Library Research News: July 2025 Edition
In this issue
- Your thesis and DRO: FAQs for graduating researchers
- Library advocacy provides security for major educational index
- Hot tip: Create and link ORCID
- Event roundup
Your thesis and DRO: FAQs for graduating researchers
Completed your thesis? Congratulations! Wondering where and when your thesis will be made available? Read on…
Where will my thesis be made available?
Deakin theses are made available in DRO (Deakin Research Online), the university’s institutional repository.
What types of theses does DRO collect?
DRO mostly holds PhD and Masters by Research theses. It also collects Honours theses by arrangement with the School of Life and Environmental Science; however, generally Honours theses or Theses by Publication are not collected.
What happens to my thesis after I submit it to the Examination team?
After your thesis has been assessed and passed, the Deakin Research Examinations team supplies the Library with the digital copy of your thesis and the Digital Thesis Copyright and Access form. The Library redacts signatures contained within and makes the thesis available in DRO.
Why can’t I find my thesis in DRO?
The timeline for theses being received from Deakin Research and made available in DRO varies. If you have searched DRO and you’re unable to locate your thesis, please contact your librarian.
Will my thesis be openly accessible in DRO?
Deakin University’s policy is to make your thesis open access by default. However, you may opt for an embargo period or restricted access if justification is provided. See Submitting to DRO for further information.
Can I change the access level of my thesis from open to restricted, or vice versa?
Yes, you can request to change access to your thesis at any time by contacting your librarian, however, there may be copyright or policy considerations.
Can I enter my thesis into Elements?
No. Theses are not collected in Elements. They are entered directly into DRO once they have been assessed and passed by the Examinations team. DRO will preserve your thesis online and provide you with a permanent link to your thesis, which you can share with colleagues and future employers.
I have a question about my thesis and DRO that isn’t covered here. Who can help?
Please contact your librarian for further information about depositing your thesis to DRO.
Library advocacy provides security for major educational index
The future of ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), an online library of education research and information used widely across the university, is now more secure.
The Library has been closely following and analysing potential impacts to access ERIC after recent decisions to cut funding to the US Department of Education by the US Department of Government Efficiency led to uncertainty around funding for ERIC. In response to sector-wide advocacy, largely from libraries, Clarivate has developed the ProQuest Education Research Index to help maintain coverage of as many ERIC indexed titles as possible.
Deakin Library is currently arranging access to the free ProQuest Education Research Index to ensure researchers, students and teaching staff have access to this new index. We expect we will continue to be able to provide access to materials and run systematic searches indexed in ERIC via the ProQuest Education Research Index.
For more details, see Clarivate’s release or contact your librarian.
Hot tip: Create and link your ORCID
Creating an ORCID and linking it to your Elements profile is a simple and effective way to help Elements identify your publications. It also makes it easier to connect your funding and research outputs to both you and Deakin.
An ORCID is a unique number, also known as a persistent identifier (PID), that stays with you throughout your research career. It helps distinguish your work from that of others with similar names and supports your engagement in research, scholarship, and innovation activities. To create an ORCID, complete ORCID’s free and simple online registration form.
Elements is Deakin’s administrative tool for collecting and managing publication data. To link your ORCID with Elements, follow these instructions.
To find out more about ORCID, including how to link your ORCID with other identifiers such as Scopus, Web of Science, ResearcherID or PubMed, check out the Researcher and author profiles help guide or contact your librarian for further assistance.
Event roundup
Missed one of our graduate researcher workshops? Catch up on the recordings now:
- Advanced literature searching
- Systematic Literature Searching for Systematic Reviews and other Evidence Syntheses (for Health and SEBE)
- Publishing and Open Access
- Responsible Use of GenAI in Research
- Getting your data in order: Put research data management into practice
All Library events can be discovered on the Library’s What’s On page. Additional professional development for researchers is also available via Deakin eResearch: training and events.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Library Research News is a regular publication from the library, publishing library-related news for Deakin researchers. To stay in the loop, please subscribe to Article.
To access library research services, please contact your librarian or navigate to Research via the library website. Scholarly Services Librarians bring discipline-specific expertise related to the following key areas:
- expert searching
- research data management
- Copyright for research
- publishing and open access
- research outputs stewardship
- research metrics.