Intellectual Property and Electronic Theses

Abstract

The role of this briefing paper is to raise awareness of the main issues involved when converting paper-based theses into a digital format. This change of media has many implications for the way theses are created, stored, organised, managed and accessed. This briefing paper specifically examines the agreements required by an institution when managing and storing theses in electronic format. This includes existing theses held by institutions in paper format and those presented by students electronically (born digital). These agreements typically involve those which may need to be obtained from the author, the institution or some other third party. A number of sample agreements are presented, which are intended to be adapted to suit an individual institution’s circumstances.