatown’, and how they act as cultural resistance against historical erasure.

Ridhwanlai Badmos’ paper, Investigating Suicide Rates Across Demographic Subgroups in the Muslim American Community using Technical Frameworks, explores the underlying factors in suicide rates among the Muslim-American population and discusses ways to lower these rates through culturally sensitive interventions and improved mental health support systems.

Subject-Awards and Endowment Funds

cIRcle also hosts winning projects and papers from a variety of other subject-based awards and endowment funds. The UBC Okanagan Library’s Sharron Simpson Family Community Engagement Endowment Fund supports experiential learning that establishes and enhances university-community relationships with an emphasis on raising awareness of public history and regional identity. Mari Noble’s award-winning project, Metaphors of Beauty and Power in the Okanagan : Human-Centered Transfer of Knowledge through Metaphoric Language, is a photo essay that focuses the role of metaphor in the transfer of knowledge. Through this project, Mari examines how these metaphors are built through the lived experience of humans and therefore cannot be replicated via AI or machine learning.

The J. H. Stewart Reid Medal and Prize in Honours History is awarded to the honours history student with the most outstanding record. The 2025 recipient, Laura Silveira, wrote about the Carnation Revolution in Mozambique in their honours thesis, From Carnations to Complications : Decolonization and Portuguese-Mozambican Relations (1975-1977).

Maya Ballin’s graduate-level paper, “I’d Rather Have Something than Nothing” : Presence and Absence in the Records of Transracial, Transnational Adoptees, won the Gordon Dodd’s Prize and was published in Archivaria, the journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists. Ballin’s paper discusses the complex intersection of archival research and record-keeping with personal identity for adoptees.

Deposit Your Research

Are you a UBC student, or UBC faculty or staff supporting students with awards-oriented research? If so, please consult our Submissions page for more information about adding your work to cIRcle!

Further Reading

UBC Okanagan: Student Awards. University of British Columbia. Accessed November 19th, 2025.

UBC Vancouver: Student Awards. University of British Columbia. Accessed November 19th, 2025.

Submit Content: Undergraduate Work. cIRcle. Accessed November 19th, 2025.

Submit Content: Graduate Work. cIRcle. Accessed November 19th, 2025.

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UBC Theses and Dissertations at Library and Archives Canada

By cIRcle Office on Nov 18, 2025

A view of UBC graduate students walking up stairs from behind, in the direction of a Canadian flag in-focus

Photo courtesy: Paul Joseph / UBC Brand & Marketing

It’s now easier to find UBC graduate theses and dissertations online. After years of collaboration, coverage of theses and dissertations held by cIRcle has been significantly expanded in Library and Archive Canada’s (LAC) public Theses Canada portal, which includes items from across nearly 70 Canadian universities.

LAC is the national caretaker of Canadian history and heritage, and a key resource for those seeking Canadian academic research. This increased visibility expands the global impact and recognition of UBC’s graduate research, with now over 55,000 items dating back to 1919 available (and the number will continue to grow on a regular, ongoing basis). A significant enhancement is the ability for LAC records to include all files found within a thesis or dissertation record, furthering the awareness and use of these crucial research components.

cIRcle’s theses and dissertations undergo numerous activities to ensure long-term digital preservation. Partnership with LAC expands and strengthens these efforts, as LAC’s initiatives and infrastructure provides additional distributed storage and long-term preservation activities.

Getting ready to submit?

If you are a graduate student preparing to submit your thesis or dissertation to cIRcle, refer to your respective campus’ Graduate Studies website, which outlines deadlines and guidelines for preparation and submission:

cIRcle has also outlined key steps for submission on cIRcle’s Theses and Dissertations page, and has step-by-step guides you may follow.

Upon final approval, your thesis or dissertation will become part of cIRcle’s UBC Theses and Dissertations collection, and at a later date, will be added to LAC’s Theses Canada portal, further contributing to Canada’s history and expanding the reach of your research.

Further Reading

Essential Tips for UBC Thesis or Dissertation Submission. Published September 2023.

Theses and Dissertations at cIRcle : Discovery and Use

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New in cIRcle: “Understanding Disaster Preparedness in Vancouver: Community Perspectives”

By Sonia Comstock on Nov 04, 2025

Aerial photo of UBC Vancouver Campus and the surrounding ocean.

Image courtesy of UBC Brand & Marketing.

Explore a recent addition to cIRcle’s collection: Understanding Disaster Preparedness in Vancouver: Community Perspectives. This report from UBC’s Disaster Resilience Research Network (DRRN) was created in collaboration with the City of Vancouver Emergency Management Agency (VEMA) and published in September 2025. Users can access the full report in cIRcle, as well as an additional summary and annexes for the report.

The report presents findings from a DRRN-led mixed-methods study with the goal of better understanding disaster preparedness and resilience across Vancouver from a community perspective. The information contained in the report was designed to support City of Vancouver initiatives to address barriers to disaster preparedness. It also offers guidelines for Vancouver residents regarding good disaster preparedness practices and informs them of ways to mitigate barriers affecting Vancouver communities, which include a lack of accessible information, practical knowledge gaps, and an overall lack of guidance around disaster preparedness practices. Additional insight about the report is also available through the DRRN’s project page.

More information about the report can also be found in a recent UBC News feature. This feature outlines several important aspects of the report’s results and provides further details about the UBC research team behind the process. These interdisciplinary research team members include Dr. Jonathan Eaton, the Executive Director of the DRRN and a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Civil Engineering; Raahina Somani, a Master of Public Policy and Global Affairs alumna; Hang Cheng Ip, a Master of Public Policy & Global Affairs student; Michael Hooper, Associate Professor, School of Community & Regional Planning; Theodore Lim, Associate Professor, School of Community & Regional Planning; and Dr. Sara Shneiderman, the co-lead at DRRN and an Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.

The report has made an immediate impact upon release and currently has over 4,000 views and more than 500 downloads in cIRcle. It is featured via the City of Vancouver website, as well as shared through the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning News.

Related Works

More items related to disaster preparedness can also be found in cIRcle. This includes resources such as the Emergency Pantry Purchasing Guide, an undergraduate project created as part of the SEEDS (Social Ecological Economic Development Studies) sustainability program that provides recommendations on how to stock a pantry in preparation for all types of emergencies.

cIRcle also features materials that focus on specific types of disasters, including Earthquake Preparedness in BC Libraries : Best Practices from Abroad, a video presentation by a UBC graduate student that offers libraries (and other organizations) effective approaches for earthquake preparedness.

Another related work includes Planning Resilient Communities and Adapting Rural Health Services in British Columbia : A response to climate change and ecosystem disruption, a collaborative effort between the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Rural Health Services Research Network of B.C. and the Centre for Rural Health Research. This chapter series explores how rural communities can build resilience and prepare climate change disaster mitigation strategies in a growing hazard landscape.

Deposit Your Research

Are you a UBC faculty member or student interested in making your research openly accessible? Please consult our Submissions page for information about adding your work to cIRcle!

Further Reading

PreparedBC emergency guides and resources. Government of British Columbia. Updated March 5, 2025. Accessed October 16, 2025.

Personal & community preparedness. University of British Columbia. Accessed October 16, 2025.

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Open Access Week: Who Owns our Knowledge?

By cIRcle Office on Oct 20, 2025

The word “OPEN” written in strings, connected with other strings to words including education, knowledge, research, sharing, potential, teaching, equality, bridging and more.

Photo courtesy: Hanne Pearce (CC BY-NC 2.0)

This year’s Open Access Week theme – “Who Owns Our Knowledge?” – speaks to the rapid and significant disruption underway in the current open access landscape, requiring nuanced discussion in regards to ownership, control, permissions, and equality.

Open UBC and UBC Library are offering numerous free events that host experts in open scholarship, and highlight open access efforts and supports at UBC. Explore sessions on creating, finding, using, and sharing open educational resources (as well as funding opportunities for doing so), along with helpful sessions on copyright and licensing, and podcasting. Open UBC has also highlighted some great events hosted by other institutions, including The University of Northern Iowa and Penn State University Libraries.

Whether you can attend this year’s events or not, you can explore a selection of prior presentations from Open Access Week at UBC Library in cIRcle. You may also consider signing up for the UBC Open Newsletter, to keep up with upcoming event offerings and other updates related to open access efforts at UBC.

Additionally, UBC Library’s Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office publishes numerous reports about their efforts leading and supporting efforts in open access, open scholarship, and open education.  Read the latest Open Access Article Publishing at UBC Annual Report, which provides insight into recent open access publishing trends by UBC affiliated authors, as well as some of UBC’s financial conditions for enabling and supporting open access publishing efforts. The latest UBC Library Open Education Impact & Activity Report highlights UBC Library’s impact across both campuses on open educational practices.

Further Reading

Learn more about open access and available supports from UBC Library’s Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office

UBC’s Program for Open Scholarship and Education (POSE)

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