Loughborough Doctoral College

Essential information

Guidance on submitting/uploading your e-thesis to the Research Repository

Students are required to deposit a copy of the final version of their Ph.D. thesis, as approved by their Examiners, in electronic format in the University’s Research Repository.

Each thesis will be made freely available on the web via the University’s Research Repository (https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/), unless the thesis is Restricted or Confidential.

The research degree will not be awarded until the electronic version has been deposited with the University.

Purpose

  • To enable online access which will significantly increase theses’ visibility, which in turn leads to greater citation of students’ research.
  • To store and preserve theses with a stable link that the theses’ authors can always reference.

Procedures

The electronic copy of the thesis should be submitted via the online form at:  https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/submit

  • The electronic copy should be identical to the final version of the examined copy except where third-party copyright material has been removed.
  • In the event that third-party copyright material is removed in order to make the thesis publicly available, a complete version of the thesis will also need to be deposited. The complete version will be held on closed access and not be made available.
  • The electronic copy should be submitted as one file in PDF format.
  • A signed “Certificate of Originality, Thesis Access Conditions and Deposit Agreement” will need to be bound into the soft bound print copies of the thesis for examination.
  • The Certificate gives permission for the electronic version to be deposited in the Research Repository and declares that all necessary copyright permissions have been cleared.
  • After examination the signed “Certificate of Originality, Thesis Access Conditions and Deposit Agreement” should be scanned and submitted

with the electronic thesis as a separate file. Scanning of the signed document is essential as the original signatures of the student and supervisor are required.

  • Permission for the use of third-party copyright material should be obtained or the material removed.
  • Copyright guidance and the Certificate are available online through the Doctoral College website:  https://www.lboro.ac.uk/services/doctoral-college/essential-information/staff/submit-thesis/
  • Moratorium (embargo) periods can be applied to e-theses. In these cases the theses will not be made available in the Research Repository or via EThOS until the end of the moratorium period.

EThOS

Most UK universities offer electronic theses as part of a national movement led by the British Library’s EThOS (Electronic Theses Online System) service in which Loughborough University is a participant.

British theses are made freely available on the EThOS web site. It is therefore necessary for all students to sign the “Certificate of Originality, Thesis Access Conditions and Deposit Agreement, which permits the British Library to make the thesis available while retaining their rights as the copyright owner. If you are in any doubt, please contact the University Copyright Officer.

If a student does not want their thesis made freely available by the British Library it will be necessary to place a moratorium period on the thesis.

Online availability

E-thesis records will be made available in the Research Repository once the Doctoral College Office have undertaken their necessary processes and notified the Library that they have added the author’s name to their official pass list. At busy times this may take a few weeks, therefore there will usually be a delay before your thesis record is visible in the Research Repository.

 

Updated April 2019