Skip to content | Change text size
eThesis Information
  

eThesis Submission

What is an eThesis?

An eThesis is a digital published copy of your doctoral thesis. All doctoral candidates enrolling as of 1st July 2005 are required to submit an eThesis at the conclusion of their examination. Please note that candidates enrolled in the PhD (Visual Arts), PhD (Creative Writing), PhD (Music Composition), PhD under a cotutelle arrangement, Staff PhD, MD (unsupervised), professional doctorates, MPhil and research masters degrees are exempt from submitting an eThesis. You may consult the full Monash University eThesis Policy on eThesis submission. Please note that this policy is currently under review and any consequent changes to procedure will be updated on this website as they are approved.

Where will my eThesis be stored?

All digital theses submitted at Monash University are held in the Monash University ARROW Repository.

Copyright

Please refer to the advice and information presented in the Monash Research Graduate School Handbook for Doctoral and MPhil Degrees: There are also detailed guides on intellectual property and copyright  available on the MRGS website (the Topics in Intellectual Property Series (TIPS) information sheets).

Students may also refer to the Copyright guide for research students: what you need to know about copyright before depositing your electronic thesis in an online repository, developed by the Open Access to Knowledge (OAK) Law Project.

Copyright of the eThesis is retained by the postgraduate researcher. However, Monash requires most doctoral candidates to grant a non-exclusive licence to Monash, enabling the University to publish the eThesis online in the Monash University ARROW Repository. Please note that candidates enrolled in the PhD (Visual Arts), PhD (Creative Writing), PhD (Music Composition), PhD under a cotutelle arrangement, Staff PhD, MD (unsupervised), professional doctorates, MPhil and research masters degrees are exempt from submitting an eThesis.

As an eThesis is considered a publication, there are additional requirements for inclusion of copyright material (figures, diagrams, photographs etc.).

Upon submission of the thesis for examination candidates are required to sign a Library Release Agreement / Thesis Contributor Agreement form. Through this form, which serves as the publishing agreement between the student and the University, the student provides certain warranties for the University, indicating that
  1. they have the full power and right to grant Monash the right to publish the thesis; and
  2. they have made all reasonable efforts to secure permissions from copyright owners for the online publication of whatever significant third-party material may be included within the thesis.
The Library Release Agreement / Thesis Contributor Agreement form is to be accompanied by an eThesis Copyright Clearance form which lists all significant third-party content within the thesis, indicates whether permission has been secured or not, and includes copyright holder contact details and or reasons for permission not being obtained.

You are required to add two copyright notices to the preliminary pages of your thesis when you lodge it (these notices can appear along with the contents page, abstract etc.). 

Notice 1

Under the Copyright Act 1968, this thesis must be used only under the normal conditions of scholarly fair dealing for the purposes of research, criticism or review. In particular no results or conclusions should be extracted from it, nor should it be copied or closely paraphrased in whole or in part without the written consent of the author. Proper written acknowledgement should be made for any assistance obtained from this thesis.

Notice 2

I certify that I have made all reasonable efforts to secure copyright permissions for third-party content included in this thesis and have not knowingly added copyright content to my work without the owner's permission.

What are the conditions of access?

The Monash University ARROW Repository is open access. The worldwide research community will have access to the bibliographical details, title, abstract and contents page of each thesis, and, subject to any embargo, access to the full text. All eTheses abstracts will soon be exposed through Google and other resource discovery mechanisms.

You may request a longer embargo than 3 years through the MRGS Steering Committee. Please direct these extended embargo requests to the Examinations Unit.

Embargoed theses

If you elect to place a 3-year embargo on your thesis you must still provide a full text file of your eThesis. The full text of your eThesis will be stored in the Monash University ARROW Repository but not published. The title and abstract will be publicly available. To retain confidentiality, you may remove confidential material from the abstract of your eThesis.

When do I submit it?

We require the eThesis after the examination, once your examiners' reports have been received and you have made any changes to the thesis. You are required to lodge an eThesis along with any amended thesis copies. Your degree will not be awarded until the eThesis and at least one final, hardbound copy of your thesis have been lodged. The eThesis will be submitted to the Library by the student by completing the online Deposit an eThesis  form.

Most examinations require amendments to be made to the Head of Department's satisfaction. When we issue the memo requesting changes, we will also ask you to submit your eThesis at the same time as you return the amended thesis copies to MRGS. For other examination outcomes, such as advisory panels or amendments to examiners, we will advise you when it is time to submit your eThesis. If you have a straight pass, we will let you know when we send you the examiners' reports.

As it may take some time to format your eThesis according to the requirements, we strongly recommend you prepare it around the time of submission of the four hard copies. You can incorporate any changes recommended by the examiners later.

Format

The digital copy of your thesis must be converted to PDF format prior to submission. Adobe Acrobat can convert your file to PDF and has been installed in both the postgraduate study room at the Sir Louis Matheson Library and in the computer lab at the Monash Research Graduate Centre. Read How to create a PDF document if you require help.

If a non-PDF format is required for the whole eThesis or certain parts of it, please contact etheses@lib.monash.edu.au.

File naming protocol

Create one PDF file and name it with your given and family names strung together as one word. e.g. johnsmith.pdf.

How do I submit my eThesis?

  1. Convert your thesis into PDF format.
  2. Read the Guide to submitting your eThesis into the Monash University ARROW Repository  . This guide steps you through the online form you are required to use to submit your eThesis.
  3. Complete the online Deposit an eThesis  form.