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 report shows there are a number of reasons why researchers may not make their theses available electronically, but the principal reason may be the inclusion of sensitive material. Concerns regarding third-party copyright, plagiarism and restrictions on future publications are having little impact on access so far. The report also suggests that theses need to be preserved over the long term - something that the British Library service, EThOS, originally a JISC project, aims to do.
The publication was a joint venture between UKCGE, and UCL Library Services, based on a JISC project by UCL Library Services.
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