chat loading...
Find out how to locate University theses and dissertations in this guide, along with instructions for submitting your own work to our Research Repository.
Archiving your thesis or dissertation to the University’s Research Repository is a requirement for all successful postgraduate researchers and allows your work to be discovered by other university students and staff, and by researchers across the globe.
When you submit your work, it isn’t just visible in the Repository. Our Repository is indexed by major search engines such as Google Scholar and Microsoft Bing, making your research accessible to the worldwide academic community.
Theses and dissertations in our Repository are harvested directly by the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global database and our doctoral theses are included in the British Library’s Electronic Theses Online (EThOS) service. Repository content is also included in aggregator services such as Core.ac.uk
You can locate existing theses and dissertations from a variety of sources:
Printed UWTSD theses and dissertations dating from 2018 and earlier are held in our library collections. You can search for these on our catalogue, using the Advanced Search.
Choose Search Physical Items for your Search Scope and then select Dissertations for Material Type. Enter any other search terms as required.
Please note that the University moved to online-only submission in 2019 and we do not hold hard copies of theses and dissertations submitted for assessment after this date.
Many theses and dissertations submitted for examination prior to 2018 are only held in print and not available online. Library and Learning Resources are currently piloting a digitisation programme to allow students and staff to request a digital copy of a printed University thesis or dissertation on request.
A request option will display on the Library Catalogue when searching for eligible theses and dissertations:
When requesting a digital copy of a thesis, you will be prompted to complete a form with your details.
The Library and Learning Resources team will scan the thesis and add the digital copy to the Repository. Scans are provided in accessible PDF format.
The digitisation request service covers the thesis and dissertation collection in Lampeter. While the thesis collections in Swansea are not currently included, if the pilot proves successful, we will open these up for requests at a later date. Items not included in the pilot will continue to be available to read in the library.
Library and Learning Resources aims to hold copies of all successful research degree theses in the University Repository.
On notification of your degree award, research students will receive an email with instructions and a link to upload your thesis to the repository. Your thesis should be:
You will also need to complete and sign the publication form, to confirm that you understand the conditions under which your thesis is being made available in the repository. This should be emailed to openaccess@uwtsd.ac.uk at the time of your submission.
Please upload the final, accepted version of your thesis in accessible PDF file format.
Theses should only be uploaded following confirmation of acceptance. Please do not attempt to upload your thesis to the repository until you have received confirmation to proceed from the University.
After uploading your thesis, please allow 6 weeks for your thesis to be made available in the repository. Please note that archiving to external services such as the British Library’s Electronic Theses Online, Google Scholar, and ProQuest is outside the control of Library and Learning Resources and may take longer.
For further assistance with the uploading process, please contact openaccess@uwtsd.ac.uk
Masters dissertations that are awarded a distinction, or are otherwise awarded a pass and written in the Welsh language or in the academic disciplines of Welsh, Celtic Studies or Welsh history are archived to the University repository. Masters dissertations that do not meet these criteria, and undergraduate dissertations, are not held by Library and Learning Resources.
Students submitting their Masters dissertation will be sent an automated email with a link to a web-based form to upload their dissertation, and should not submit directly to the repository. Your dissertation should be:
Your dissertation will be held until the assessment process is complete. If your work meets the criteria and is eligible for archival, your dissertation will then be added to the University Repository. Please allow 6 weeks after receiving your result for your dissertation to be made available.
For any queries, please contact openaccess@uwtsd.ac.uk.
When your thesis is made available online it is considered a published work. This means you must obtain permission to include any copyrighted material.
Your thesis must be your own original work, and you must receive explicit permission to include images or other material for which you do not own the copyright or remove these from the version you upload to the repository.
You do not need to seek permission to include:
Unless clearly licensed for re-use, you must seek permission to include:
If you are unable to seek permission, you can remove any third-party content from the version of your thesis or dissertation that you upload to the repository, and replace this with a citation and a web link to, or a description of the material removed.
You may include copyrighted material in the unpublished version of your thesis that you submit for assessment providing this is correctly cited, important to your argument and fair to the copyright owner.
Further information and support on copyright can be found in our Copyright Hub or by contacting copyright@uwtsd.ac.uk
As a student, you hold copyright as the author of all your work submitted for assessment. The rights granted to the repository are non-exclusive and you are free to publish your work in its present version or future versions elsewhere.
For the purposes of publication, UWTSD may electronically store, copy or translate your thesis or dissertation for the purpose of future preservation and accessibility.
Dissertations and theses archived to the digital repository are licenced under Creative Commons terms. This allows others to share and build upon your research, but they must give credit to you as the author.
Theses and dissertations are retained permanently as an archive of University research activity and can only be withdrawn under the conditions outlined in our takedown policy.
If you would like to publish your research elsewhere, in certain circumstances you may be able to request that your thesis is suppressed from the Research Repository for a designated period.
To allow for future publication, only the abstract of theses and dissertations in the field of creative writing will be stored in the Repository, and not the full text. Creative writing students wishing to submit an abstract should clearly indicate this in their repository submission for the record to be catalogued appropriately.
If your research is commercially viable or you wish to publish your work in a journal or book, you may apply for a bar on access to prevent the full text of your thesis being made publicly accessible for up to 5 years. You must apply before or during the final submission process: applications after your degree is awarded will not normally be considered.
To apply for a bar on access, you will need to complete the PG27 Bar on Access form available from the Doctoral College Portal and obtain an approval signature from your Director of Studies. The bar will then need to be approved by the Research Degrees Committee.
If a bar on access is approved, you will still need to upload your thesis but the full text content will be restricted for the agreed period. Once the bar expires, the full text of your thesis will become publicly accessible.
The bar on access application process only applies to research degree students.
Further guidance can be found in the Code of Practice for Research Degrees, under Research Degree Regulations in the Academic Quality Handbook.