Issues around the Submission

of Electronic Theses

Annette Moore - 20th October 2010

Open Access Week

Issues around the submission of electronic theses

Benefits of e-thesis submission

The key issues in making e-theses open access

The likely impact of these issues

How we can address them

Where to go to for help?

Benefits of e-thesis submission

Personal reward – knowing your research is being read

Contribution to the body of knowledge – theses have traditionally

been hugely underused only available on microfilm or for use in the

Library . E-thesis submission will make a huge, hidden body of

knowledge accessible.

Individual theses will gain more readers and students will enjoy

increased visibility as a researcher

Educating authors for the digital age

Open access e-theses are globally accessible - representing

the scholarship produced at the institution

E-theses are already a reality

80 e-theses are already available in Sussex Research

Online for 09/10 submissions. 700 Sussex theses have been requested through the

British Library’s EThOS service - digitised over the last 18

months (from 1967 – 2009). 38,000 UK doctoral theses have been digitised and are

freely available on EThOS - 113 university members

E-theses are already a reality

The Library Catalogue

links through to EThOS

for all Sussex theses

digitised through the

EThOS service.

The earliest Sussex

thesis digitised is from

1967.

British Library : EThOS

EThOS replaces the British Library’s microfilm thesis service traditionally used for Interlibrary Loan.

Past doctoral theses digitised on demand

113 member universities, over 50% open access.

EThOS acts as a central hub harvesting e-theses from members’ Institutional Repositories.

Metadata complies with the UKETD-DC standard

EThOS offers a ‘single point of access’ to all theses produced by UK Higher Education

What are the key issues?

Most of the issues are not new but they are made more

visible in an open access environment. Confidentiality – a thesis including material obtained under

a promise of confidentiality, allowed only for examination purposes

Commercially sensitive material – the most frequently

cited reason for requesting an embargo for science and

technology disciplines.

Potential publication – a thesis due for publication where

the publisher has advised against making it freely available prior to

publication

What are the key issues?

Sensitive personal information – a thesis containing

sensitive information about an individual or individuals that may

endanger their physical or mental well-being. Less significant in

numbers and mostly related to theses from the social sciences,

humanities, psychology and medicine

Third party copyright material (including the author’s

own) – inclusion of long texts from published material, images,

photographs, tables and maps. Traditionally accepted in the

thesis for examination purposes, but may require permission from

the rights holder for e-theses submission, as this is considered a

form of publishing.

3rd Party Copyright

Under Fair Dealing for Criticism or Review (CDPA 1988) less than a substantial part of a third party work may be copied or quoted without permission or infringement of copyright.

For example, a short extract of text or an illustration or figure that is integral to the argument of the thesis, may be counted as fair dealing and copyright permissions may not need to be obtained.

3rd Party Copyright

Substantial is not defined under the law, neither is Fair Dealing !

Substantial is judged by quality and quantity

Fair Dealing is often interpreted as:

‘copying as long as the copyright does not harmThe copyright owner [economically ] but nevertheless benefits either the individual or society in general’

Examples of 3rd Party Copyright issues

Archaeology researchers unable to gain permission from a

museum to use photographs (taken themselves) of artefacts in the

museum for inclusion in their e-theses. Art History – including many images from one artist Creative Writing – poetry and authors own creative writing

(may already have been published or expecting to publish) Media Studies researchers – inclusion of film stills is likely to

be a problem – considered ‘high risk’ area Any thesis including maps and charts from another work Any thesis including substantial quotes from another work

What is the likely impact of these issues?

Increase in the number of requests for embargoes - creating a conflict with the open access initiative Additional workload for researchers seeking permission to include 3rd party material Potential costs involved in obtaining permission from rights holders Potential risk of 3rd party rights holders complaints Concerns over possible increase in plagiarism Concerns that publishers will not want to later publish open access theses

How can we minimise the effects?

• Provide training and guidance around the key issues from early

on in the research

• Encourage students to seek copyright permissions (if needed) at

the earliest opportunity

• If publishing their own material that may later be included in their

thesis, encourage student to negotiate terms with publisher

• Look for Creative Commons images to use – World Image

database for example

• Establish effective procedures for dealing with theses where

permission to include 3rd party copyright has been refused, is too

costly or it has not been possible to contact the rights holder –

• Have an effective take-down policy in place in SRO

Where can you go for help?

The Doctoral School - handbook and website

Student Progress and Assessment (SPA) office

Directors of Doctoral Studies within each School

Supervisors

Library Copyright Guidance ‘Complying with Copyright’ webpage

Email: library.copyright for advice on a specific query