Guidance for e-thesis deposit - for supervisors

In Autumn 2009, in collaboration with the Board of Graduate Studies, Cambridge University Library rolled out a voluntary scheme for submission of electronic theses. Electronic theses are deposited to DSpace@Cambridge, the university's institutional repository. (See which types of theses are currently eligible for deposit). The following notes pertain to academic supervisors in all disciplines.

Procedure

When a student submits a thesis for examination, DSpace@Cambridge receives a notification from the Board of Graduate Studies. We arrange deposit rights for the student to the relevant departmental collection, and alert the student by email. Theses can only be deposited after the student has passed examination. (Guidance on advised electronic format is available here.) Upon receival of the bound hard-copy to Special Collections, our thesis librarian verifies the metadata supplied by the student during online submission, and then makes the thesis available online.

Advantages of E-Theses

First and foremost, an electronic thesis published online will provide greatly extended visibility and potentially also impact of the student's research. We provide the student with a persistent URL that can be used for dissemination (for instance on a CV). In addition, it is also possible to deposit supporting primary data with the thesis (such as computer code, video, images), which will enhance quality ensurance and enable research verification. DSpace@Cambridge finally commits to long-term preservation of both the thesis and the research data.

Dissemination

All theses will be provided with a durable, or permanent, URL. Access to e-theses will be through the DSpace@Cambridge interface, but users will more typically find content through Google or other search-engines. Subject specific databases also index our collection.

Rights management

A paper thesis kept at the University's Special Collections may contain materials that are under copyright elsewhere (e.g. graphs, images, tables, or maps). However, when a thesis is deposited online it is a legally published document. For this reason, students must carefully manage the inclusion of materials that are currently under copyright elsewhere and clear rights whenever possible. Extensive guidelines are available on our 3rd Party Copyright page and in a guidance note. We have also drafted a template letter to approach copyright holders.

Whereas the final responsility lies with the student, we would advise that supervisors discuss this issue with their students, and alert them to any potential problems. The DSpace@Cambridge team would gladly advise on any matters to do with rights management.

Help and Training

For any questions regarding e-theses, please contact the DSpace@Cambridge team. If you feel that it would be helpful for our team to speak to your students directly, either in person or in groups, then we would also be delighted to arrange a training session for your department.