After your thesis has been passed by the examiners, you must submit an electronic copy of your thesis to the University of Derby Online Research Archive (UDORA). Your thesis will be published under the default Creative Commons Licence CC BY NC ND 4.0. If you wish to change the choice of Creative Commons Licence, you need to contact either Donya Rowan (Copyright and Licensing Advisor) or Holly Limbert (Repository & Open Access Librarian).
This digital, Open Access version has many benefits compared to hosting a printed copy in a library. The online version will potentially attract a wider readership than the printed copy alone, which would only be available to those with access to one of the university libraries. Making research available on the open web also has the potential to increase your visibility as a researcher.
UDORA is not the only online repository to hold electronic theses. There are over 5000 Open Access repositories around the world, half of which provide access to doctoral theses. In the UK alone there are over 200 institutional repositories and many of these store and offer free access to PhD theses.
Your thesis and copyright
As you are working on your thesis you will need to maintain a list of those providing you with third party copyright materials. You will need to have permission from them to include the material in your work when it is uploaded to UDORA. You do not need to have permission to include third party copyright material in the version of your thesis submitted for examination, it is only when your thesis is made available on UDORA that you need permission to include any third party copyright material.
Restricting access to your thesis
If your thesis contains confidential or sensitive information, then we will put an embargo on the thesis so it will not be publicly available until such a time as is suitable. If you are publishing from your thesis, then you may choose to embargo your work. That said, making your thesis Open Access won't necessarily have a bearing on official publication with an academic publisher. If you are unsure, please speak to the publisher you have in mind.
Further information
For further information about third party copyright material, IPR and plagiarism please see the Student Copyright Guide and click on the PhD E-theses tab.
For information on how to submit to UDORA, please see the documentation below which provides detailed guidance. For further assistance, please contact UDORA@derby.ac.uk
Print copies of theses written by students at other UK institutions are quite difficult to access unless you are able to travel to the library where the thesis is held. Print copies of theses are often available for reference use only and cannot be borrowed.
However, as there is an increasing number of universities requiring their students to submit electronic versions, more theses are freely available in full text online. EThOS - The Electronic Theses Online Service is a database of theses provided by the British Library. You are able to search by subject, author, title or institution and theses can be downloaded immediately where available. If a thesis is not immediately downloadable, it will take approximately 6 weeks for it to be digitised, subject to permission from the institution. You will need to register with the site.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT) is a collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, offering millions of doctoral theses from thousands of universities. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citation coverage dating back to 1637.
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organisation dedicated to promoting the dissemination of electronic theses across the world. You can find links to repositories, providing access to theses in several languages.