EUI theses in Open Access: increasing visibility of research
At the end of December 2016 – after 40 years of activity of the EUI – more than 2,700 EUI theses (PhD and LLM) are listed in Cadmus, the EUI research repository. There are today 544 EUI Open Access theses in Cadmus and 192 with an embargo (the latter to be lifted and open of four years after the defence date). Two years ago the number of theses available was less than half (240), but the aim is to increase the proportion of Open Access theses. If in two years time we will have doubled today’s number of OA theses we would reach 1088, which would correspond to an approximate proportion of 37% (1088/2900): not enough! The aim should be set much higher (at least above 50%!) and this post means at highlighting some of the advantages of making research available in Open Access. In line with EUI Open Access policy: visible research is Open!
EUI researchers can (since 2014) choose between two options regarding their thesis online publication (see EUI Academic Rules and the Authorisation Form):
(A) authorising immediate Open Access
(B) requesting that the publication is embargoed for a period of four years
Advantages of Open Access
- Making the thesis available in Open Access offers immediate visibility, accessibility of research results
- Making the thesis available in Open Access implies increased possibility to be cited, and to claim your work
- The copyright of an EUI Open Access thesis remains with the author. No copyright or citing rules disappear
- Two unique identifiers (a handle/URI in Cadmus, and a digital object identifier (DOI )) are attributed to the thesis in Cadmus. This is a strong guarantee for claiming your work, and to refer to it with a stable / persistent unique identifier (example of an Open Access thesis in Cadmus: Title: Nationality, Citizenship and Ethno-cultural Membership: Preferential admission policies of EU Countries, Author: DUMBRAVA Costica – URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1814/26444 – DOI: 10.2870/72944)
Assistance from the Library
- Information on Open Access
- Assistance in contacts with commercial publishers on the issue of maintaining / uploading the original thesis in OA next to the published book
- Linking of the original thesis manuscript to a detailed record of the published book (and vice versa). Upon request a link to the publisher’s website can be added to the record in Cadmus.
Book based on the EUI Open Access thesis
- More and more commercial publishers accept that a thesis manuscript is available in OA, and are positive to the Open Access thesis next to the book version. A published version of the thesis will be different from the original manuscript and they can exist side by side.
- In Cadmus the original thesis manuscript is linked to the successive commercially published version of the thesis (and vice versa). This can significantly increase the visibility of the published book.
Digital Archive of EUI Theses
By the end of 2016, the EUI Library has finished its retrospective digitisation project of ‘old’ EUI theses and therefore disposes over a complete digital archive of theses defended at the EUI since 1979.
To make a digitised thesis available online, the EUI needs the permission from the author. The Library contacts all EUI graduates asking for their permission, but warmly invites all graduates to spontaneously contact [email protected] to give permission to make the PhD or LLM thesis available in Open Access.
All EUI graduates interested in transforming a thesis from print to Open Access publication can consult the pages on how to make your thesis available online and give written permission.
Browse all EUI Theses: Open or Embargoed Access
You can today browse all EUI theses and easily distinguish which are open (green) or embargoed (red).