Self-archive your doctoral dissertation in OUSAR

Based on the Degree Regulations amended on April 1, 2013, it is required that the full texts of doctoral dissertations be made openly accessible via the Internet, in lieu of making them publicly available in the form of printed publication, which was previously required by the Regulations. According to the amended Regulations, public Internet access to doctoral dissertations must be provided with the cooperation of the university that grants the doctoral degree to the dissertation author. At Okayama University, dissertations are made publicly accessible by means of the Okayama University Scientific Achievement Repository (OUSAR). Aside from OUSAR, the National Diet Library (NDL) also stores full-text data of doctoral dissertations and makes them publicly available, in principle.
If it is impossible to provide open access to a doctoral dissertation within one year of the conferment of the doctoral degree due to an unavoidable reason, a summary of the dissertation will be made openly accessible online, in lieu of its full text, subject to approval of the University. While possible cases constituting an “unavoidable reason” include the situations listed below, any case requires approval of the University to be recognized as an unavoidable reason. If you have any reason for which open access to the full-text data should be restricted, specify in the form “Request for Self-Archiving Dissertation in Okayama University Scientific Achievement Repository.” Note, however, that the full-text data must be made publicly accessible if the approved “unavoidable reason” has ceased to exist. Also note that even if a situation concerning your dissertation is recognized to constitute an unavoidable reason, the University and NDL may offer full-text data of the dissertation for reading, upon request.
　Possible cases constituting an unavoidable reason:
- There is a restriction regarding copyright and/or personal information.
- The case concerns a patent application.
- The dissertation is planned to be published as a book and/or in a journal.
... etc.
※A summary of the dissertation will also be made publicly accessible, in lieu of its main (full) text, in the case that as a result of confirmation by Okayama University Libraries regarding related copyrights held by the publisher, it proves impossible to provide open access to the dissertation’s main text data via the institutional repository within one year of the degree conferment.

Submit the document and data listed below to the educational affairs section of your graduate school. (The task of depositing the relevant data in the repository will be conducted by the University Libraries.)
[1] The form “Request for Self-Archiving Dissertation in Okayama University Scientific Achievement Repository”（Example (in Japanese)）
PDF （Japanese　/　 English）
Word （Japanese　/　 English）
[2] Full text of the dissertation [author’s final draft version]
[3]Data of the dissertation summary (*)
* “Summary” here may be referred to differently at different graduate schools.

[1] Examine the submitted Request for Self-Archiving form.
[2] If the dissertation was, or will be, published in an academic journal, etc., ascertain that there is no problem in right of publisher or other agreements regarding copyrights and/or other rights.
[3] Deposit the dissertation data in OUSAR and make it publicly accessible.

- Contents of the data submitted must be identical to those of the doctoral dissertation submitted in book form.
- If the dissertation was, or will be, published in an academic journal, be sure to submit the author’s final draft version. (*)
- Submit the data in PDF format, in principle. If this is not possible, other format (MS Word, etc.) is also acceptable.
- The file name of the dissertation’s main text data must be “fulltext”. For the file of supplementary papers or other data, the file name must be “other”. (If there is more than one such file, name them “other1”, “other2”, etc.)
- The file name of the dissertation’s summary data must be “summary”.
- Avoid using encryption, setting passwords, and restricting printing to data to be submitted.

- If the dissertation was co-researched and/or co-authored, obtain consent from all other researchers/authors in advance. In addition to consent for the use of the dissertation data in OUSAR, consent must also be obtained regarding allowing the data to be publicly accessible via the Internet as your doctoral dissertation.
- If the dissertation contains copyrighted contents produced by others, obtain consent from the copyright holder(s) in advance regarding the use of the corresponding data in OUSAR.
(regarding supplementary paper(s) and reference paper(s), along with the primary dissertation)

- When submitting the Request for Self-Archiving form, obtain approval of your academic adviser.

* Author’s final draft version (Source: Hokkaido University Library , Translation: Okayama University Library)

Inquiries
Infrastructure Group, Information Management Section, Okayama University Libraries
Address: 3-1-1 Tsushima-naka, Kita-ku, Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture 700-8530, Japan
Tel: +81-86-251-7315　Fax: +81-86-251-7314
　E-mail：libcat[at]adm.okayama-u.ac.jp