PhD Theses
At the end of the examination process all successful PhD and MPhil candidates are required to submit the final version of their thesis to the University.
How to submit the final version of your PhD thesis
Candidates who began study on or after 1 September 2005 are obliged to submit their final version in electronic form in addition to one hardbound copy.
Candidates should hand in the following to their College Postgraduate Office:
1. One hardbound version of the thesis conforming to the Regulatory Standards for the Format and Binding of Theses and Portfolios of Musical Compositions.
Section 3 of the Postgraduate Research Degree Assessment Regulations has further information:
2. One completed ‘Access to Thesis’ form.
3. An electronic version on CD (or DVD) which includes:
- a PDF version (for uploading to the Edinburgh Research Archive).
- the original word processor files, where possible, for digital preservation purposes.
- any supplementary data required for assessment. Datasets should be supported by good accompanying documentation which is appropriate to your subject discipline. The UK Data Archive (UKDA) offers some specialist advice in this area.
- a completed thesis CD (or DVD) cover sleeve on which you should note whether or not you wish to take up the option of restricting access to the electronic version of your thesis for a limited one year period.
Candidates who began their studies before 1 September 2005
PhD and MPhil candidates who began their studies before 1 September 2005 are not required to submit their thesis electronically but are encouraged to do so.
If you choose not to submit a copy electronically, then two hard bound copies of the thesis must be submitted to the College Office.
Before you submit your thesis
It is highly recommended that you discuss with your primary supervisor the implications of publishing your thesis online in ERA.
If your thesis contains confidential or sensitive data it may not be appropriate to make the full text freely available online.
Similarly if there is the intention to publish the whole, or extracts from, your thesis you may want to restrict access to the electronic version.
You can automatically restrict access to the electronic version of your thesis by ticking the box on the CD (or DVD) cover sleeve. However, should you need the electronic embargo to be longer than one year then this must be negotiated with the ERA administrators.
Data preservation and sharing
If your thesis has supplementary data (for example images, videos, source code or analytical data) we would like to store a copy of this data alongside the thesis text. We do this to try and preserve the fullest record of the work as possible. We do not routinely allow public access to this data. If you wish to share your data with others we recommend the Edinburgh DataShare service.
Further help and information
This article was published on Feb 1, 2012