Deposit guide for eTheses

(For eDissertations, please follow our Deposit guide for eDissertations. For eprints, please follow our Deposit guide for ePrints)
The University has now approved for the default submission of the PGR thesis to be in electronic format (rather than as a soft-bound and USB/CD digital copy). Please use this service to submit your thesis for examination, corrections, re-submission or final version. Once the degree has been conferred, your final version will be retained for publication in the repository, all other copies will be deleted (except where an additional file is uploaded specifically for reader access).

University of Nottingham regulations for students following a doctoral programme of study stipulate that all research students must upload the final version of their thesis to the University eTheses service (http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/etheses/). This will be archived as a record of the work which has been examined and must reflect the version submitted to the examiners with any required corrections made. This will be verified by the examiners and the degree will then be formally conferred, either at a degree ceremony or through the inter-ceremony process.

Once the degree has been conferred, the thesis will be published and made available online unless:

  • The content contains third party copyrighted material or confidential material. In this case a second version with the copyright or sensitive material removed should also be submitted.
  • A restriction has been applied for due to time-limited confidentiality issues (Applications for a restriction or embargo to be placed on a thesis). In this case bibliographic details and the full-text would only be visible to repository staff.
  • An embargo has been requested. The thesis is not formally restricted but the author wishes it to remain confidential prior to publication in a different form. In this case bibliographic details would be searchable but the full-text would only be visible to repository staff.

Written theses should be deposited in PDF format. (This option is usually available within word processing software. For example Microsoft Word offers a 'save as PDF' option. Open your Word document, click on the Office button on the top left corner, go to save as, then click PDF. This will save your document in a PDF format.) However data, audio and video files may also be uploaded.

Please ensure that you have discussed the terms under which your thesis will be made available with your supervisor. If your final thesis contains material which infringes a third party’s copyright then please obtain direct permission to reproduce this from the copyright owners or also upload a second copy with this material removed. Examples could be reproductions of photographs, graphs, illustration, extensive quotations or similar materials. [Further information on copyright] Similarly, if you have conducted a survey or presented a case study, the data may need to by anonymised.

Steps in the Deposit process:

  1. It is useful to have the following information to hand:
    • the type of degree - PhD, DM, MPhil, MRes, etc.
    • the full title of your thesis
    • the abstract of your thesis
    • the year your degree was awarded
    • the names of your supervisors
  2. At the "Nottingham ePrints" Home page, Login
  3. Click on the "New Item" button.
  4. Select your Item Type (i.e. "eThesis") and School from the pick lists.
  5. Fill in the bibliographic details (author, title, abstract etc)
  6. Upload (copy) your PDF(s) to the eTheses archive
  7. Select the appropriate visibility and licence options as agreed with your supervisor(s)
  8. Review your submission details
  9. Your submission will be checked and will appear in the public archive in due course.

More detailed guidance can be found at the 'Uploading your thesis' page.