The requirement that the dissertation be available to scholars may also be satisfied by depositing three copies of a commercially-printed work that is identical to the dissertation as defended. If the entire dissertation as defended has not been commercially published by the time of final deposit, the author may not deposit under the commercial publication option. With this option, the dissertation is not digitized, catalogued or bound, and the fee payable at deposit is $55 rather than $160. The fee, paid to ProQuest, covers the cost of listing of title and abstract in Dissertations Abstracts International, Comprehensive Dissertation Index and the Digital Dissertations database. The Dissertation Office will accept U.S. Postal Money Orders, bank money orders or certified checks. If the candidate is depositing from abroad, a money order (in U.S. dollars) drawn on an international bank is acceptable. Cash, credit cards, personal checks and international postal money orders (for domestic as well as international deposits) cannot be accepted.

The commercially-printed work may be a book, set of professionally bound reprints that are numbered throughout, a government report, a lab report, or some other publication. It must also be available from a distributor such as a bookstore, government printing office, journal publisher, etc., and contain the Library of Congress number. The three copies are distributed to the Columbia University Libraries. At the time of deposit, the author must provide to the Dissertation Office a dissertation abstract and complete the form, Publish Abstract Only (PAO) Agreement form, available at the Dissertation Office.