Your thesis

As a research degree student, you must  submit an electronic copy of your thesis to be added to the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) – you can see examples at http://shura.shu.ac.uk/view/divisions/shdtheses.html

Putting your thesis on SHURA has a number of benefits:

• Your thesis entry will be indexed by search engines and so will appear in search results, which
  • increases access to your work
  • creates potential for a wider readership and increased citations
  • promotes both you and your work
• Your thesis will be linked to from EThOS, the British Library online catalogue of theses- see https://ethos.bl.uk
• There will be a safe and secure copy of your work

Third party materials refers to anything you use in your thesis to which you do not own the copyright. You can make use of less than a substantial amount of such material without seeking permission, but do remember to provide a reference.

If you make ‘substantial use’ of third-party materials, you need to get permission from the copyright holder, unless specific exceptions apply.

For a detailed discussion of copyright exceptions, see the University of Leicester guide (from which our examples are taken) or the IPO guidance.

The important exceptions for your thesis are ‘criticism, review and reporting current events‘ and ‘quotation.’ These allow you to use material from other works as part of your thesis, as long the use made is fair and sufficient acknowledgement of the original is made by means of a reference. In general, fair use implies that you only use as much as is needed for the purpose of your thesis.

You can also make use of third party materials if the copyright holder has waived some / all of their rights, or if the copyright has expired.

If you do need to get permission for substantial use of third-party materials you must:

• Make sure you know where you found the items, how to attribute them, and who the copyright holder is.
• Contact the rights holder via email or letter and ask for permission to include these items in your electronic thesis as soon as possible- copyright holders may take a long time to respond.

All doctoral researchers must submit the version of record as an electronic file- this is the final version of your thesis as approved by the examiners after any amendments required by the examiner(s) have been agreed as satisfactory.

If you’ve asked for and received permission for all third-party items used in your thesis, you can include the acknowledgements in the version of record-  put ‘Reproduced by permission of {copyright holder}’ next to the item(s.), e.g.

‘Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis’

If you have had to remove any items because of copyright, you’ll need to produce and send an additional edited version. In this edited version you will need add a statement to note that an item has been removed, and a reference to the original. For example-

A lack of response must not be taken as implicit permission. If you do not get explicit permission, remove the item from the edited version.

If you are going to reproduce images of individuals in your thesis you must secure explicit written permission from the individual(s) concerned.

You must be sure not to include personally identifying material in your thesis.

If you reproduce copies of  forms,  such as ethics information or consent forms, be sure to redact any personal information- including your own.

The file(s) you send must be in the PDF/A format- your word processor should offer you the option to ‘Save as’ PDF- you may need to select ‘Options’ to specify PDF/A format.

We recommend the file name for the version of record includes these elements-

initial, family name, year of award, type of award, first three words of the title.

For example : ajones_2018_phd_technologyandpedagogy.pdf

We recommend the file name for an edited version  includes these elements-

initial, family name, year of award, type of award, first three words of the title, edited.

For example : ajones_2018_phd_technologyandpedagogy_edited.pdf

You can deposit supporting files or digital artefacts along with your thesis text. You should name them with your initial, family name, year of award, type of award, first three words of the title, and a descriptive element.

For example : ajones_2018_phd_technologyandpedagogy_class.mp4

Send your files and the completed Thesis deposit agreement to rdcadmin@shu.ac.uk

Dear [NAME],

I am currently in the process of finalising my  thesis on [TOPIC OF YOUR THESIS], which I am shortly due to submit to Sheffield Hallam University.

During my research, I came across the following : [DESCRIBE THE ITEM]. I would like to request your permission to include it in an electronic copy of my thesis.

Sheffield Hallam University requires students to submit an electronic copy to their institutional repository, the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive SHURA (http://shura.shu.ac.uk), which is a digital archive of research outputs from the University. I would like my thesis in SHURA to be available in full, to anyone, free of charge (‘open access’).

I believe that the inclusion of [DESCRIBE THE ITEM] is integral to my thesis and would therefore be extremely grateful if you could grant permission for me to use this in the manner detailed above. Naturally, I would fully reference your work and include any acknowledgement you deem appropriate.

Please let me know if you require any further information, otherwise thank you in advance for your kind permission.