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EBSCO Open Dissertations

EBSCO Open Dissertations makes electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) more accessible to researchers worldwide. The free portal is designed to benefit universities and their students and make ETDs more discoverable.

Increasing Discovery & Usage of ETD Research

EBSCO Open Dissertations is a collaboration between EBSCO and BiblioLabs to increase traffic and discoverability of ETD research. You can join the movement and add your theses and dissertations to the database, making them freely available to researchers everywhere while increasing traffic to your institutional repository.

EBSCO Open Dissertations extends the work started in 2014, when EBSCO and the H.W. Wilson Foundation created American Doctoral Dissertations which contained indexing from the H.W. Wilson print publication, Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities, 1933-1955. In 2015, the H.W. Wilson Foundation agreed to support the expansion of the scope of the American Doctoral Dissertations database to include records for dissertations and theses from 1955 to the present.

How Does EBSCO Open Dissertations Work?

Your ETD metadata is harvested via OAI and integrated into EBSCO’s platform, where pointers send traffic to your IR.

EBSCO integrates this data into their current subscriber environments and makes the data available on the open web via opendissertations.org .

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EBSCO Open Dissertations

Search millions of electronic theses and dissertations (etds).

With EBSCO Open Dissertations, institutions and students are offered an innovative approach to driving additional traffic to ETDs in institutional repositories. Our goal is to help make their students’ theses and dissertations as widely visible and cited as possible.

This approach extends the work started in 2014, when EBSCO and the H.W. Wilson Foundation created American Doctoral Dissertations which contained indexing from the H.W. Wilson print publication, Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities, 1933-1955. In 2015, the H.W. Wilson Foundation agreed to support the expansion of the scope of the American Doctoral Dissertations database to include records for dissertations and theses from 1955 to the present.

Get involved in the EBSCO Open Dissertations project and make your electronic theses and dissertations freely available to researchers everywhere. Please contact Margaret Richter for more information.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations

Direct Link

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How do I find a Cambridge thesis?

Ph.D., M.Litt., M.Sc., and Divinity M.Phil. theses approved after 1970 are catalogued in iDiscover, as are M.D. and M.Chir. theses approved after May 2006. Earlier theses are listed in a card catalogue in the Manuscripts Reading Room and are gradually being added to iDiscover.

Since 1 October 2017, all PhD theses are being deposited in electronic form to the University repository Apollo . Many earlier theses are also in the repository, but if they are not yet in digital form it is possible to request access to these theses. There is more information on how to request a copy of a printed thesis further down this page.

Gaining access to electronic copies of a thesis

The author of a given thesis in Apollo can choose whether their thesis is available to be downloaded, available on request or unavailable. While many of the theses in Apollo are openly available for download, some theses in the repository are not open access because they have either been embargoed by the author or because they are unable to be made openly available for copyright or other reasons.

Requesting a copy of a printed thesis

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form through the Library’s Digital Content Unit via the image request form . Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the law and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study. The agreement used for access to theses at Cambridge has been drafted using the guidance by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP).

Theses are not available for borrowing or inter library loan. The copyright of theses remains with the author. The law does not allow us to provide a copy for inclusion in a general library collection or for wider distribution beyond the individual receiving the copy, without the explicit permission of the author or copyright holder. Where someone approaches us asking for a copy for their library or wider distribution, they must obtain the explicit permission of the author or copyright owner.

Please note any periods of access restriction requested by the author apply to both electronic and print copies.

This project is a joint initiative of Cambridge University Library and the Research Strategy Office .

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How do I find a Cambridge thesis?

Gaining access to electronic copies of theses

The author of a given thesis in Apollo can choose whether their thesis is available to be downloaded, available on request or unavailable. While many of the theses in Apollo are openly available for download, s ome theses in the repository are not open access because they have either been embargoed by the author or because they are unable to be made openly available for copyright or other r easo ns. For an explanation of the different theses access levels, see this page .

Open Access theses

Theses that have been made available Open Access can be downloaded from Apollo as a PDF file without any restrictions other than the license under which they have been made available . Just click on the document file in the thesis record to download a copy.

Embargoed theses

Theses with an embargo are shown in Apollo with a padlock icon over the PDF file are not open access but can be requested. If you wish to access the full thesis, click on the padlock icon on the PDF and you will be redirected to the repository’s ‘ Request a Copy ’ function. Requests for embargoed theses will be passed on to the author so they can choose to grant or refuse the request at their discretion.

Controlled theses

Theses under controlled access remain unpublished because they are not made available on the internet via the Apollo repository and as such, the rules for unpublished works in UK copyright law will apply to these theses. Controlled access theses are provided by the University Library in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1998. Theses under controlled access are shown in Apollo with a padlock icon over the PDF file are not open access but can be requested. If you wish to access the full thesis, click on the padlock icon on the PDF and you will be redirected to the repository’s ‘ Request a Copy ’ function. For further information on copying by librarians or archivists see: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/43

If a thesis has been digitised by the Digital Content Unit's image request service in the library it will be deposited in Apollo under controlled access and can be requested via the thesis record in Apollo.

Requesting a copy of a printed thesis

Please note any periods of access restriction requested by the author apply to both electronic and print copies.

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Please contact us at [email protected] to be added to the mailing list to receive our quarterly e-Newsletter.

The Office of Scholarly Communication sends this Newsletter to its subscribers in order to disseminate information relevant to open access, research data management, scholarly communication and open research topics. For details on how the personal information you enter here is used, please see our privacy policy .

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Theses & dissertations: home, access to theses and dissertations from other institutions and from the university of cambridge.

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad.

For information and guidance on depositing your thesis as a cambridge phd, visit the cambridge office of scholarly communication pages on theses here ., this guide gives essential information on how to obtain theses using the british library's ethos service. .

On the last weekend of October, the British Library became the victim of a major cyber-attack. Essential digital services including the BL catalogue, website and online learning resources went dark, with research services like the EThOS collection of more than 600,000 doctoral theses suddenly unavailable. The BL state that they anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is now expected to persist for several months. For the latest news on the attack and information on the restoration of services, please follow the BL blog here: Knowledge Matters blog and access the LibGuide page here: British Library Outage Update - Electronic Legal Deposit - LibGuides at University of Cambridge Subject Libraries

A full list of resources for searching theses online is provided by the Cambridge A-Z, available here .

University of Cambridge theses

Finding a cambridge phd thesis online via the institutional repository.

The University's institutional repository, Apollo , holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates. Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link . More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be found on the access to Cambridge theses webpage. The requirement for impending PhD graduates to deposit a digital version in order to graduate means the repository will be increasing at a rate of approximately 1,000 per year from this source. About 200 theses are added annually through requests to make theses Open Access or via requests to digitize a thesis in printed format.

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

Theses can be searched in iDiscover . Guidance on searching for theses in iDiscover can be found here . Requests for consultation of printed theses, not available online, should be made at the Manuscripts Reading Room (Email: [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 333143). Further information on the University Library's theses, dissertations and prize essays collections can be consulted at this link .

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form either through the Library’s Digital Content Unit via the image request form , or, if the thesis has been digitised, it may be available in the Apollo repository. Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the law and in a manner that is common across UK libraries. The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study.

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

Are you a Cambridge alumni and wish to make your Ph.D. thesis available online? You can do this by depositing it in Apollo the University's institutional repository. Click here for further information on how to proceed. Current Ph.D students at the University of Cambridge can find further information about the requirements to deposit theses on the Office of Scholarly Communication theses webpages.

UK Theses and Dissertations

Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS , a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions. It achieves this by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and by digitising print theses as they are ordered by researchers using the system. Over 250,000 theses are already available in this way. Please note that it does not supply theses submitted at the universities of Cambridge or Oxford although they are listed on EThOS.

Registration with EThOS is not required to search for a thesis but is necessary to download or order one unless it is stored in the university repository rather than the British Library (in which case a link to the repository will be displayed). Many theses are available without charge on an Open Access basis but in all other cases, if you are requesting a thesis that has not yet been digitised you will be asked to meet the cost. Once a thesis has been digitised it is available for free download thereafter.

When you order a thesis it will either be immediately available for download or writing to hard copy or it will need to be digitised. If you order a thesis for digitisation, the system will manage the process and you will be informed when the thesis is available for download/preparation to hard copy.

See the Search results section of the help page for full information on interpreting search results in EThOS.

EThOS is managed by the British Library and can be found at http://ethos.bl.uk . For more information see About EThOS .

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted, sometimes on an open access basis from the institutional repository. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations beyond the UK is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , which facilitates searching across institutions. Information can also usually be found on the library web pages of the relevant institution.

The DART Europe etheses portal lists several thousand full-text theses from a group of European universities.

The University Library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database which from August 31 2023 is accessed on the Web of Science platform. To search this index select it from the Web of Science "Search in" drop-down list of databases (available on the Documents tab on WoS home page)

PQDT includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations, representing 700 leading academic institutions worldwide from 1861 to the present day. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The University Library only subscribes to the abstracting & indexing version of the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database and NOT the full text version. A fee is payable for ordering a dissertation from this source. To obtain the full text of a dissertation as a downloadable PDF you can submit your request via the University Library Inter-Library Loans department (see contact details below). NB this service is only available to full and current members of the University of Cambridge.

Alternatively you can pay yourself for the dissertation PDF on the PQDT platform. Link from Web of Science record display of any thesis to PQDT by clicking on "View Details on ProQuest". On the "Preview" page you will see an option "Order a copy" top right. This will allow you to order your own copy from ProQuest directly.

Dissertations and theses submitted at non-UK universities may also be requested on Inter-Library Loan through the Inter-Library Loans department (01223 333039 or 333080, [email protected] )

Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023 9:47 AM
URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/theses

EThOS: e-theses online service Open access EThOS: e-theses online service Open access

EThOS, provided by the British Library, is a free online service providing access to UK doctoral theses.

Access EThOS is an open access resource.

Content EThOS, provided by the British Library, is a free online service providing access to UK doctoral theses. It does not cover MPhils or master's dissertations.

EThOS aims to provide a central listing of all doctoral theses awarded by UK higher education institutions, with the full text of as many theses as possible.

The database includes more than 600,000 records. Around 4,000 law theses are covered, dating from the 1920s to the present day.

Searching EThOS has basic and advanced search facilities. Searches can be limited to theses available for immediate download.

Advanced search allows users to search by author, title, awarding body, year of award and other criteria. Boolean connectors (AND, OR, AND NOT) can be selected from a drop-down menu

Downloading Many theses are available for download; it is necessary to create a free account to do this.

There is an option to request digitisation of a thesis if it is not yet available for download. Sometimes this is free, but sometimes there is a charge (see FAQs).

Help A Help menu and an FAQ page are available.

Dissertation Repositories, Open Access

How to find dissertations, open access repositories, selected university affiliated, open access repositories.

Use the websites listed below to find freely accessible (open access) dissertations from the United States and other countries. While all repositories listed here include doctoral dissertations, Master's theses may be available in some cases as well.

Regis College maintains print copies of Regis student theses and dissertations in the Regis Library. They are not digitized although individual students may have submitted their dissertation to a digital repository.

American Doctoral Dissertations (EBSCO) A free resource, hosted by EBSCO, this database includes more than 172,000 theses and dissertations in total from 1902 to the present.
British Library: EThOS, E-theses Online Service EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service. EThOS aims to hold a record for all doctoral theses awarded by all UK universities (institutions). Also available when using Regis Library discovery tool, PowerSearch.
Digital Commons Network Free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). We support electronic publishing and open access to scholarship in order to enhance the sharing of knowledge worldwide.
Open Access Theses and Dissertations OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 4,264,663 theses and dissertations.
PQDT Open PQDT Open provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. The authors of these dissertations and theses have opted to publish as open access.
Theses Canada Theses Canada is a collaborative program between Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and nearly 70 universities accredited by Universities Canada. It strives to: acquire and preserve theses and dissertations from participating universities; provide free access to Canadian electronic theses and dissertations in the collection.

These digital repositories maintained by various universities enable public access to theses and dissertations. These are just a select sample; there are many other repositories associated with universities.

Duke University: Duke Space, Theses and Dissertations
Harvard University: Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) Also available when using Regis Library discovery tool, PowerSearch.
Johns Hopkins University: DSpace Repository
Northeastern University: Digital Reposity Service: Theses and Dissertations
University of Washington: ResearchWorks
Walden University Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
Last Updated: Jul 12, 2023 8:18 AM
URL: https://libguides.regiscollege.edu/open_access_dissertations

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Home » For Authors & Researchers » Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

1. Does UC require me to make my thesis/dissertation open access? 2. Can I delay open access to my thesis? 3. I’m working on my thesis/dissertation and I have copyright questions. Where can I find answers? 4. Where can I find UC Theses and Dissertations online?

1. Does UC require me to make my thesis/dissertation open access?

Several UC campuses have established policies requiring open access to the electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) written by their graduate students. As of March 25, 2020, there is now a systemwide Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations , indicating that UC “requires theses or dissertations prepared at the University to be (1) deposited into an open access repository, and (2) freely and openly available to the public, subject to a requested delay of access (’embargo’) obtained by the student.”

In accordance with these policies, campuses must ensure that student ETDs are available open access via eScholarship (UC’s open access repository and publishing platform), at no cost to students. By contrast, ProQuest, the world’s largest commercial publisher of ETDs, charges a $95 fee to make an ETD open access. Institutions worldwide have moved toward open access ETD publication because it dramatically increases the visibility and reach of their graduate research.

Policies and procedures for ETD filing, including how to delay public release of an ETD and how long such a delay can last, vary by campus. Learn more :

UC Berkeley: Dissertation Filing Guidelines (for Doctoral Students) and Thesis Filing Guidelines (for Master’s Students)
UC Davis: Preparing and Filing Your Thesis or Dissertation
UC Irvine: Thesis/Dissertation Electronic Submission
UCLA: File Your Thesis or Dissertation
UC Merced: Dissertation/Thesis Submission
UC Riverside: Dissertation and Thesis Submission
UC San Diego: Preparing to Graduate
UCSF: Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines
UC Santa Barbara: Filing Your Thesis, Dissertation, or DMA Supporting Document
UC Santa Cruz: Dissertation and Thesis Guidelines (PDF) from the Graduate Division’s Accessing Forms Online page

2. Can I delay open access to my thesis/dissertation?

Some campuses allow students to elect an embargo period before the public release of their thesis/dissertation; others require approval from graduate advisors or administrators. Visit your local graduate division’s website (linked above) for more information.

In 2013, the American Historical Association released a statement calling for graduate programs to adopt policies for up to a six year embargo for history dissertations. Many scholars found this extreme, and a variety of commentators weighed in (see, e.g., discussions in The Atlantic , The Chronicle of Higher Education , and Inside Higher Ed ). In addition, a memo from Rosemary Joyce, the Associate Dean of the Graduate Division of UC Berkeley, listed several advantages of releasing a dissertation immediately and added that “the potential disadvantages… remain anecdotal.” In the years since the flurry of writing responding to the AHA statement, the discussion of dissertation embargoes has continued, but the issues have remained largely the same. Thus, this memo from the UC Berkeley graduate dean (2013) remains an excellent summary.

3. I’m working on my thesis/dissertation and I have copyright questions. Where can I find answers?

Students writing theses/dissertations most commonly have questions about their own copyright ownership or the use of other people’s copyrighted materials in their own work.

You automatically own the copyright in your thesis/dissertation as soon as you create it , regardless of whether you register it or include a copyright page or copyright notice. Most students choose not to register their copyrights, though some choose to do so because they value having their copyright ownership officially and publicly recorded. Getting a copyright registered is required before you can sue someone for infringement.

If you decide to register your copyright, you can do so

directly, through the Copyright Office website , for $35
by having ProQuest/UMI contact the Copyright Office on your behalf, for $65.

It is common to incorporate 1) writing you have done for journal articles as part of your dissertation, and 2) parts of your dissertation into articles or books . See, for example, these articles from Wiley and Taylor & Francis giving authors tips on how to successfully turn dissertations into articles, or these pages at Sage , Springer , and Elsevier listing reuse in a thesis or dissertation as a common right of authors. Because this is a well-known practice, and often explicitly allowed in publishers’ contracts with authors, it rarely raises copyright concerns. eScholarship , which hosts over 55,000 UC ETDs, has never received a takedown notice from a publisher based on a complaint that the author’s ETD was too similar to the author’s published work.

Incorporating the works of others in your thesis/dissertation – such as quotations or illustrative images – is often allowed by copyright law. This is the case when the original work isn’t protected by copyright, or if the way you’re using the work would be considered fair use. In some circumstances, however, you will need permission from the copyright holder. For more information, please consult the Berkeley Library’s guide to Copyright and Publishing Your Dissertation .

For more in depth information about copyright generally, visit the UC Copyright site.

4. Where can I find UC Dissertations and Theses online?

All ten UC campuses make their electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) openly accessible to readers around the world. You can view over 55,000 UC ETDs in eScholarship , UC’s open access repository. View ETDs from each campus:

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Open Access Dissertations

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UC Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations

On March 25, 2020, the University of California issued a Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations. The systemwide policy, which aligns with those already in place at individual UC campuses, “requires theses or dissertations prepared at the University to be (1) deposited into an open access repository, and (2) freely and openly available to the public, subject to a requested delay of access (“embargo”) obtained by the student.” Theses and dissertations already made open access can be read in eScholarship, UC’s open access repository and scholarly publishing platform.

Alexandria Digital Research Library (ADRL)

Some UCSB open access theses and disserations are in ADRL. Due to copyright restrictions and a need to obtain permission from the authors, not all years are available.

eScholarship

UC's institutional repository and journal publishing platform. Not all campuses have electronic theses and disseartations in eScholarship. Due to copyright restrictions and the need to obtain permissions from authors, not all years are available online. UC campuses began accepting electronic theses and disserations (ETDs) submissions different years. For details see ETD Preservation and Access Sevice: California Digital Library . UCSB's open access ETDS are in ADRL .

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

An international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). The website includes resources on how to find, create, and preserve ETDs; how to set up an ETD program; legal and technical questions; and the latest news and research in the ETD community.

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 5,031,307 theses and dissertations.

PQDT Open (Proquest):

Provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. The authors of these dissertations and theses have opted to publish as open access.

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Dissertations

American Doctoral Dissertations This free research database indexes thousands of theses and dissertations accepted by American universities from 1902 to the present and provides links to full text, when available.
DART-Europe E-theses Portal A partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.

OhioLINK ETD Center A free, online database of Ohio’s masters and doctoral theses and dissertations from participating OhioLINK member schools. It contains the abstract for all included theses and dissertations. The full-text is also available if it was submitted.
OATD: Open Access Theses and Dissertations Open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
PQDT Open (ProQuest) PQDT Open provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.
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Last Updated: Oct 9, 2023 1:21 PM
URL: https://libguides.northwestern.edu/freescholarlyresources

Open Scholarship

Open Access Theses

I have benefited greatly from being able to share my PhD dissertation as an open access publication – it has meant that more people have read and engaged with the research I spent so many years working on. I was glad to know there was an option to move to a Creative Commons license, so that it was clear to people what they can do with the work. Dr Lauren Gawne, PhD Graduate (School of Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne, 2013)

Today, public access to graduate research theses is a common and valuable aspect of the open scholarship landscape. This is usually made possible by depositing the thesis in an institutional repository after final submission. To meet the best practices of open access , graduates may be encouraged to apply a Creative Commons licence to their thesis.

For candidates undertaking creative work as part of their thesis, or whose thesis includes Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) , other copyright and intellectual property considerations will apply, and full open access may not be possible. The advice on this page primarily concerns traditional text-based research theses.

Benefits of making theses open access

Until your thesis has been made open access, it is an untapped resource of original research. A thesis under embargo cannot be downloaded or read, significantly limiting the potential impact your research can have.

By making your thesis freely available to the public, you help to advance scholarly discourse in your field. You also make it available to other researchers, students, policy makers, and practitioners, all of whom could build on your research in significant and meaningful ways.

For University of Melbourne graduates, your thesis being open access in Minerva Access results in it being discoverable through Google, Google Scholar, the National Library of Australia’s Trove database, and other platforms.

Making your thesis open access means it can easily be provided as an example of your work and expertise in your chosen discipline, helping to raise your researcher profile. It can also help to build your impact narrative, spark conversations, and lead to exciting collaborations, both within and beyond the academy. Once open, your thesis can also start gathering views, downloads, shares, and citations – none of which are likely if your thesis remains inaccessible to most potential readers.

Researchers in low- and middle-income countries often face significant barriers when it comes to accessing research. Making theses open access increases the amount of high-quality research available to researchers of the Global South, whose institutions may struggle to afford expensive journal descriptions or costly books ( Tennant et al., 2016 ).

Open access theses at the University of Melbourne

The University’s institutional repository, Minerva Access , provides free public access to theses completed at the University of Melbourne.

Browse open access theses in Minerva Access

Open access is required for University of Melbourne PhD, Doctorate, and Masters Research theses in all but exceptional cases. It may also be required, or encouraged, for Honours and Masters Coursework theses, depending on the school or faculty. When required and approved, temporary embargoes and ongoing access restrictions are possible.

For more information, see the FAQ and deposit advice below, or visit the Graduate Research Hub’s “My thesis in the library” page. Current graduate researchers may also wish to join one of the “Open Access and Your Thesis” webinars, which run twice each year as part of our Researcher@Library program .

Publishing after your thesis is open access

Historically, publishers would not consider submissions that had been adapted from theses available online, just as, historically, many publishers would not accept submissions that had been shared as preprints . Today, however, it is increasingly rare for publishers to reject work for appearing in earlier forms as online theses or preprints, whether the submission is for a journal article, book chapter, or monograph.

That is, most publishers today do not consider theses available online as prior publications for the purposes of publishing. They are typically treated in a similar way to preprints: they are regarded as early versions of a work shared online prior to submission to a publisher.

The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) states that online theses should not be considered prior publications that would prevent submission to a publisher: “Where a thesis (or chapter) contains otherwise unpublished work … it should not be considered prior publication. That is, it is acceptable for the work, or parts of the work … to be submitted … to a publisher for publication” ( COPE Best practice for theses publishing, 2017 ).

There do remain some publishers, journals, and individual editors who are resistant to publishing work previously available online as theses or preprints, so check websites for publisher policies prior to submission. It may be that an editor’s or journal’s resistance is out of step with their own publisher policies.

If an editor or publisher requests that a thesis be taken offline, embargoed, or placed under access restrictions for publishing reasons, graduate researchers must negotiate on the terms of publication. Any agreement entered into with a publisher must accommodate the University making the thesis publicly available in Minerva Access (see “Can I choose not to make my graduate research thesis open access?” in the FAQ below).

"> Deposit your thesis

Find out how to deposit your University of Melbourne thesis in Minerva Access.

Graduate Research Theses

PhD, Doctorate, and Masters Research candidates are required to submit a digital copy of their thesis to Minerva Access via the Thesis Examination System (TES). Detailed information is available on the "My thesis in the Library" page.

Honours and Masters Coursework Theses

Honours and Masters Coursework candidates are welcome to submit their completed thesis to the Minerva Access repository. This may be required by some schools or departments.

Most major scholarly journal publishers today have clear policies supporting the submission of articles derived from theses or dissertations that are publicly available. In doing so, they are following COPE best practice guidelines that recommend treating theses, like preprints, as not being prior publications for the purposes of publishing. The shift to accepting openly available theses as publications is ongoing, but in the University’s experience it is already very rare that an open access thesis is ultimately a barrier to publication.

Consider the following publisher policy examples:

Elsevier’s policy on prior publication confirms that they do not consider online publication of an academic thesis as prior publication. Like preprints, they are considered prior uses of a work that can be considered for publication. They note, however, that Lancet journals, Cell Press journals, and some society-owned journals have their own policies on prior publication that can be found on the journal homepages.

Likewise, Springer’s journal author FAQ states: “Springer will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis including those that have been made publicly available according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification.” Other Springer Nature imprints have similar policies, confirming that theses are not considered prior (or duplicate) publication – see BMC , SpringerOpen , Palgrave , and Nature .

Sage’s prior publication guidelines follow COPE guidelines and states: “Excerpts or material from your dissertation that have not been through peer review will generally be eligible for publication.”

Taylor & Francis’s Editorial Policies state that the publisher supports “the need for authors to share early versions of their work.” Although the policy does not mention theses or dissertations specifically, preprints and other Author’s Original Manuscript versions can be shared anywhere, without embargo.

Although Wiley’s overarching policies do not mention theses, their Preprints Policy confirms that the publisher will consider submissions already available online as preprints, and allows submitted manuscripts to be shared to preprint servers at any time. Individual journals’ author guidelines often confirm that theses do not count as prior publications. For example, “Articles submitted to Journal of Anatomy are done so on the following conditions: that the work described has not been published previously (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture or academic thesis)” ( Journal of Anatomy Author Guidelines ).

Major academic book publishers differ in their approaches to publishing monographs based on theses, but most are happy to consider book proposals based on theses that are available online. Some publishers have strong statements clarifying that open access theses do not present barriers to publication, while others consider matters on a case-by-case basis.

Palgrave Macmillan, for example, provides the following advice on their Early Career Researcher Hub : “Palgrave Macmillan will consider submissions containing material that has previously formed part of a PhD or other academic thesis including those that have been made publicly available according to the requirements of the institution awarding the qualification. Prospective authors should bear in mind that every PhD thesis will need to undergo rigorous revision in order to be published as a monograph with our press.”

Likewise, Cambridge University Press considers theses and dissertations to be preprints, as covered by their Green Open Access Policy . If a monograph is based on a thesis, the policy supports that thesis being shared in full, at any time, under any licence (including a Creative Commons licence).

Some other major publishers, such as Routledge, do not have blanket statements of this kind, but consider requirements on a case-by-case basis. Such publishers will usually take into account university expectations around theses being made open access.

Be aware that some publishers who do not accept open-access theses for consideration as monographs may also ask the author to assign rights that the author does not have, such as requiring the author to assign exclusive rights for all time. Embargoes are only for a limited period, after which the University will exercise its right to make the thesis available; this right cannot be removed by the author and thus cannot be assigned in a publication contract. Some publishers go further, for example requiring that the material has not and never will be used for academic assessment, which means that they cannot consider material such as a thesis that was used in award of a degree.

Creative Commons licences make it clear to authors and readers how a work can be shared and used. University of Melbourne graduates can apply a Creative Commons licence to their thesis in Minerva Access using the following process:

Choose a Creative Commons licence that would be suitable for your thesis. See “ Selecting a licence for your work ” on our Copyright website for guidance.
Receive written permission from your thesis supervisor to apply the chosen Creative Commons licence.
Email [email protected] to request your chosen Creative Commons licence be applied to your thesis, attaching the supervisor’s permission.

Note that if your thesis includes publications, you may be restricted in what licence can be applied. Consult your publishing agreement or your publisher’s website for more information. For further advice, contact the University’s Copyright Office .

At the University of Melbourne, it is a requirement of all PhD, Doctorate, and Masters Research candidates that their final thesis is made open access in Minerva Access, unless exceptional circumstances mean that an embargo or ongoing access restrictions are required.

This requirement is outlined in the Graduate Research Training Policy (MPF1321) and the Intellectual Property Policy (MPF1320) . The latter policy reads:

4.19. Student theses must be made openly available to the public through the University’s Institutional Digital Repository, unless otherwise agreed with the University (for example where an embargo has been approved by the University). The University is deemed to have been granted by the Student a non-exclusive, royalty free, world-wide and irrevocable licence to use and reproduce the Student theses for non-commercial educational, teaching and research purposes, including making the thesis available to the public through the University’s Institutional Repository.

Students must retain all necessary rights to enable the University to publish and share the thesis and not grant exclusive copyright licence to a thesis to any other person or organisation.

Likewise, our Principles for Open Access to Research Outputs at Melbourne states:

10. Graduate researchers are expected to make their research thesis publicly available via the University’s institutional repository unless otherwise agreed with the University, and to make their thesis available within the University via the repository in all but exceptional cases. Note that the University’s right to publish and share a thesis is irrevocable and cannot be overridden by a private publication agreement.

For information on how to apply a temporary embargo or formally request permanent access restrictions, see the FAQ item below and consult the “My thesis in the library” page.

If you are a University of Melbourne graduate researcher, you may apply a temporary embargo to your thesis or formally request permanent access restrictions when certain criteria are met. Embargoes and access restrictions can also be applied to portions of your thesis, whether this is through the redaction of third-party copyright material or through the embargo or restriction of certain chapters or appendices.

When summitting your final thesis in the Thesis Examination System (TES), you can request a two-year embargo, which will be granted if you meet the required criteria. This can be either an external embargo, where access is limited to interlibrary loans and University of Melbourne staff and students, or a full embargo, where the thesis not available by any means. Full embargo is only granted in highly exceptional circumstances. The two-year embargo period can be shortened, or extended to four years, with the support of your supervisor. Further information on embargoes and embargo criteria can be found on the “My thesis in the library” page.

As covered in the Graduate Research Training Policy (MPF1321) , ongoing restricted access arrangements must be approved by the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Graduate & International Research) in consultation with the relevant Dean. Further information, and the restricted access request form, can be found on the “My thesis in the library” page.

Note that applications to have embargoes extended purely for publishing reasons are only granted when extenuating circumstances apply. Requests for permanent access restrictions that are sought to comply with publisher contracts are never granted. In most cases, however, these are not required, as most publishers today understand the requirements for theses to be freely available in institutional repositories.

Yes. Any University of Melbourne graduate who opted to embargo their thesis can choose to release it from embargo early. To end an embargo before its original end date:

Check to make sure that ending the embargo early would not conflict with any agreements made with third parties (for example, publishers).
Receive written permission from your thesis supervisor to shorten the embargo period.
Email [email protected] to request a change to embargo end date, attaching your supervisor’s permission.

When preparing a thesis with publications, candidates should follow the guidelines on the “Incorporating your published work in your thesis” and “Submitting my thesis” pages, as well as the “Preparation of Graduate Research Theses Rules.”

If your publication is still in review and has not yet been formally accepted for publication, you should include the submitted manuscript in your thesis.

Once accepted for publication, or published, you should use the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) – the final manuscript accepted for publication after peer review and revisions.

Final published versions can only be included when you have explicit permission to do so and when it does not conflict with your publishing agreement. Final PDFs can be always used for open access publications carrying Creative Commons licences.

It is important to check publisher policies to determine which version can be shared and whether an embargo is required. In the absence of policies pertaining specifically to inclusion in online theses, candidates should follow policies governing what can be shared in institutional repositories. These policies should be available on journal or publisher websites and may be referred to as open access policies, sharing policies, or self-archiving policies. For journal articles, the Sherpa Romeo deposit policy register can be used to determine sharing policies and embargo requirements.

Also note that some publishers offer specific permissions to include Author Accepted Manuscripts (AAMs) or final published versions in theses. For example, the publisher Sage allows the final PDF of a candidate’s article to be included in their thesis and made available online. Their Author Archiving and Re-Use Guidelines states: “You may use the Final Published PDF (or Original Submission or Accepted Manuscript, if preferred) … in your dissertation or thesis, including where the dissertation or thesis will be posted in any electronic Institutional Repository or database.”

For more information, see the “My thesis in the library” page, along with the advice contained on the Copyright Office’s “Copyright and your thesis” page. The “Declaration for publication incorporated in a thesis” form can be found on the “Submitting my thesis” page.

Some theses contain information that cannot be made public, such as confidential or private data, or third-party copyright material where permission to publish has not been obtained. In these cases, it may be necessary to submit a redacted version of your thesis with third-party copyright content removed. You would then be submitting two copies:

The original, examined thesis, which will be archived (not available for online public access).
A redacted “public access” copy, with non-compliant material removed (ensure you maintain page number integrity).

Guidelines on how and when to seek permissions, recording copyright statuses, and redacting copyright material can be found on the “Copyright and your thesis” and the “My thesis in the library” pages. For more information, please consult the Copyright Office .

Further Support

For enquiries relating to open access and scholarly publishing, please contact your Faculty or Subject Liaison Librarians .

If you require assistance using Minerva Access, or have requests relating to existing Minerva Access thesis records, please email [email protected] .

For all other enquiries relating to thesis preparation and submission, please email your faculty or school’s graduate research contact .

Page last updated 1 February 2024.

Return to Open Scholarship

Institutional repository

Repositories hosted by institutions to collect the research outputs of that institution. They often collect a broad range of digital items including articles, papers, books, book chapters, reports, data, and creative outputs.

The University of Melbourne has two institutional repositories: Minerva Access for research outputs, and Melbourne Figshare for research data, reports, supplementary research materials, and non-traditional research outputs (NTROs). You can find out more about Minerva Access and Melbourne Figshare on our Repository Open Access page .

Open access

Open access refers to the availability of research outputs via the internet, such that any user can find, freely access, read, and download the output without charge. Best practice in open access is to use open licences, such as Creative Commons licences, that permit users to copy, distribute, print, search, link, crawl, mine, and otherwise use and reuse the research output, as long as proper attribution is provided. Find out more on our What Is Open Access? page.

Creative Commons licences

Open licences that have become best practice in open access publishing. They are built using a combination of elements: BY (Attribution), SA (Share-Alike), NC (Non-Commercial), and ND (No Derivatives). All licences are detailed on the Creative Commons website .

The most open of the licences is the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence. This licence allows authors to retain their copyright while granting others permission to distribute, use, adapt, remix, and build upon the material, so long as attribution is given to the creator. This is the preferred, and sometimes required, licence of the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), as well as many international research funders.

The most restrictive is the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. This licence does not allow for any commercial uses or the creation and sharing of any adaptations or derivative versions. It greatly restricts how others can use the work and, when adopted as part of an exclusive licence to publish with a publisher, can result in a significant loss of author rights.

In the context of open access publishing and sharing, embargoes are a restriction imposed by publishers on the public release of an output. Most scholarly publishers will allow the Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) of a journal article or book chapter to be made open access in a repository after an embargo of between 12 and 36 months.

Staff at our institutional repository, Minerva Access , will determine and manage embargoes before making any version of a research output publicly available.

A version of an article or paper that is shared openly prior to formal peer review or publication. Preprints are typically shared on preprint servers, such as arXiv.org , bioRxiv , OSF Preprints , SSRN , or Zenodo .

Find out more on our Preprints page.

Submitted manuscript

The submitted manuscript is the version of a research output originally submitted to a venue, such as a journal or book publisher. This version typically undergoes editorial review and may subsequently be sent on for peer review.

In the past, submitted manuscripts were sometimes called preprints , although this term now has a different meaning: early versions of article or papers shared prior to peer review on preprint servers.

Find out more about article versions on the Minerva Access website .

Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) / Accepted version

The version of an article, paper, book, or book chapter that has been accepted for publication. It is the author’s final manuscript version after peer review and revisions, but prior to the publisher’s copyediting, typesetting, and formatting results in a proof.

Version of Record (VoR)

The final published version of a research output – usually the publisher’s final PDF.

Unless the work is published open access under a Creative Commons licence, this version cannot generally be shared or made open access in a repository.

Non-Traditional Research Output (NTRO)

A broad term encompassing research outputs that do not take the form of typical peer-reviewed scholarly publications (journal articles, books and book chapters, conference publications).

Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) include visual artworks, creative writing, films, performances, recordings, music composition, building and design projects, curated exhibitions, and portfolios. They may also be referred to as Artistic and Practice Based Research Outputs (APROs).

To be considered a research output for reporting purposes, an NTRO must meet the definition of research established in the Australian Research Council's 2018-19 ERA report :

Research is defined as the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies, inventions and understandings. This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it is new and creative.

University of Melbourne researchers can find out more about reporting their NTROs on our Research Gateway: Add Non-Traditional Research Outputs (NTROs) to Find an Expert .

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OU theses and dissertations

Online theses.

Are available via Open Research Online .

Print theses

Search for OU theses in the Library Search . To see only print theses click 'In the Walton Hall library' and refine your results to resource type 'Thesis'.

OU staff and research students can borrow a consultation copy of a thesis (if available). Please contact the Library helpdesk giving the author and title of the thesis.

UK theses and dissertations from EThOS

The Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS) offers free access to the full text of UK theses.

EThOS offers a one stop online shop providing free access to UK theses
EThOS digitizes theses on request into PDF format, this may require payment
EThOS is managed by the British Library in partnership with a number of UK universities
EThOS is open to all categories of library user

What does this mean to you as a library user?

When you need to access a PhD thesis from another UK based HE institution you should check EThOS to either download a thesis which has already been digitised or to request that a UK thesis be supplied to you.

For all UK theses EThOS will be the first point of delivery. You can use the online ordering and tracking system direct from EThOS to manage your requests for UK PhD theses, including checking the status of your requests
As readers you will deal directly with EThOS so will not need to fill in a document delivery request
OU staff and research students will still be entitled to access non-UK based PhD theses by filling in a document delivery request
In some cases where EThOS is unable to supply a UK thesis OU staff and research students will be able to access it by filling in a conventional document delivery request. The thesis will be supplied through direct loan
The EThOS system is both faster and cheaper than the previous British Theses service which was based on microfilm
The British Library no longer arranges interlibrary loans for UK PhD theses
Interlibrary Loan procedures for other types of request from the British Library (articles and books for example) will remain the same

If you have any queries about using EThOS contact the Document Delivery Team ( [email protected] or the Library Helpdesk ).

Note 13/03/2024: The British Library is continuing to experience a major technology outage affecting its websites and other online systems, due to a Cyber attack. as a result access to ETHOS might not be possible until the issue is fixed.

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Open Access

Find out how to make your research publications and theses Open Access. For open sharing of research data and other associated outputs, please see our open data page.

What is Open Access?

Open Access (OA) is free, unrestricted online availability of research literature such as peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, book chapters and monographs. According to the Budapest Open Access Initiative :

"By “open access” to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited ."

Over the years, the scope of Open Access has expanded beyond traditional publications to include any tangible products arising from research, including early versions of manuscripts ( preprints , theses, data sets , software, patents) and creative works (compositions, literary works, performances), as well as any other outputs supporting the analysis, interpretation and, where applicable, reproducibility of the research findings.

Why Open Access?

Scholarly publications, including journal articles, conference proceedings and monographs, are currently the main avenues to disseminating research, but often people need to pay for access; even then, they are limited in how they can re-use the work.

Open Access to publications aims to remove these barriers. Open Access publications are freely available online, without the need for payment or passwords, and free from most re-use restrictions.

Open Access at Surrey

The Library:

Supports the deposit of research outputs created by Surrey researchers in the University’s Open Research repository
Manages funds to cover the costs of Open Access publishing; and has in place a number of publisher agreements that support compliance with funders.

If you have any questions, or need guidance then please email our Open Research team at [email protected] .

Open Access to your journal publications

The table below shows how you can make your research articles Open Access.

Where can I publish my journal article at no additional cost using one of our current publisher agreements?

The table below lists the journals included in our publishers deals and were article can be published at no additional cost.

Open Access to monographs and book chapters

Open Access to monographs and edited collections. The term ‘monograph’ is used here to encompass “academic books written on a single subject of an aspect of a subject, typically aimed at, but not restricted to, a scholarly audience” (see OAPEN-UK report ). These books can include both single-authored and multi-authored publications.

Several funders (including UKRI and the Wellcome Trust) require Open Access to monographs deriving from their grants. From January 2024, UKRI requires Open Access to monographs resulting from UKRI-funded projects within 12 months of publication. For more information see funders’ requirements .

Currently there are several business models supporting Open Access monograph publishing:

Several commercial publishers, including Springer , Palgrave , Brill and De Gruyter , and some university presses, including Manchester University Press and Cambridge University Press , charge a fee (book processing charge – BPC - similar to an article processing charge) for authors to publish their monograph Open Access. Publication fees can range between £6,000 and £11,000 and can vary by size/word count
Some university presses, including UCL press and Huddersfield Press , are subsidised by their institutions in terms of funding and resources. Fees are typically lower than those charged by commercial publishers and can be waived for the institution’s own authors and, in some cases, for external authors as well
‘Freemium’ models make an online version openly available on their website while also producing, and charging for, e-book and hard copy versions to cover production costs. Open Book Publishers , a leading publisher supporting Open Access in the humanities and social sciences, and OpenEdition , implement this model
Library-subsidised and crowdfunding models rely on communities to fund the costs of open monographs. Examples include the Open Library of Humanities library-subsidy model and the Unglue initiative to make books openly available.

Sharing book chapters in repositories

Some publishers, including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Palgrave and Taylor and Francis, have policies allowing you to share your book chapter in your University’s repository, usually after an embargo period.

The University strongly encourages you to upload your book chapters in the repository. The Library will check the publisher’s policy for you and make the chapter available where possible.

Open Access to doctoral theses

Doctoral theses are a key outcome of research. We are committed to making past and current doctoral theses Open Access. Since 2015, all doctoral and MPhil students must deposit the final version of their thesis as approved by the examiners in the University’s Open Access repository.

In 2016 the University embarked on a project to make doctoral theses available to the wider public. All of our past theses have now been digitised.

Our doctoral theses can be accessed from the University’s Open Access repository . They can also be found via the British Library’s e-theses online service, EThOS .

View more information on open access to theses .

Step-by-step guide to Open Access

To meet University, REF and funders' Open Access requirements, you need to know what to do:

while you are preparing a manuscript for submission
on submission to the journal
on acceptance
Follow the OA diagram (PDF) for guidance and a checklist before submission, on submission and on acceptance.
The diagram refers to a journal list . Use the list to find out which journals are supported by OA funds, and for which journals you need to follow the repository route. Please do explore OA publications in journals that do not require additional article process charges (APCs) first and use the funding available via funders (e.g. Wellcome, EU or NIHR where possible) before applying to the Library OA fund.
Please always use your University of Surrey email, University of Surrey complete affiliation and your ORCID when submitting an article.

Open Access repository

Adding your publications to the repository.

We continue to offer a fully-mediated service, where you send us your papers for us to deposit in the University’s Open Access repository . However, now you also have the option to create your own publication records and upload the corresponding author’s accepted manuscript directly in the repository.

Please make the accepted version of your papers available as soon as you receive the final acceptance communication from your journal
Where possible, please also deposit any research data, code and other materials associated with your publications. You can upload your data sets in the repository or create a record indicating where the datasets are stored (e.g. a discipline-specific repository). For more guidance, please see open data .

Option 1: Deposit directly

You are strongly encouraged to upload your publications directly in the repository. The Library will still check copyright and other information before making your paper live.

To deposit directly:

Visit the Open Research repository
On the top right corner, select Surrey Researchers sign in (use your university username and password)
Once logged in, select the 'add content' button (top right corner)
Select ' asset type.' By 'asset’ the system means type of research output (for example, article, book etc).
Check if the output is already in the repository; for example, already added by a co-author. This will save you time and avoid creating duplicates
Entering an active DOI will automatically populate some fields
By adding a PDF file, the platform can extract some information from it.

Should you wish to get more familiar with the platform, watch the 5-minute video on how to add a research output to your profile in the repository .

Option 2. Send your publications to the Library for uploading

Email your publications to the Library at [email protected] . For recently accepted papers, please send us the file of the accepted manuscript as soon as the article has been accepted for publication.

Important: The version of the article to upload or send to us must be the accepted manuscript.

Publishing Open Access

Publisher agreements.

Agreements with publishers include 'transitional agreements' and prepayment or discount arrangements.

Transitional agreements (also known as 'transformative' or 'read and publish' agreements) are negotiated between institutions/national consortia and publishers to enable a transition from a subscription publishing model to a fully Open Access publishing model, with the aim to make all research Open Access, and published under business models that are transparent and sustainable.

Transitional agreements are:

Compliant with major funders: These agreements are strongly supported by many funders, guided by the principles of cOAlitionS
Efficient: Having such agreements in place makes it overall easier for you to publish Open Access, as in most cases you no longer need to apply to the Library for an article processing charge (APC). See publishers' list.
Cost-effective and transparent: Access to subscription content and Open Access publishing costs are part of a single deal, set up in ways that substantial savings are made over the course of the transition compared to paying Open Access costs individually. Costs and other information on the progress of the transition are publicly available and monitored.

The Library also has in place prepayment or discount arrangements. These are not transitional, but have been set up to benefit from discount offers and/or more efficient payment processes.

Payment of one-off Open Access publication costs (journals)

The Library manages two budgets to pay Open Access publication costs, known as article processing charges (APCs), for articles not already covered by publisher agreements :

The UKRI Open Access Fund , allocated to Surrey on a yearly basis, covers eligible publications
The Library Open Access Fund (please note this is a limited fund) supports publications where the funder does not allocate funds to cover open access costs, or where the research is unfunded.

In these cases, you must submit an article processing charge request form to the Library and receive an approval before you commit to a payment to the publisher.

Both research-active staff and PGRs at Surrey are eligible for the funds
The paper must be a peer-reviewed research journal article or conference proceeding. The funds do not cover invited articles, monographs or book chapters
You should normally be the principal investigator and/or the corresponding author
You must choose to publish the article under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence . For more information, please see copyright and licences
The journal/Open Access option supported must be compliant with your funder’s requirements
The funds do not cover colour printing or page charges.

Please contact [email protected] if you have any questions.

Payment of one-off Open Access publication costs (Monographs)

The library facilitates applications to the new UKRI Open Monographs Fund.

More information on how you can request funding to publish your monographs are available here .

Our current publisher agreements (including Read and Publish agreements)

To help Surrey research staff and PGRs publish Open Access, the Library holds agreements with several journal publishers. These include Read and Publish agreements, which aim to support a transition to full Open Access.

To be eligible to publish under any of our agreements and access Open Access fundings:

you must be corresponding author
your affiliation must be listed as University of Surrey (please use the full affiliation Name | Department | Faculty | Institution | City | Country)
you must select a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY) . Publishers may offer you other licences, e.g. CC-BY-NC-ND, but the University only supports CC BY , in line with funders’ requirements.

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Current agreement in place until 31/12/2024

Eligibility:

your affiliation must be listed as University of Surrey
you must select a CC-BY licence

Article Processing Charge requests:

You can publish at no cost in eligible Hybrid and Open Access journals (listed as Group B on our Journal List ) and you don't need to submit an article processing request.

American Physical Society (APS)

Please use your Surrey email address on submission and select University of Surrey as your affiliation. Your article will automatically qualify for OA.
Current agreement in place until 31/12/2025.

Eligibility:

you must select a CC-BY licence
You can publish at no cost in eligible hybrid journals (listed as Group B on our Journal List ) and you don't need to submit an article processing request.
For fully open access journals (listed as Group A on our Journal List ) you must submit an article processing charge request .

Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press – full agreement details and eligible journal list .
Current agreement in place until 31/12/2024.
Elsevier - Elsevier-UK Institutions Agreement information page

Institute of Physics

Institute of Physics Eligible Journals Lists - University of Surrey authors are eligible to publish with no fee in journal titles from Eligible Journals List A, B and D

John Benjamins Publishing Company

articles submitted to eligible John Benjamins journal between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024 (if accepted for publication, and regardless of when it is published)

Microbiology Society

All the Society’s six journals are covered by our agreement including: Microbiology, Journal of General Virology, Journal of Medical Microbiology, Microbial Genomics, International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology and Access Microbiology
Open access publishing available at no cost in the following journals: PLOS Complex Systems, PLOS Computational Biology, PLOS Digital Health, PLOS Genetics, PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, PLOS ONE, PLOS Pathogens

Portland Press (Biochemical Society)

You are eligible only if you are the corresponding author. To be eligible, authors must use their University of Surrey email address on submission.
You do not need to submit an article processing charge form
Five subscription journals and two full Open Access journals are covered .

Royal College of General Practitioners

Open access publishing available at no cost in both Royal College of General Practitioners journals: British Journal of General Practice and BJGP Open

Royal Society of Chemistry

Royal Society of Chemistry journal finder
You can publish Open Access in the majority of Sage’s hybrid (subscription and OA) journals, without incurring an open access fee (article processing charge).
The agreement covers articles accepted for publication between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2024.
A small number of SAGE hybrid journals are excluded from the offer. A list of these titles is available on the Sage website. Some article types are also excluded, for example; book reviews, commercially sponsored articles.
More information on the agreement is available at the SAGE information page
You can publish at no cost in eligible journals (listed as Group B on our Journal List ) and you don't need to submit an article processing request.

Springer Nature Compact

Taylor and francis.

It covers most of the hybrid (subscription and OA) journals in their Social Science and Humanities (SS&H) and Science and Technology (S&T) journal collections. The deal does not cover titles in T&F’s Medicine collection, or any of T&F’s fully Open Access journals.
The deal provides a capped number of credits per year across participating institutions in the UK and will end when all credits have been used.
You are eligible only if you are the corresponding author. You must use your University of Surrey email address and list the University of Surrey as their organisation on submission.
For fully OA journals, you will need to submit an an article processing charge form . Please see the Open Access step-by-step process for more details
Only research articles are covered.
All fully open access journals and hybrid journals offering Online Open
You can publish at no cost in eligible Hybrid and Open Access journals (listed as Group B on our Journal List ) and you don't need to submit an article processing request.
The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access: an evidence-based review
Open Access explained! A video from PhD comics
Paywall: the movie : a film explaining the background of Open Access
SPARC : the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
Directory of Open Access journals (DOAJ)
Full guide to transitional agreements from JISC
OpenUK Guide to OA monograph publishing (PDF)
Open Access and the Graduate Author: A Dissertation Anxiety Manual .

Open Access to research outputs policy

Open access policy companion guide, open access how-to guide.

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Last Updated: Sep 13, 2023 2:15 PM
URL: https://guides.library.harvard.edu/CCB

Harvard University Digital Accessibility Policy

Welcome to White Rose eTheses Online

White rose etheses online.

Welcome to White Rose eTheses Online, a shared repository of electronic theses from the University of Leeds, the University of Sheffield and the University of York.

Student from the University of Leeds, Sheffield or York? Need to upload your thesis? Start by creating an account , or login to your account

If you are unsure if this is the right place for you, check the FAQs .

Recent additions for Leeds , Sheffield , York or all recent additions .

What is White Rose eTheses Online?

This repository gives access to theses awarded by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. The available repository content can be accessed for free, without the need to log on or create an account, as per the instructions of the depositing author. We also make the content available through aggregator sites via harvesting mechanisms.

IMAGES

My PhD thesis is now online
PhD Thesis Example
Shodhganga Educational Research : Access Thesis, Research Papers
(PDF) PhD Thesis Presentation
Online Thesis
[Solved] How to Access an American PhD Thesis?

VIDEO

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Discover 6 Ways to Make Your Academic Writing Way More Interesting
PhD
How to write thesis or research papers in few minutes without plagiarism?
How to use Connected Papers for Thesis and Academic Research
How to Find Reference Thesis

COMMENTS

OATD
OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 7,429,082 theses and dissertations. About OATD (our FAQ). Visual OATD.org
EBSCO Open Dissertations
EBSCO Open Dissertations is a collaboration between EBSCO and BiblioLabs to increase traffic and discoverability of ETD research. You can join the movement and add your theses and dissertations to the database, making them freely available to researchers everywhere while increasing traffic to your institutional repository.
Dissertations & Theses
Over the last 80 years, ProQuest has built the world's most comprehensive and renowned dissertations program. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT Global), continues to grow its repository of 5 million graduate works each year, thanks to the continued contribution from the world's universities, creating an ever-growing resource of emerging research to fuel innovation and new insights.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global with the Web of Science™ enables researchers to seamlessly uncover early career, post-graduate research in the form of more than 5.5 million dissertations and theses from over 4,100 institutions from more than 60 countries, alongside journal articles, conference proceedings, research data, books, preprints and patents.
EBSCO Open Dissertations
Our goal is to help make their students' theses and dissertations as widely visible and cited as possible. This approach extends the work started in 2014, when EBSCO and the H.W. Wilson Foundation created American Doctoral Dissertations which contained indexing from the H.W. Wilson print publication, Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by ...
Find Dissertations and Theses
How to search for Harvard dissertations. DASH, Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard, is the university's central, open-access repository for the scholarly output of faculty and the broader research community at Harvard.Most Ph.D. dissertations submitted from March 2012 forward are available online in DASH.; Check HOLLIS, the Library Catalog, and refine your results by using the Advanced ...
Open Access Theses and Dissertations
Database of free, open access full-text graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Direct Link. University of Southern California. 3550 Trousdale Parkway. Los Angeles , CA 90089.
Finding and accessing theses
Since 1 October 2017, all PhD theses are being deposited in electronic form to the University repository Apollo. Many earlier theses are also in the repository, but if they are not yet in digital form it is possible to request access to these theses. There is more information on how to request a copy of a printed thesis further down this page.
Access to Cambridge theses
Since 1 October 2017, all PhD theses are being deposited in electronic form to the University repository Apollo. Many earlier theses are also in the repository, but if they are not yet in digital form it is possible to request access to these theses. There is more information on how to request a copy of a printed thesis further down this page.
Theses & Dissertations: Home
Finding a Cambridge PhD thesis online via the institutional repository. The University's institutional repository, Apollo, holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates.Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link.More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be ...
EThOS: e-theses online service
EThOS is an open access resource. EThOS, provided by the British Library, is a free online service providing access to UK doctoral theses. It does not cover MPhils or master's dissertations. EThOS aims to provide a central listing of all doctoral theses awarded by UK higher education institutions, with the full text of as many theses as possible.
Dissertation Repositories, Open Access
Open Access Repositories. A free resource, hosted by EBSCO, this database includes more than 172,000 theses and dissertations in total from 1902 to the present. EThOS is the UK's national thesis service. EThOS aims to hold a record for all doctoral theses awarded by all UK universities (institutions).
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Several UC campuses have established policies requiring open access to the electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) written by their graduate students. As of March 25, 2020, there is now a systemwide Policy on Open Access for Theses and Dissertations, indicating that UC "requires theses or dissertations prepared at the University to be (1 ...
Open Access Dissertations
Open Access Theses & Dissertations. OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 5,031,307 theses and dissertations.
OATD
OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1000 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 2,960,883 theses and dissertations. About OATD (our FAQ). Visual OATD.org
Dissertations
EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) provides comprehensive listings for doctoral theses from over 100 institutions in the United Kingdom, dating back to the 17th century. ... Open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. PQDT Open (ProQuest)
Open Access Theses
Open access is required for University of Melbourne PhD, Doctorate, and Masters Research theses in all but exceptional cases. It may also be required, or encouraged, for Honours and Masters Coursework theses, depending on the school or faculty. When required and approved, temporary embargoes and ongoing access restrictions are possible.
Theses & dissertations
The Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS) offers free access to the full text of UK theses. EThOS offers a one stop online shop providing free access to UK theses. EThOS digitizes theses on request into PDF format, this may require payment. EThOS is managed by the British Library in partnership with a number of UK universities.
Open Access for researchers
In 2016 the University embarked on a project to make doctoral theses available to the wider public. All of our past theses have now been digitised. Our doctoral theses can be accessed from the University's Open Access repository. They can also be found via the British Library's e-theses online service, EThOS. View more information on open ...
Find Dissertations and Theses
To find Harvard affiliate dissertations: DASH - Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard - DASH is the university's central, open access repository for the scholarly output of faculty and the broader research community at Harvard.Most PhD dissertations submitted from March 2012 forward are available online in DASH.; HOLLIS Library Catalog - you can refine your results by using the Advanced ...
Welcome to White Rose eTheses Online
What is White Rose eTheses Online? This repository gives access to theses awarded by the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. The available repository content can be accessed for free, without the need to log on or create an account, as per the instructions of the depositing author. We also make the content available through aggregator ...
How to Access an American PhD Thesis?
4. It's available if your institution has a ProQuest subscription. There's no general way for an individual to download an American PhD thesis if your institution doesn't have a subscription and the author hasn't made it freely available online, but you should ask your institution's librarians for help. - ff524. Jan 26, 2015 at 10:38.
Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET
Three Days Training Programme on "Ethical Issues and Use of Plagiarism Detection in Research" (offline mode) during 08th - 10th April, 2024. Registration Download Brochure. 5,00,000th Thesis is uploaded into Shodhganga by Prof Yogesh Singh, Hon'ble Chairman, Governing Board, INFLIBNET Centre & Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi, Delhi in the august presence of Prof J P Singh Joorel, Director ...
Journal of Cellular Physiology
Share full-text access. ... In back of her, within her shadow are some of the people that helped her get to her PhD, such as mentors in their thesis/graduate committee. 3 WHAT IS THE QUALIFYING EXAM? Once a student passes their general classes, usually in the first or second year of the PhD program, they need to prepare for their qualifying ...

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EBSCO Open Dissertations

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How do I find a Cambridge thesis?

Gaining access to electronic copies of a thesis

Requesting a copy of a printed thesis

Study at Cambridge

Access to Cambridge theses

How do I find a Cambridge thesis?

Gaining access to electronic copies of theses

Open Access theses

Embargoed theses

Controlled theses

Requesting a copy of a printed thesis

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Physical & Digital Collections

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad.

University of Cambridge theses

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

UK Theses and Dissertations

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

EThOS: e-theses online service Open access EThOS: e-theses online service Open access

Dissertation Repositories, Open Access

Office of Scholarly Communication

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

1. Does UC require me to make my thesis/dissertation open access?

2. Can I delay open access to my thesis/dissertation?

3. I’m working on my thesis/dissertation and I have copyright questions. Where can I find answers?

4. Where can I find UC Dissertations and Theses online?

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Open Access

What is Open Access?

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Open Access at Surrey

Open Access to your journal publications

Where can I publish my journal article at no additional cost using one of our current publisher agreements?

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Step-by-step guide to Open Access

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Option 1: Deposit directly

Option 2. Send your publications to the Library for uploading