Open Access to Electronic Theses

Open Access to Electronic Theses: A JISC survey

Doctoral theses can attract significant attention when made openly accessible in electronic form, according to the respondents of a sector-wide survey of information professionals. The JISC-funded survey seeks to give a clearer picture of progress toward electronic thesis deposit in the UK, and how universities are achieving it.

The respondents to the survey were library and repository staff from 144 higher education institutions. Their responses suggested that 81 percent of their organisations will be providing open access to doctoral theses in five years time.

The authors of the Report say:

• Doctoral theses are important records of research.  /.../  The resulting high visibility benefits both researchers and universities, and suggests that electronic theses will have a significant role to play in accelerating sharing our knowledge in the future.
• The move to electronic theses is a very positive development that wholly supports the academic principle of sharing knowledge for the common good and for the advancement of science and human development.
• DART-Europe provides access to the full-text of over 280,000 Open Access research theses from 403 European universities in 20 countries. Open Access to such a critical mass of blue skies research is good for research and good for the researcher. All Cadmus full-text theses are available via DART.