White Rose eTheses Online: Frequently Asked Questions

If you come across a thesis which you feel is in breach of copyright or other legislation, please contact us immediately. Please see our Takedown Policy.

Can I deposit my thesis in WREO?

Yes. After examination, and once you have made any required corrections, you need to upload the final, examined version of your thesis. To upload your thesis you will first need to create a White Rose eTheses Online account.

For further information, University of Sheffield students should visit the Uploading your eThesis page.

University of York students should refer to the guidance on Depositing your thesis after examination which includes step-by-step instructions.

Leeds students should refer to the Guide To The Thesis Examination Process For Students.

Your thesis will be checked by your home institution before it is made available online, and you will be notified once this has been done.

If you were awarded a doctoral degree by the University of Leeds, Sheffield or York in the past you may upload an electronic copy of the final version to White Rose eTheses Online.

To upload your thesis you will first need to create a White Rose eTheses Online account. Your thesis will be checked at your home institution before it is made available online and you will be notified once this has been done.

If somebody has requested a copy of your thesis through the British Library’s EThOS service then a digitised copy may already be available online. To find out if this is the case, search for your thesis using the British Library EThOS search.

Theses and dissertations from taught masters degrees or undergraduate courses may not be deposited to White Rose eTheses Online. Research masters degrees undertaken at York resulting in either MSc or MA by Research may be uploaded.

If you are wanting to make your undergraduate or taught masters dissertation/thesis openly available, please contact your institution to seek advice

Creating an account

You do not need an account to download or read theses in the repository. You only need to create an account to deposit your own thesis, or if you want to create and save personalised searches. To download and read an available thesis you just click on the download link. Some theses are restricted. Where the author has allowed people to request access to their restricted thesis, use the 'Request a copy' link to submit your request.

Please check your email spam or junk folder; our system emails are sometimes incorrectly assigned as spam. Adding our email address (etheses@whiterose.ac.uk) to your email whitelist may help.

During the Deposit process

You are strongly advised to read the guidance provided by your own institution before depositing:

If you are considering embargoing your thesis for any reason, you should discuss this with your supervisor initially. They can advise on whether releasing your thesis may impact on potential publication as this can differ significantly between subjects and disciplines.

Your work may have greater and more rapid impact if you make your PhD openly available online in White Rose eTheses Online. However, this will not carry the same academic kudos as a formal publication. Some publishers do consider a PhDs "prior publication" and thus may be less likely to publish work derived from your thesis. For other publishers, the online availability of your PhD will make no difference to your chances of publication. If you know which journals/publishers are likely to take your work, you should contact them directly to find out if they have a policy on PhDs as "prior publication". This would then inform the discussions with your supervisor around any potential embargo.

You should seek advice from your supervisor and read the relevant Copyright advice page for your institution.

When submitting an electronic copy of your thesis, you should also think about the material you are including in your work as early as possible. You might be able to place an embargo so that it is not made freely available immediately. See Should I embargo my thesis... section above for further advice.

If necessary, you may also upload a redacted version of your thesis with restricted material removed alongside the full embargoed version.
See the guidance from Leeds, Sheffield and York for further advice.

You need to contact the appropriate research team at your University to discuss this. You will find the contact details for the appropriate team on our Contact page.

After your thesis has been deposited, it is checked by your University to ensure they have all the required details. Until it has been checked, your thesis will not appear in the repository. If you want to discuss this, you need to contact the appropriate research team at your University. You will find the contact details for the appropriate team on our Contact page.

An ORCiD iD is a unique persistent personal identifier that distinguishes and identifies individual researchers and their work, minimising the potential for misattribution and aiding in effective dissemination. You can find information from ORCiD at: https://orcid.org/. The three institutions each offer guidance on registering for an ORCiD iD, and the benefits of doing so. This information is at: If you would like more information on ORCiD iDs, or support with registering for one, please contact the relevant colleagues at your university:

After the deposit process

Theses available in White Rose eTheses Online can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. Readers will be able to find your thesis by searching the internet generally but can also use specialist, academic websites like the DART-Europe Etheses Portal. Your thesis will also be made available to the British Library's EThOS Service (Electronic Theses Online).

If you have requested that the full text of your thesis is restricted (embargoed) for a specified length of time, it will only be made available once this period has elapsed.

Your work will reach a wider audience online than it would as a print copy in a library. Theses from WREO were downloaded over 1,350,000 times in 2018. Online access to your thesis will help boost your profile and can lead to new research collaborations. You will also have a permanent link to share your thesis and for others to cite your work.

You need to contact the appropriate research team at your University to discuss this. You will find the contact details for the appropriate team on our Contact page.

You need to contact the appropriate research team at your University. Only they can discuss changes to your embargo. You will find the contact details for the appropriate team on our Contact page.

You need to contact the appropriate research team at your University. Only they can amend your personal details once you have submitted your thesis. You will find the contact details for the appropriate team on our Contact page.

White Rose Libraries are aware that in some circumstances, individuals would want to update their records to reflect a change of name. Name changes and identity management are governed by policy at local institutional level at each of the three Universities. The policies for each are available via the sites given below, and these also have contact details for where you can pick discussions up with the relevant institution. Any changes that are agreed with the relevant institution will then be reflected in updates in the repository.

About content in the repository

For older works, it's likely that it has been supplied by your home university to the British Library’s EThOS service for digitisation. Usually this would be in response to a request from a reader wanting to access your work. You can read more about the EThOS service on their FAQ page.

Our Takedown Policy provides details of how to notify us that you want your thesis removed from the repository.

To download and read an available thesis you just click on the download link.

For some embargoed theses, you click on the ‘request a copy’ link to ask the author if they will release a copy. If the ‘request a copy’ link is not offered, it is not possible to request access to that particular embargoed thesis.

Many theses in this repository have a Creative Commons (CC) licence, chosen by the author. This licence defines the terms of reuse for that item. Where a CC licence has been applied, the thesis record links to details of what reuse is permitted under that specific licence.

Please look at this to check that your reuse of the content is permitted under the licence applied. If not, you need to seek permission from the copyright owner (usually the author). Where no CC licence is given, the thesis should be considered as under author copyright with "All rights reserved", and you would need the author's permission to reuse that content.

More information on licencing and reuse can be found on the institution websites: