PhD students that are supported by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Training Grant should, subject to the procedures laid down by the Research Organisation, publish the results of their research in accordance with normal academic practice and the UKRI policy on open access, which can be found on the UKRI webpages.
Please note that students who are funded by a Training Grant from any of the UK’s Research Councils are required to make their theses available within a certain time period. The UKRI Training Grant rules state “In the case of Ph.D. theses funded by Research Councils, metadata describing the thesis should be lodged in the institution's repository as soon as possible after award and a fulltext version should be available within a maximum of 12 months following award. It is expected that metadata in institutional repositories will be compatible with the metadata core set recommended by the EThOS e-thesis online service.
Given the variety of circumstances around a thesis, including the inclusion of third party copyright, intent to patent, commercially restricted information and many others, the University has a system in place to ensure that the access level of the thesis is appropriate and lawful. The University offers a four tiered system for access to its thesis: Open Access, Embargoed (to later become Open Access), Controlled and Restricted. Embargoed and Controlled theses can be requested and are supplied to the requestor with appropriate copyright management. Restricted theses are very rare and only under specific circumstances.
In relation to the Training Grant requirement, the University of Cambridge’s approach is to let students decide what is the best access level for their thesis. UKRI agrees that this approach complies with their requirements.
Comprehensive advice about access management and copyright issues relating to theses can be found in the Office of Scholarly Communication website.