The University of Western Australia's Digital Theses Repository is a local archive of theses written by postgraduate students here at UWA. The theses have been converted into a digital format which means they are readable over the World Wide Web.
UWA's Digital Theses Repository is part of the Australian Digital Theses (ADT) Program, which aims to provide a national database of digitised theses.
Any thesis which meets the definition of "thesis by research" can be submitted to the Repository. This includes theses written for the Doctor of Philosophy and some Master's by research programmes. The only condition is that the thesis must have already met all the conditions for Award.
Postgraduate students who commenced their candidature prior to March 2003 may choose to lodge their thesis in the Repository.
Those students who commenced their candidature after March 2003 are required to lodge their thesis with the Repository, and will have been advised of this requirement by the Graduate Research School.
A PhD or Master's thesis represents years of work by dedicated researchers. Traditionally, this work is bound in hard-back form and placed on a shelf in a university library where the only access is by searching the local library catalogue. Unless a work is published in the commercial press, it is very difficult for other researchers to locate the work. Hence, theses are often considered an under-used information resource. This lack of usage has been attributed to three factors:
The UWA Digital Theses Repository and the Australian Digital Thesis Program aim to address all these issues.
Participation in the UWA Digital Theses Repository is free. There is no charge to lodge your thesis with the Repository.
Plagiarism is an ever-present problem, irrespective of the medium in which your work is published. Making your work more readily available via the UWA Digital Theses Repository may in fact decrease the chance that someone will plagiarise your work, as the material is easier to locate, and the plagiarism easier to detect.
The University Library will take appropriate steps to minimise the chance of plagiarism, by applying appropriate document level security.
Commercial publishers often stipulate that a paper will only be considered for publication if its content has not been previously published elsewhere. Most publishers do not regard archiving a thesis in a digital repository as an act of "publishing" in this context. Many publishers are also supportive of moves to make articles freely available on the Web in open archives. But if you have any concerns about this issue we recommend that you contact potential publishers of your work before submitting your thesis to the Repository.
The following Web sites provide information about publishers' policies and addresses:
Archiving a thesis in the UWA Digital Theses Repository does not affect the author's ownership of the copyright on the work. If you are the author of the work then the copyright remains with you until you transfer it to another party (e.g. perhaps when publishing parts of the work in the commercial press). If you have included the work of others within your thesis, then you must acknowledge the authors as appropriate, and also seek their permission to publish the work in the Repository before you lodge your thesis.
If you have any concerns about publishing your thesis in the UWA Digital Theses Repository, or if your thesis contains information which must remain confidential, then you may choose to restrict access to your work. Your work can be made accessible to only UWA staff and students, or inaccessible to all, for a specified period of time. The Graduate Research School can assist you to apply for restricted access.