A new electronic service for UK theses: access transformed by EThOS

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The paper aims to describe recent moves to establish a UK electronic thesis service. The existing arrangements for access to UK doctoral theses are not seen as ideal or sustainable. A range of stakeholders have come together in recent years to invest in an alternative. The resulting service model is one that is relevant to higher education across the UK and beyond. Design/methodology/approach -The EThOS service model is a partnership between the British Library as the service provider and UK universities, and includes technical, legal, business and operational aspects. It has been achieved by a series of development projects undertaken since 2002, culminating now in the impending transition from prototype to live service. Findings -The EThOS service model includes a range of partnership options to suit the varied requirements of UK higher education institutions. The main ambition of the model is to make electronic theses available open access via a financially viable and sustainable model. The core of the model is a "central hub", offering discovery, digitisation and preservation functions, working with institutions, in part via their institutional repositories. Practical implications -It is hoped that most UK higher education institutions will sign up for EThOS and benefit from this shift to both electronic theses and open access. Many have already indicated that they will do so. Originality/value -The value of the EThOS service is likely to be considerable. Where theses are available open access, their use escalates. EThOS will enable UK theses to be more widely accessed, read, used and cited worldwide. Authors, institutions and the UK all benefit from this.

Providing open access to PhD theses: visibility and citation benefits

“…The inclusion of electronic theses increases repository statistics and allows original research undertaken by emerging scholars to be visible, accessible and used by the wider research community. Statistics indicate that theses that are made available in this way are more widely used and cited in ongoing research (Stanton and Liew, 2011; Troman et al , 2007).…”

Analyzing National Electronic Theses and Dissertations programs from business model perspective

“…; small and local digitization projects can be cost effective for broader programs. Some projects like EThOS in the UK have a certain BM for digitizing hard copy TDs (Troman et al, 2007), or INFLIBNET in Shodhganga of India allocates funds to a university for the establishment of local ETDs lab and digitization of TDs. But some programs do not acquire print, so that they do not digitize TDs and do not have such costs.…”

Visibilidad e impacto de la literatura gris científica en repositorios institucionales de acceso abierto. Estudio de caso bibliométrico del repositorio Gredos de la Universidad de Salamanca

“…Las estadísticas indican que las tesis que están accesibles por esta vía son más usadas y citadas en la investigación actual (Troman, Jacobs, & Copeland, 2007).…”

“…La inclusión de las tesis en el repositorio incrementa las estadísticas de uso del mismo y permite que la investigación original realizada por los investigadores principiantes sea visible, accesible y capaz de ser utilizada por la comunidad científica en general. Las estadísticas indican que las tesis doctorales que están disponibles de este modo son las más utilizadas y citadas en la investigación en curso (Stanton & Liew, 2011;Troman et al, 2007).…”

“…Asimismo, el hecho de que cada vez haya más e-tesis doctorales disponibles en acceso abierto requiere que se mida el uso de las mismas con herramientas adecuadas que proporcionen datos reales sobre visibilidad y citación. Según algunos autores las estadísticas indican que las tesis doctorales que están disponibles en repositorios de acceso abierto son las más utilizadas y citadas en la investigación en curso (Stanton & Liew, 2011;Troman et al, 2007).…”