[BOAI] Survey into electronic theses - open access soon to be commonplace

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from Nicola Yeeles.

Also see the Slideshare summary,
http://www.slideshare.net/dr_tinabarnes/electronic-theses-in-the-uk-conf-presentation-1
the full report,
http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1339905/
and the project home page.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ls/etheses/

--Peter Suber.]



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*Open access to electronic theses soon to be commonplace*****

 ****

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 gives 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 – and their responses suggested that 81% of
their organisations will be providing open access to doctoral theses in
five years time. ****


Neil Jacobs, programme director at JISC, said: “Doctoral theses are
important records of research.  Many of them are already openly accessible
via repositories and the UK EThOS Service, which most UK universities have
joined.  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.”

**


This publication was a joint venture between UKCGE, and UCL Library
Services, based on a JISC project by UCL Library
Services<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ls/etheses/>
.****

Tina Barnes, senior research fellow at the University of
Warwick<http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/>,
is one of the authors of the report.  She said: “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.” ****


Paul Ayris, director of UCL library services <http://www.ucl.ac.uk/library/>and
co-chair of the DART-Europe partnership, said: “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.” **
**


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<http://ethos.bl.uk/>,
originally a JISC project, aims to do. ****



**

**

Nicola Yeeles | Public Relations Officer | JISC T 0117 331 0658 | M   0778
990 3148 | E n.yeeles at jisc.ac.uk****
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