How has the issue of obtaining retrospective permissions for digitisation been dealt with?
Each institution has a different understanding with its authors about how theses are disseminated, but in the vast majority of cases, authors are happy to make their work available to others. It is up to the originating institution to decide whether they want to approach authors to gain specific permissions to digitise their theses. The approach of EThOS is to digitise theses without necessarily receiving permissions from the authors on the following basis: • The intention of EThOS is to promote the work of the author and institution of UK doctoral theses • The service is run on a cost recovery basis. That is no one is benefiting from the supply of the theses other than the author and the institution (by making the quality of their work known). • It would be impractical to contact all authors of all existing theses in a bid to obtain clearance for supply. • The system offers an immediate take down policy should any author have cause to complain about the supply of their thesis Legal ad
