Research Degrees

Research Degrees

E-Thesis deposition

form

What this form is for / To authorise the Open University Library to make your thesis available to readers electronically, subject to copyright and any commercial restrictions relevant to the thesis.
E-deposition is currently only available to directly supported students.
Who should complete it / Directly supported students who have received an email or letter confirming the award of their research degree should complete this form. ARC students should use the Thesis deposition form on the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) at www.open.ac.uk/students/research
Please refer to the Examination guidelines before completing this form.
http://www.open.ac.uk/research/research-degrees/directly-registered-students/examinations.php
How this form should be submitted / You should complete this form electronically (click on the grey boxes to complete them) then print and sign a hard copy, and submit it together with the bound copies of your thesis, a copy of your abstract, and any non-book component (if available to be deposited with the University Library), to: Research Degrees Office, Charles Pinfold Building, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA.
You should then submit the electronic copy of your thesis as a pdf file via the OU’s institutional Repository, Open Research Online (ORO) at http://oro.open.ac.uk. Instructions for submitting via ORO can be found at http://oro.open.ac.uk/help/helpeth.html
Please use type ‘e-Thesis’ not ‘Thesis’ when entering your thesis in ORO
Guidance: thesis format / Before the University can award a research degree, you must supply the Research Degrees Office with bound copies and an electronic copy of your thesis, a copy of your abstract, and any non-book component (if available to be deposited with the University Library).
You should submit one hard bound copy, one soft bound copy and one electronic copy of your thesis.
Hard bound copies should be bound in black (like a hard-bound book) with the following information printed in gold lettering along the spine:
§  Thesis title (you may abbreviate it on the spine as long as it appears in full on the title page of the thesis)
§  Your name
§  Your degree, e.g. PhD
§  The year your thesis was originally submitted for examination
There is no requirement for the hard-bound copy to have lettering on the front cover, though you may do so if you wish.
Soft-bound copies should be bound like a paper-back book. The covers should be made of stout card and secured so that the leaves remain in place when the volume is used. The leaves can be stapled, but comb bindings, spring binders or plastic slide clips on unstapled sheets are not acceptable.
There is no requirement for the soft bound copies to have lettering on the spine or front covers, though you may do so if you wish.
The title page should contain the following information:
§  Your full name and degrees previously awarded
§  Thesis title in full
§  The degree for which your thesis has been submitted
§  The Open University name
§  The appropriate discipline (directly registered students only)
§  The ARC or collaborating establishment (if applicable)
§  The date of submission for examination
All of the copies should be printed in the same format as for the examination, i.e. double-spaced, with the same margins, however, you may choose whether the pages are double or single-sided.
Electronic copies must then be submitted via ORO as described above.
Policy: deposition / The bound copies and electronic copy of your thesis should be sent to the Research Degrees Office within one month of the letter or email confirming your award. If you anticipate any problems meeting this deadline, please contact the Research Degrees Office.
It is your responsibility to ensure that the library copies of your thesis are complete and in good condition, with the correct information on the cover and title page. Theses are used by other scholars and a poorly presented thesis reflects badly on you as the author and the University. Only theses which comply fully with the binding and presentation criteria set out in the research degree regulations and the Examination guidelines can be accepted for deposition.
Access to a thesis for which a research degree has been awarded can’t be restricted, unless permission for a limited period of restriction has been given in your initial offer of registration.
The Open University has agreed that an electronic copy of your thesis can be made available via the British Library Electronic Theses Online Service (EThoS) http://ethos.bl.uk/ and the print copy loaned to other Libraries on request. You can indicate your preference on this form.
Once the bound copies and electronic copy of your thesis, the abstract and this form have been received by the Research Degrees Office, and accepted by the Library, your award can be conferred and your degree certificate sent to you.
Please note that the electronic copy will be subject to copyright checking before publication and so will not appear immediately in ORO.
YOUR ACCEPTANCE
1  Student details / Your full name: Daniele Grech
Personal identifier (PI): C8013890
Affiliated Research Centre (ARC) (if applicable): Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Department: Integrative Marine Ecology
Thesis title: Historical records and current status of Fucales (Cystoseira and Sargassum spp.) in the Gulf of Naples
2  Copyright declaration / Once submitted to the Open University Library, your thesis will be made accessible to a wide variety of people and institutions. By submitting your thesis you confirm:
o  That you are the author of the work and have the authority to give The Open University the right to make the thesis available in hard copy and electronically on Open Research Online (http://oro.open.ac.uk and via the British Library Electronic Theses Online Service (EThoS) http://ethos.bl.uk/, for anyone to access or download;
o  That when the thesis is deposited electronically, the electronic copy is identical to the final, hard-bound copies of the thesis and corresponds with those on which the examiners based their recommendation for the award of the degree;
o  That you have obtained copyright permission from copyright holders (authors/publishers) where required in respect of any extracts of third party copyright material that has already been published, which is included within the thesis. Permission obtained should specifically include the right to publish digitally. Further guidance can be found at http://oro.open.ac.uk/help/helpeth.html
o  That you have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the thesis is original, and does not, to the best of your knowledge, break any UK law or infringe any third party’s copyright or other Intellectual Property Right;
o  That you understand The Open University does not hold any obligation to take legal action on behalf of the depositor, or other rights holders, in the event of a breach of intellectual property rights, or any other right, in the material deposited.
If notified of a breach of copyright, the Open University Library will immediately remove the thesis from ORO.
3  Restrictions / This thesis can be made publicly accessible (in print and online) immediately
OR
The Research Degrees Office has agreed, and confirmed in my offer of registration, that public access to the thesis should be restricted for a period of (max 2 years) for the following reason (e.g. commercial / political sensitivity, planned publication):
4  British Library Authorisation / The Open University has agreed that an electronic copy of your thesis can be made available via the British Library Electronic Theses Online Service (EThoS) http://ethos.bl.uk/ and the print copy loaned to other Libraries on request. Please indicate your preference below:
I am willing for The Open University to make the electronic copy of my theses available via the British Library Electronic Theses Online Service (EThoS).
OR
I do not wish The Open University to provide the British Library with an electronic copy of my thesis and understand that an electronic version will not be able to be made available via the institutional repository (Open Research Online)
5  Authorisation statement / I confirm that I am willing for the print copy of my thesis to be made available to readers by The Open University Library and loaned to other Libraries on request, and that it may be photocopied, subject to the discretion of the Librarian
Signed: ………………………………………………………………
Print name: Daniele Grech
Date: 20/06/17 DD/MM/YY