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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current status of electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) projects in Nigerian university libraries.

A survey research methodology was applied. A total of 125 questionnaires were distributed to librarians in eight government‐funded universities in South Eastern Nigeria.

Only three out of the eight universities surveyed have started ETD projects in their libraries. Other universities have the intention of adopting ETD but very little has been done towards this. The study also revealed that university libraries in Nigeria stand to benefit immensely from ETD projects. Some of these benefits as revealed from the findings include enhancing scholarly communication in Nigeria, promoting the global visibility of Nigerian universities, and enhancing research dissemination. The results of the study also revealed some challenges of ETD in Nigeria. Strategies to mitigate these challenges were also identified from the findings.

The paper establishes that the adoption of ETD in Nigerian university libraries is very low. Nigerian universities must therefore adopt a pragmatic approach to develop an ETD program that will facilitate the dissemination of research documented in theses and dissertations.

The originality of the work lies in the empirical evidence obtained from the eight university libraries surveyed.

This study aims to determine the technical requirements for copyright protection of theses and dissertations for proposing a model for applying in Iran’s National System for Theses and Dissertations (INSTD).

This study used a mixed research methodology. The grounded theory was used in the qualitative phase, and a researcher-made checklist was applied in the quantitative phase for surveying the status of the INSTD. Research population included INSTD as well as six information specialists and copyright experts. Data were analysed by using open, axial and selective coding.

Based on data extracted from the completed checklists, some technical requirements had been provided in the system. The technical requirements that interviewees pointed out included the following two main classes: technical components and technical-software infrastructures, explored in the phase of the grounded theory. The individual categories included access control, copy control, technical-software challenges, protecting standards, hypertext transfer protocol secure, certificate authority, documentation of thesis and dissertation information, the use of digital object identifiers, copy detection systems, thesis and dissertation integrated systems, digital rights management systems and electronic copyright management systems.

Considering the subject of this study, only the technical aspect was investigated, and other aspects were not included. In addition, electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) providers were not well aware of copyright issues.

Using the technical requirements with high security is effective in the INSTD to gain the trust of the authors and encourage them to deposit their ETDs.

The increased use of the system encourages the authors to be more innovative in conducting their research.

Considering the continued violation of copyright in electronic databases, applying technical requirements for copyright protection and regulating users’ access to the information of theses and dissertations are needed in the INSTD.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss issues associated with open access (OA) to electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) and to describe the University of Waterloo E‐thesis Project and its partnerships with Theses Canada and the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.

UW E‐thesis Project decisions on issues associated with electronic submission and OA are presented. Partnerships with Theses Canada and the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations are described and the goals and activities of these organizations are outlined.

Author‐created metadata form the UW E‐theses searchable database of records that link to theses in full text. The metadata are OAI compliant and are harvested by Theses Canada and the ETD Union Catalog. The E‐theses Project supports authors' rights while minimizing access restrictions and encourages innovations while respecting the value of gradually evolving thesis standards and traditions. The success of the UW E‐thesis Project illustrates that progress can be made toward the OA paradigm for theses and dissertations while upholding perennial values. Collaborations with like‐minded organizations support and advance these goals.

Academic librarians and graduate studies officers will find this e‐thesis project description and this discussion of issues relevant to planning and maintaining electronic thesis submission and access systems at their own universities. The descriptions of the benefits of the partnerships may prompt readers to make similar connections themselves.

The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) as important and unique collections that facilitate open access.

The paper presents a brief introduction of the importance of ETD as materials for open access. This is with emphasis on the Kenya Information Preservation Society (KIPS) project which has, since 1993, been digitizing theses from a number of participating institutions across the country. This paper relies heavily on literature derived from existing documentation, online searches and website exploration, and the KIPS's union list of theses and dissertations CD‐ROM. A number of contracted employees (scanning and input) were also interviewed in order to provide statistics about the contributing institutions. Findings – The paper finds that the necessity of showcasing the intellectual research of higher education institutions within Kenya is reason enough to justify making the move towards creating electronic thesis services. The benefits making ETD available outweighs that of print‐only thesis provision due to the potential for enormous dissemination and open access. Research limitations/implications –ETD is a renowned research area for consideration. Librarians should be engaged in digitization of electronic collections that will provide desirable services to end users. Such approaches boost the knowledge economy of any country.

Evidence cited from the strengths of KIPS indicates that its major objective was to compile a national comprehensive database of research on Kenya, and by Kenyans. From available statistics, theses undertaken at postgraduate university levels meet the needs of Kenyan scholars. Originality/value – This paper attempts to give insights for emulating the ETD initiative by KIPS as a way to showcase the unique materials of open access, thereby making them relevant for the modern day library.

To set up a protocol for electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) submission for the electronic thesis initiative pilot project at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

An electronic thesis and dissertation submission protocol was implemented and tested. To test authoring tools, we had 50 students submit their theses or dissertations using one of four style sheets. Word‐processed files were converted to PDF and XML formats. The pilot project team evaluated DigiTool's effectiveness in digital conversion, capture of metadata and cataloguing, digital content harvesting, digital preservation, and integration with the student information system.

All theses experienced some degree of information loss during the conversion. DigiTool is still being tested for storage, cataloguing, and dissemination capability. For full implementation, three major issues need to be addressed further: conversion; metadata; and file formats.

Most of the issues that have arisen during the McGill pilot project will be mirrored at other academic institutions that are considering electronic thesis submission.

This paper provides insights into the procedures that will arise as institutions go through the process of introducing electronic thesis and dissertation submission.

This study aims to identify and analyse the challenges faced in the bibliographic control of theses and dissertations in Kenya.

The study used descriptive survey method and targeted four universities in Kenya and two initiatives whose objective is compilation of a database of theses and dissertations. The total number of respondents was 17 out of a target of 21.

The study found delays in the libraries getting their designated copies; ineffective coordination between the different university departments in the deposition process; deposition of soft copies is still a grey area in the universities surveyed; libraries have embedded records of theses and dissertations in their Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs); delays in capturing theses and dissertations in the libraries’ OPACs; and lack of consistency and uniformity in the bibliographic records.

Many universities have joined the electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) movement and now require graduating students to deposit an electronic copy of their research thesis or dissertation. Currently, universities in Kenya either already have institutional repositories (IRs) or they are at an advanced stage of implementation. There is need for further research on the status adoption of ETDs; the status of IRs; treatment of theses and dissertations (TDs) in Kenya; challenges and prospects of subject analysis of TDs; cost-effective metadata creation for TDs; issues in metadata creation and standardization for TDs; and automated metadata creation.

Without a comprehensive source of all TDs submitted in universities in Kenya, TDs will be inaccessible and therefore underutilised. There will also be the risk of duplication of research and plagiarism because it will be difficult to ascertain the authenticity and integrity of TDs submitted in the various universities.

This is the only research in Kenya that has analysed the status of bibliographic control of theses and dissertations. The study will enable university administrators to put in place appropriate policies for improved bibliographic control of theses and dissertations. The study may be used to inform policy frameworks as universities begin to build their institutional repositories. The findings shed light on the treatment of TDs and challenges of cataloguing them.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) repository as a subset of local institutional digital repositories. The paper discusses the originating institutions and organizations including Virginia Tech Initiative, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the United States Department of Education.

This paper is informational in nature and explores the topic of ETD repositories. It provides information relevant to academic and digital librarians interested in including an ETD repository in their institution's digital library. The paper discusses interoperability among repositories and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The paper discusses issues related to ETD repositories including intellectual property rights, publishers' views of ETDs as prior publications, plagiarism issues, development costs, and long‐term preservation issues.

It was found that library administrators who implemented ETD repositories at various universities adapted their models to the needs of their institutions and their graduate students. ETD administrators made decisions about implementation models and software and hardware infrastructure in terms of human and technical resource allocation.

The paper argues that ETD repositories benefit students and universities by enhancing graduate education, expanding graduate research, increasing a university's visibility, and instructing students, faculty, administration, and librarians about digital technology.

The value of this paper for digital and academic librarians concerned with EDT repositories is in providing a historical overview, a discussion of the benefits, and a review of the issues involved with implementing an ETD repository at their institution.

Many universities and libraries throughout the world are now making digitized versions of traditional (print) dissertations available online. Some of these institutions have even gone so far as to completely eliminate printed copies. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) in Iran and elsewhere.

The paper notes that many theses and dissertations are now sitting on shelves, unread, in our libraries. Electronic publication can make these works accessible to students, researchers, and others who perhaps lack time, search capabilities, or finances. The paper looks at what universities are doing about the problem, and summarizes the current position in Iran university libraries.

A growing realization has emerged among those working on ETDs in Iran that it is critically important that libraries remain not just involved, but centrally positioned in the development of the national information infrastructure.

The paper shows that the future of E‐theses and of archiving and searching in general depends on institutions being able to deliver top quality services, with a high degree of interoperability. This means, among other things, that systems must continue to be developed and they must be able to handle many different types of digital objects.

The paper claims that as we prepare students for scholarship in the twenty‐first century, Iran 1400, for example, it is imperative that librarians consider how to manage these important new forms of writing.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance of electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) initiatives in the repositories of federal government-owned universities due to the poor global visibility of ETDs from Nigeria.

An explanatory case study empirical research method was adopted for the study. Using an adapted methodology of Ghosh (2009) and multiple data gathering techniques, data was collected based on the three domains of the network of excellence on digital libraries (DELOS) digital library reference model.

The ETD initiatives in repositories of Nigerian federal universities have not made remarkable progress as digital libraries based on policy, content and system architecture. The specificity of ETDs is not clearly stated in the policies where available. The repositories housing the ETDs are also not compliant with the open archive initiative-protocol for metadata harvesting framework.

The study focussed on ETD initiatives in federal government-owned universities. Although the findings of the study are relevant to other institutions in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa. It cannot be used as a basis for the generalisation based on other performance metrics.

This research study concluded that electronic theses and dissertations in Nigerian institutional repositories are not well managed for effective service delivery and long-term accessibility. The ill-management of the ETD initiatives is the reason for the poor global visibility and accessibility of these research output from this part of Africa.

The study assessed ETD initiatives using constructs from a theoretical framework.

While distribution channels of theses and dissertations have changed significantly in the digital age, they are generally still considered grey literature. This paper aims to argue the applicability of the concept of grey to electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).

The paper is presented as a debate between two contradictory opinions on the application of the grey literature concept to ETDs.

The paper provides a definition of grey literature and then discusses its application to electronic dissertations and theses. In particular, it assesses the aspects of acquisition, quality, access and preservation. Some arguments highlight the “grey nature” of ETDs, such as the limited access via institutional and other repositories. Other arguments (e.g. the development of ETD infrastructures and the quality of ETDs) question this grey approach to ETDs. The paper concludes that “greyness” remains a challenge for ETDs, a problem waiting for solution on the way to open science through the application of the FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability reusability) principles.

Library and information science (LIS) professionals and scientists should be careful about using the concept of grey literature. The debate will help academic librarians and LIS researchers to better understand the nature of grey literature and its coverage, here in the field of ETDs.

Some definitions from the print age may not be applicable to the digital age. The contradictory character of the debate helps clarify the similitudes and differences of grey literature and ETDs and highlights the challenge of ETDs, in particular, their accessibility and findability.