Submitting your thesis to ORA: Requirements

Current students must have been granted leave to supplicate following examination of their thesis to be eligible for deposit.

Theses should be deposited in good time (a minimum of five working days) in advance of graduation so that they can be processed by the ORA team.

Alumni and Oxford staff/researchers can deposit their thesis to ORA at any time.

The following conditions must be met in order to deposit your thesis:

• The degree for which your thesis was written is eligible for deposit (see: eligible degrees)
• The deposited file should be the final examined version as it was passed by the examiners with all corrections included (see: what to deposit)
• Inclusion of the thesis in ORA must not infringe copyright or any other rights including those rights of material included in the thesis where copyright is held by a third party. This is the responsibility of the depositor to check (see: copyright)
• The author must agree to the ORA deposit statement for theses
• A digital version of the thesis must be submitted by the depositor (ORA cannot offer a digitisation service at the present time)

Additionally, for current students:

• Any embargoes on access beyond 3 years must be approved by the supervisor or another appropriate person in the department which granted leave to supplicate.

For alumni and Oxford researchers/staff who graduated before the COVID-19 pandemic:

• A print copy of the thesis must have been deposited in the Bodleian Library

ORA reserves the right to refuse any item if any of these conditions are not met, or in any other exceptional circumstances.

Successful D.Phil, M.Sc., and M.Litt. students are required, on the granting of leave to supplicate, only to submit an electronic version of their finalised thesis to the Oxford Research Archive.

Students are no longer required to submit a hardbound copy of their thesis to the Bodleian Libraries, with the exception of students who have been granted permanent dispensation from consultation of their entire thesis, who should, in addition to the finalised copy of the thesis submitted to the Oxford Research Archive, submit a finalised hardbound copy of their thesis for deposit in the relevant university library. Students whose thesis (or part of the thesis) is in a non-standard format which cannot be submitted electronically (e.g. a 3D artwork, or artefact) should also submit a physical copy for deposit.

Information on arrangements for submitting a hardbound copy, for the small minority of students who have been granted permanent dispensation from consultation of their entire thesis, or whose thesis (or part of the thesis) is in a non-standard format which cannot be submitted electronically will be available via https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/exams/research during Michaelmas term 2022. This will include information for former students in this position, who have previously submitted to the Oxford Research Archive but have been unable to submit a hardbound copy.

Other than the exceptions referred to above, students will no longer need to submit hardbound copies of their finalised theses to the Bodleian Libraries. However, this does not preclude departments/faculties from choosing to keep their own subject-specific collections of their students’ theses.

Supplicate: Ask for a degree to be conferred at a degree ceremony.  E.g. candidates who satisfactorily complete a DPhil are granted ‘Leave to supplicate’, meaning they have passed.