UK

From European e-Theses

Etheses in the UK

Update Feb 2007 The EThOS project has completed successfully. An independent evaluation strongly supported the basic approach, and recommended further work in one or two areas. A small team continues to work toward a service hosted at the BL. The continuation / coordination group (representing JISC, CURL and the BL) has, along with JISC Communications, managed the production of a briefing paper on e-theses, which has been sent with a covering letter to all Vice Chancellors in the UK. The objective is to assess the demand for the service and inform the planning to service setup. Universities have been asked to respond indicating their intentions with respect to EThOS. The results will be known by the end of February.

From 2006 The following information was correct at January 2006. Significant progress has since been made and this information will be updated as soon as possible

1. Are electronic doctoral (PhD) theses being collected digitally and made accessible (publicly/open access) in the UK?

Yes, but currently only on a small scale. A small number of UK universities are making theses available within institutional repositories, such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Nottingham, Cranfield, Birmingham, Cambridge (this list is indicative and not exhaustive). Some of these repositories exist only as pilots as the result of a research project. However, many universities are currently looking at the issues with the intention of making theses available electronically in the future.

2. How many per year? What percentage of the total of e-theses?

Not possible to give exact figures, but likely to be a small percentage and not more than a few hundred theses in total for the UK.

3. Does anyone enrich (add value to) e-theses? For example,

· by identifying and resolving legal (e.g. copyright) or plagiarism issues

Most UK institutions currently rely on students to seek permission for the inclusion of 3rd party copyright material. However, this is not entirely satisfactory within an electronic framework – one of the substantive deliverables of the EThOS project is a report on IPR issues. It is hoped that this will inform the revision of institutional policies and practice. We are not aware that any institutions are using the electronic availability of theses as a way of checking for plagiarism.

· preserving them

Many UK institutions will have the intention of digitally preserving electronic theses. It is also highly likely that the British Library will continue to have a major role in preservation.

· linking e-theses with related material on which they are based (including data, statistics, multimedia, etc)

It is likely that institutions will want to do this. We have no evidence relating to current practice.

4. What kinds of interoperability are useful in your national context? For example- · syntactic interoperability (e.g., simple / advanced cross-search, use of OAI-PMH harvesting protocol)

This would be very useful in UK national context

· semantic interoperability (e.g., access via disciplines / subjects, multilingual access)

Access via disciplines very important, particularly in the context of discipline related repository work more generally (e.g. the open access developments with regard to the Wellcome Trust & PubMed). The multi-lingual element may be less generally relevant except for the language based disciplines.

5. Who ensures that the following issues are dealt with, so that e-theses are available?

· business models (financial sustainability - who pays?)

Locally institutions make theses freely available, and the work of doing this is generally taken on by the library, as part of its services. However, it is recognised that access, delivery and preservation of digital content has cost implications which are not fully understood. E-theses are considered within this broader framework.

· organisational / roles and responsibilities (who does what?)

A thesis is considered part of an examination process – all the issues around that are governed by academic regulations & responsibility lies with the Faculty or School. Changes to regulations, as a consequence of a move to digital rather than print submission would require formal approval through Senate or other university committees. The library is responsible for holding the thesis and ensuring it is accessible.

· legal (copyright / licences, liability, etc)

see 3 above.

6. What European-level activities would be useful to add value to your national activities?

Difficult to say – hopefully the workshop will identify synergies.

7. Please could you say a little about the educational / university processes around the production of PhD theses, and graduation for doctoral students, in the UK

The production of a thesis tends to be regarded by students and supervisors primarily as an examination document. Making theses more widely available on the web, effectively "publishing" them, is generally welcomed, but does bring about a change in culture. Library staff have always been more concerned with the dissemination aspect of theses, so we must raise awareness of the need for students to take care over what is contained in a thesis, and how it is presented for the public domain after examination, but without discouraging people from opening up access to their work.