Open Research Online

Prompted by there being four in this month’s top downloads, I’m going to use this post to remind people about eTheses. Supervisors: if you have any students close to completion, encourage them to think about depositing an e-version of their thesis in ORO. Also, if you have copies of past students’ theses that you want to make more accessible, consider depositing these too. Remember to ask the author’s permission first though, assuming you are still in touch with the person. ORO takes PhD, EdD and MPhil theses, and it really is a great way to make these hidden treasures of research more openly available and more widely used. What’s more, eTheses in ORO will soon be regularly “harvested” by the British Library’s EThOS service, generating even more visibility for our postgraduate research. More information is available in the ORO help pages: http://oro.open.ac.uk/help/helpeth.html. Meanwhile, back to topic, here is the complete list of top downloads for August: ORO downloads 08_2010.

ORO’s growing lists of PhD, EdD and MPhil theses are now also available via the DART-Europe E-theses Portal, a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses.

As from today, you can now deposit a copy of your OU-awarded PhD, EdD or MPhil thesis in ORO. Note: it must be OU-awarded, and it must include the full text. Abstract-only records of eTheses are not being accepted. Further guidance is available from the ORO Help Pages, including what to do about any third-party copyrighted material in the thesis being deposited.