JISC

This report presents the findings from a study of EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) as a model for a UK national electronic theses (e-theses) service. EThOS, under the auspices of the British Library, was chosen by competitive tender to develop a plan for such a service that would operate on the open access principle of providing electronic information free to the user.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The current service operated by the British Library (BL) charges users for theses and these are supplied on microfilm. The main characteristics of national e-theses services in operation elsewhere in the world were identified by desk research and by consultation with managers of those services. A table showing these comparative characteristics is presented in the report. The views of the UK higher education (HE) community were sought on a range of issues relevant to electronic thesis (e-thesis) provision. Interviews, focus groups and an online survey were used for this purpose. The EThOS model was then mapped against the views and requirements expressed by that community. The essence of the EThOS model consists of a central hub, located at the British Library, where electronic copies of theses would be held. Electronic theses may also be held locally in institutions. Where theses are born-digital they would be harvested from institutional repositories or pointed at in their original location. Digitisation of existing hardcopy theses would take place upon receiving a request for the thesis from a would-be user. Further bulk retrodigitisation of theses selected by institutions forms a major plank of the proposed service. EThOS will provide an Institutional Toolkit to inform and advise institutions on policy, rights and other issues around the collection, curation and provision of electronic theses.

Institutions may opt to participate in the service or not. For those that do there will be a choice of participation modes, including the option of pay EThOS to digitise theses on demand or of paying a fixed sum annually to EThOS to cover the digitisation of a guaranteed number of theses (‘Sponsoring’ membership). The service will be based on an ‘opt-out’ principle, whereby theses will be digitised upon request unless specified otherwise. In broad terms these standards and arrangements fit well with the views and requirements of the UK higher education (HE) community. The assumptions on which EThOS has based the designing of its model are generally robust. Mostly, institutions do not wish to digitise their own theses and operate a locally-based service but they do want to store locally electronic copies of theses that have been digitised in response to a request from a user, for which EThOS provides. There is a good match between the business model proposed by EThOS, too: institutions like the fact that there are various levels of participation and the sponsorship option, where a fixed annual sum is paid to EThOS, is acceptable in principle, though price points have not been objectively tested in the marketplace. The EThOS guarantee on the expert curation and preservation of digital copies of theses is also well received. Areas where the match between community requirements and the EThOS offering is not so good are those of rights clearance, third party rights issues and plagiarism detection. These issues need further attention if the model is to be fully acceptable to the HE community.

Risks

• That not enough institutions participate as ‘sponsoring’ members, paying an annual fee for mass retrodigitisation
• That the ‘gap year’ between the development of the model and the launch of the service, and the lag time for institutions to formally sign up, will detrimentally affect business planning
• That institutions initially signed up as sponsors switch to associate membership (no annual fee; digitisation on demand) in future years

Main benefits

• Hugely increased visibility of UK doctoral research output
• Resulting increased usage and impact of UK doctoral research output
• The opportunities for resulting new research efforts and collaborations

Main opportunities

• Being able to provide a world-class electronic theses service to showcase the UK’s doctoral research
• Providing an example of good practice and the impetus for other nations to develop electronic theses services of their own
• Possible commercial opportunities for value-added service providers

Stakeholder recommendations

• Stakeholders should require further testing of the prospective
• EThOS pricing regime to assess its acceptance in the marketplace
• Stakeholders should satisfy themselves that planning for the management of the ‘gap year’ and institutional take-up rates is robust
• Marketing and advocacy activities should be factored into the plans (and costed)
• EThOS should indicate how it will manage institutional expectations with respect to rights issues
• Indications from EThOS of the shape of the long-term business model, when almost all new theses are born digital, should be required
• Short-to-medium term planning for different levels of business should be required: currently EThOS has a business plan based upon a certain level of activity but no accompanying plans that show how the business would proceed if take-up is higher or lower than predicted
• The stakeholders should themselves plan for a programme of active advocacy within the UK HE community at graduate school and registrar level to raise awareness of the benefits of open access ethesis provision and to advise institutions on policies that will effect this provision

Read the final report below