At its meeting in December 2003, the University Senate approved the recommendation of the Board of Graduate Studies that research degree and professional doctorate students commencing their studies on or after 1 September 2003 be required to submit an electronic or 'soft' copy of their theses at the same time that printed or 'hard' copies are submitted. Same as that for the printed copies, the submission of a soft copy of the thesis is also part of the graduation requirement.
The soft copy of the thesis will be stored in the CityU Library's online database. Detailed specifications regarding the format of electronic theses are provided and kept up-to-date by the Library. While the copyright ownership of the theses remains with the students, in accordance to the University's Intellectual Property Policy, the University will, however, have a royalty-free and non-exclusive perpetual licence to use such materials for normal University educational and operational purposes. The abstracts of all research postgraudate theses will be made available to the public for online access. The full text of all research postgraduate theses will be made available online to CityU staff and students with proper authentication. The full text of selected research postgraduate theses with access rights granted is opened to the public.
Students may request, by formal written applications to the School of Graduate Studies, that access to the full text of their electronic theses be disallowed for up to 3 years after submission. The School will then consider each such application on its own merits and decide accordingly. However, students that are granted such a restriction are still required to submit a soft copy concurrently with the printed copies to the School of Graduate Studies, which will in turn pass it to the Library. This thesis will immediately be processed and stored online, but online access to the full text of that particular thesis will be blocked for the requisite period. However, the abstracts of all theses will be made available for online access in CityUTO, immediately upon receipt.
In light of the decision of the Senate, the Library has made available for global access via its online system, the abstracts of all M.Phil and Ph.D theses in its collection. Apart from those theses having access restrictions, the full text of electronic theses submitted by students commencing their studies on or after 1 September 2003 will be made available to the public. The School of Graduate Studies or the Library may contact past authors of theses to seek their permission for inclusion of the full text of their theses in the CityUTO database. If your thesis is not accessible to CityU users, please consider giving the Library permission to make it available.
The Library is currently investigating the possibility of making CityU theses available to the world at large via internationally recognised associations/organizations, like the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) or Current Research @ provided by University Microfilm International (UMI). Through these channels, we shall be able to:
Further information and guidelines will be made available to the University community as the possibility becomes a reality.
