The University of Western Australia's Digital Theses Repository is a local archive of UWA postgraduate student theses converted into a digital format.

UWA's Digital Theses Repository is part of the Australian Digital Theses (ADT) Program, which aims to provide a national database of digitised theses.

1. Particpation
2. Advantages
3. Costs
4. Plagiarism
5. Prior publication
6. Copyright
7. Restricted access
8. Lodgement
9. Digitising your work
10. File formats
11. Submission 

Participation

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 programs. 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.

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Advantages

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:

• lack of knowledge that the thesis exists;
• lack of information about the contents of the thesis;
• lack of ready availability.

The UWA Digital Theses Repository and the Australian Digital Thesis Program aim to address all these issues.

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Costs

Participation in the UWA Digital Theses Repository is free. There is no charge to lodge your thesis with the Repository.

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Plagiarism

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.

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Prior publication

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:

• OAKList database of publishers' open access policies (Queensland University of Technology)
• SHERPA/ROMEO database of publisher copyright policies and self-archiving (also included in OAKList)
• International Directory of Email Addresses of Publishers, Vendors and Related Professional Associations, Organisations and Services (AcqWeb)
• Australian publishers & booksellers (National Library of Australia)

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Copyright

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 (for example,  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.

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Restricted access

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.

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Lodgement

Once your PhD or Master's by Research thesis has met the conditions for Award (that is it has passed examination and corrections made) it may be lodged with the UWA Digital Theses Repository. You must complete the form Certification of final version of thesis form available from the Graduate Research School.

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Digitising your work

The University Library will attempt to digitise your thesis providing you can supply to the Graduate Research School the final version of your work in electronic format. This will usually consist of the word processing files and associated documents you used to prepare your thesis. This digitisation service is provided free of charge.

Your thesis will be converted into Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF).

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File formats

More detailed information is available regarding the digitisation process and its requirements, including specifications and recommendations for formatting your thesis.

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Submission

Providing your thesis meets the entry requirements and satisfies the document specifications, then the electronic master can be lodged with the Graduate Research School for digitisation by the Library.

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