Electronic Theses On-line System (EThOS) Opening Access To UK Theses Repositories Support Programme, Bath 15 Jan 2009 Anthony Troman, Product Development, British Library

Background of EThOS JISC FAIR Programme (Focus on Access to Institutional Resources) has funded a number of innovative projects such as: –Electronic Theses Project lead by Susan Copeland at Robert Gordon University in –Theses Alive! Project lead by Edinburgh University. –The DAEDALUS project lead by University of Glasgow. The EThOS project led by Glasgow University developed a prototype system, toolkit, business model, approach to IPR, etc. EThOSnet, Led by Imperial, has taken the outputs of EThOS and developed the live system and support infrastructure A growing number of institutional repositories are being set-up to showcase individual institution’s research outputs.

The aim of EThOS is, through a collaborative approach: –To offer a ‘single point of access’ where researchers the world over can access ALL theses produced by UK Higher Education –To support HEIs through the transition from print to e-theses –To help UK HEIs expand available content by digitising paper theses –To demonstrate the quality of UK research and help attract students and research investment into UK HE We will achieve this by implementing a ‘Central Hub’ to offer a consistent system across the UK collection comprising e-storage and a digitisation suite at The British Library site in Boston Spa, Yorkshire

A system for all EThOS offers an integrated infrastructure to: –Support the Open Access aspirations of UK HE –Harvest e-theses from Institutional Repositories –Digitise paper based theses –Deliver theses to the researcher in the format required –Return digitised theses to institutions for loading to their IR –Preserve e-born and digitised theses in perpetuity –Enable the participation of any HEI, small or large, with or without an IR

Workflows

Open Access The key to the success of EThOS is making UK theses ‘open to all’. The UK HEI community mandated responsible open access to make UK doctoral theses readily available and free at the point of use. The Open Access definition used by EThOS is: - Download of thesis is free to researchers; - Participating HEIs will pay up-front costs of theses digitisation; - If the thesis is required hard-bound, soft-bound, loose-leaf or on CD/DVD, costs will be charged to the researcher; - For HEI's who opt-out of Open Access supply, digitisation of the thesis will be charged to the first researcher ordering the item, and thereafter will be free to download.

A financially viable system Open Access is NOT free access! If UK HE wants to offer Open Access, they must cover the costs (as they do now). If we wish to offer access to the great body of research currently held on paper, we need to digitise the contents. Digitisation is manually intensive and therefore expensive! To fund this, we have devised the following participation options – UK institutions can select the participation option most appropriate to their own circumstances –Open Access Sponsor – contribute up-front and receive the full value of your contribution in digitised theses selected on-demand by researchers using the system –Associate Member Level 1 (Open Access) – contribute retrospectively to the full cost of theses digitised –Associate Member Level 2 – theses contributed but first researcher pays for digitisation –Associate Member Level 3 – metadata supplied but theses supplied by the institution Theses will be digitised only once – thereafter they will be available on-line for Open Access download from EThOS forever, hence ‘Opening Access to UK Theses’.

Digitisation Project & Suite The JISC funded UK Theses Digitisation Project is digitising up to 11,300 of the most requested paper theses for free to ensure EThOS is fully functioning system from day 1. The British Library has built a Digitisation Suite to digitise paper theses when demanded by researchers.

Why digitise from microfilm? Digitised from Microfilm

Digitised from paper thesis

Microfilm vs. Digitisation Quality Digitised from MicrofilmDigitised from Paper thesis

Intellectual Property Rights in the UK (note: these issues also apply to UK IRs) EThOS will digitise and distribute paper theses already in existence WITHOUT seeking specific permissions from the author! Authors normally hold the IPR in the content of their theses –EThOS distributes on behalf of authors – no claim to IPR –Future authors will agree formally to allow web distribution of their thesis (or not) – Institutions should build such agreements into their thesis deposit procedures ASAP, whether they have an IR or not (see the EThOS toolkit) –For digitisation of theses already submitted EThOS assumes (based on experience) that the majority of authors are happy to have their thesis supplied –200,000 of them have signed Agreement forms in the past for the BL to distribute their thesis – 20,000 of these will be digitised free to the institution as part of the JISC funded UK Thesis Digitisation Project –Should authors object to their thesis being loaded to EThOS, there is a rapid notice and take-down policy based on the JORUM model. –All researchers (readers) must agree to terms and conditions for every thesis supplied. –EThOS must take a practical and pragmatic approach to this issue in order to deliver a cost-effective solution which meets the needs of its users and the majority of its suppliers (the authors). Rapid take-down and notice policy applies also to 3 rd party content

Costs To digitise a bound thesis and return it undamaged to the institution (‘Digitise and return’) £40 To digitise a thesis supplied for digitisation loose-leaf or where the binding can be removed and the thesis discarded after digitisation (‘Digitise and discard’) £26 Digitisation Open Access Sponsor Institution size JISC Bands Contribution p.a. No. theses £35 No. theses £23 LargeA, B, C£ MediumD, E, F£ Small*Others£ Small*Others£ * Small institutions can choose their contribution level. Figures include 15%

Additional services to researchers Downloads of e-theses are free of charge To prepare a thesis into a physical delivery format, if required by the researcher, will be charged at cost Supply format Cost to researcher DownloadFree Printed - Loose-leaf - Soft-bound - Hard-bound £20 £25 £30 CD/DVD£15 (inc. VAT)

Benefits for Institutions Savings on costs of Theses Producing, borrowing and handling theses (eg: shelf space) Centralised processing for the supply and delivery of etheses Workflow Savings through the Toolkit Staff time Suite of resources available for e-theses creation (model end user and deposit licences, etc) Creation of standards to ensure maximum interoperability (metadata, procedures, technical, etc) Statistical data (eg: most frequently requested materials by subject, by HEI, by date) to help predict future demands and target efforts Efficient and Fit for purpose providing value of money Support for the principle of Open Access and increased use of publicly-funded research

EThOS Toolkit Portfolio Interactive set of Tools providing Clear standards for ethesis Deposit Licences Model end user licences Guidelines for Harvesting Metadata Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright FAQs for Authors, Institutions, Researchers and Supervisors Procedures moving towards mandatory submission of thesis in electronic format Other support

Top 10 theses supplied by BL over the lifetime of the microfilm service BL RefTitleAuthorYearUniversityTimes supplied D059643Learning with delayed rewardsWATKINS1989Cambridge58 D038981Student nurses' accounts of their work and trainingMELIA1981Edinburgh53 DX080167DISCLOSURE OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES A CASE STUDY OF NIGERIA WALLACE1987Exeter53 D060977The women who served Queen Mary and Queen ElizabethMERTON1992Cambridge51 DX075792CARE AND WORK IN NURSING THE DYING: A PARTICIPANT STUDY IN A CONTINUING CARE UNIT JAMES1986Aberdeen46 D060135Evaluation of information systems multiple perspectivesSYMONS1990Cambridge41 D097643FROM MYTH TO MEMORYKEENAN1992Essex39 D094740INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND SMALL FIRM PERFORMANCE CRAGG1990Loughborough37 D042943FASCISM AND FASCISTS IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND IN THE 1930'S RAWNSLEY1981Bradford37 D173873BUDDHISM IN BRITAIN-DEVELOPMENT AND ADAPTATIONBELL1991Durham34

West Virginia University top 10 (for 2007 only) Most Popular ETDs #HitsDisciplineURL 137,501HistoryStewart_Burns_Shirley_dissertation 233,752Civil EngineeringDasarath_Rao_M_masters_problem_report 313,812Athletic TrainingSamson_Kim_thesis 48,965Mechanical EngineeringMcIntyre_Dustin_dissertation 57,599Athletic TrainingSiegel_Lori_thesis 66,604Athletic TrainingLeavey_V_thesis 76,194Mechanical EngineeringVadlamani_Deepika_thesis 85,937HistoryBoback_John_dissertation 95,674German / TESOLRoth_Miriam_thesis 105,124Chemical EngineeringBambal_Ashish_thesis

Brigham Young University top 10 AUTHORDEPARTMENTETD TITLE ON CAMPUS HITS OFF CAMPUS HITS Romo, Abel JavierLinguistics and English Language An English for Specific Purposes Curriculum to Prepare English Learners to Become Nursing Assistants Pittard, Matthew Thurlow Mechanical Engineering Large Eddy Simulation Based Turbulent Flow-induced Vibration of Fully Developed Pipe Flow Jensen, Robin SHistoryGleaning the Harvest: Strangite Missionary Work, Aoyama, Kazumasa Instructional Psychology and Technology Using A Diglot Reader to Teach Kanji: The Effects of Audio and Romaji on the Acquisition of Kanji Vocabulary Oliphant, Alma HMechanical Engineering Numerical Modeling of Friction Stir Welding: A Com Jevtic, ElizabetaGerman and Slavic Languages Blank Pages of the Holocaust: Gypsies in Yugoslavia During World War II Murdock, Jennifer Melody CommunicationsAn External Communication Audit of the National Tropical Botanical Garden Bishop, Gregory Loren Mechanical Engineering A Comprehensive Model for Technology Push Product Development Xiang, YanqiaoChemistry and Biochemistry Capillary Liquid Chromatography Using Micro Size Particles Taniguchi, Stacy Tooru Educational Leadership & Foundations Outdoor Education and Meaningful Learning: Finding the attributes of meaningful learning experiences in an outdoor education program

Florida University for 2007 InstCode Month Total JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec University of Central Florida CF3,6764,9041,2485,0144,3563,9803,8223,7974,3444,8084,9623,97048,881 University of Florida UF24,53028,6408,98529,61927,03224,19623,57326,26727,23035,34134,33628,480318,229 University of South Florida SF7,8559,6962,6029,8628,9207,5358,3028,1298,92711,05111,1569,699103,734 University of West Florida WF Total:36,07443,26112,83844,50740,35035,74635,73438,21640,54551,34950,50742,199471,326