Frequently Asked Questions

1. I am a doctoral student from Leeds, Sheffield or York. Will I be able to upload my thesis?
2. Can I upload a Masters thesis to White Rose Etheses Online?
3. Who will see my thesis? How will they find it?
4. Are there advantages in making my thesis available online?
5. I'm not sure if I should make my thesis available e.g.it has copyrighted material from a third party source, it contains private material, it contains commercially sensitive material etc.
6. What is White Rose Etheses Online? (WREO)

1. I am a doctoral student from Leeds, Sheffield or York. Will I be able to upload my thesis?

The answer to this is slightly different for each institution.

• If you are a University of Sheffield student, register for an account and upload your thesis. You should only upload the final, examined and awarded version of your thesis. An electronic copy of your thesis is not required at submission or for the oral examination (viva voce). You should only upload once the final, approved Library copy – i.e. including any minor amendments identified at examination – has been submitted to Research Services. For further information, please refer to the Sheffield eTheses Frequently Asked Questions page.
• University of Leeds is piloting submission of electronic theses with the Geography Department but will soon roll out voluntary submission to other schools. Submission will be made via Research Student Administration . It is planned that you will be able to submit an electronic copy and paper copy of your thesis at the same time.
• The arrangements for University of York students are under discussion.

If you need to check on the current state of play at your institution, please contact the Repository Officer, Rachel Proudfoot, at eprints@whiterose.ac.uk

2. Can I upload a Masters thesis to White Rose Etheses Online?

None of the White Rose institutions is currently collecting masters theses (or undergraduate dissertations) in the repository.

3. Who will see my thesis? How will they find it?

Theses available in White Rose Etheses Online will be available to all. Potential readers will be able to find your thesis through an ordinary search engine such as Google but also through other specialist, academic search engines. In addition, your thesis will be made available to the British Library's EThOS Service (Electronic Theses Online).

4. Are there advantages in making my thesis available online?

Your work will be available to a wide audience. Data from other institutions with online electronic theses show that the theses are heavily accessed. More people will be aware of your work , so it's a way to boost your profile. And your work will be readily available online into the future - rather than gathering dust in the library basement.

5. I'm not sure if I should make my thesis available e.g.it has copyrighted material from a third party source, it contains private material, it contains commercially sensitive material etc.

More information will be made available from this web site shortly (as of Oct 08). Take advice from your thesis supervisor. Please also read the relevant Copyright advice page for your institution. You will be able to place an embargo on your thesis so that it is not made freely available immediately.

6. What is White Rose Etheses Online? (WREO)

WREO is an online repository of doctoral theses from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York. It is part of a national - and international - network of open access online databases which promote access to research outputs so that they can be found, read, cited and built upon.