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How to make your research open access - For authors of theses and dissertations

 

When preparing your thesis or dissertation, include a copyright page.

    • This will help readers identify the copyright holder and the year of copyright (including the date when the work will enter the public domain).
    • Use this space to specify that the copyright belongs to you and to grant to readers the kinds of rights called for by the Budapest and/or Bethesda definitions of open access. Creative Commons provides license templates which you can paste in.
  • When submitting your thesis or dissertation:
    • If your school accepts electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), and you are offered an option of when or to whom the thesis or dissertation will be made available (e.g. on a rights and permissions form), select full, immediate access.
      • Your thesis or dissertation will be available from your institution’s ETD repository (which may then be available through the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) [link]) or general institutional repository (IR). In either case, information about your thesis or dissertation generally will be made available in the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) metadata format, which will allow it to be indexed in specialized search engines such as OAIster and make it more accessible to general search engines such as Google.
    • If you will submit your thesis or dissertation to another service e.g. ProQuest UMI: Before you sign a contract, make sure you understand your rights under the agreement. Ensure the agreement preserves your rights to make the thesis or dissertation open access. (See the SPARC Author Rights program for details: http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/)
  • After your thesis or dissertation has been accepted / successfully defended:
    • If your school has an IR and accepts student theses and dissertations, and if your school does not accept ETDs or if ETDs are not automatically included in your school’s IR: Deposit your thesis or dissertation in your school’s IR.
    • If your school does not have an IR or if your school does not accept student theses or dissertations in its IR, and if your school does not accept ETDs or if your school’s ETDs are not indexed in NDLTD: Deposit your thesis or dissertation in NDLTD.
    • If you have a personal Web site, include a link to your thesis or dissertation in your school’s IR or in NDLTD. You can also include a link in your CV or résumé.