Thesis Submission

Submitting a thesis to Flinders University Library

After an examined thesis has been finalised, students (excluding Honours) are required to submit a copy to be made publicly available via the library.

All HDR students will have a sanction applied to their student account until their final thesis has been correctly uploaded to the library according to the instructions on this page (with all copyright issues addressed); the sanction will remain on your student profile until the library has confirmed your submission.

See library submission video

Library submission process

1. Discuss with your supervisor if you think you may require an embargo if there are reasons for your thesis to not be shared publicly immediately (which is the default).

2. Assess the copyright if you included any images in your thesis that have come from other sources. You need to have consent to use images, not just reference them.

3. If there are publications included in your thesis, check how the publisher will permit you to include the articles in the public version of your thesis.

4. Check whether you need to remove any sensitive material, such as redacting confidential or personal information.

5. Prepare your files for submission. If you had copyright or confidential material that needs redacting, you will need to prepare two separate files.

6. Submit the thesis online:

Submit coursework thesis

Submit HDR thesis

Useful links

Thesis final steps

HDR thesis rules

Find a Flinders thesis

Need help?

7. The thesis goes through first layer of approval. For Coursework students, it will be verified by your college’s Student Progress team. For HDRs, it will be verified by the HDR Examinations team.

8. Once verified by the College/OGR, library staff will finalise your submission. This includes checking copyright requirements have been met; for HDRs, your sanction will be removed after this step.

Including images in your thesis

If you have directly copied or used a modified version of another person’s image (such as graphs, tables, figures, photos) to use in your thesis, you will need to obtain copyright permission to include these because your thesis is being shared publicly. Formal copyright permission is required for public communication; this applies even if the image does not have a copyright symbol and/ or was freely accessible via the internet. Permission is not required for figures you created yourself using data from another source, only when the image itself was copied from another sources.

You should assume permission is required for all third party images, except for:

Google Maps (see guidelines and attribution requirements)
Figures from ‘open access’ publications which explicitly say they have a Creative Commons Licence (you will need to specifically acknowledge the licence in your image attribution, as per the licence guidelines)
Up to 3 images from a journal published by Sage Publications (some journal exclusions apply, check the Sage guidelines)
Older images where copyright has expired (creator died 70+ years ago)
Photographs taken before 1955

If the above do not apply, permission will be required (unless the source explicitly states otherwise). For figures from a journal article, you may be able to request permission by filling out an online form on a platform called RightsLink (see RightsLink permission directions). For images from other sources, contact the publisher or website owner via email using the permissions template provided. If you cannot obtain permission, you will need to create a separate version of your thesis with the image/s removed (see: Preparing your files).

RightsLink directions

Email permissions template

For guidance on seeking permissions, please email the Copyright Librarian.

Including publications in your thesis

Although you are the author, it is likely that the copyright in your journal publications was transferred to the publisher which means there are limits on the way you can share copies of those publications, including in your own thesis.

Most publishers will allow you to share the ‘accepted manuscript’ version in your thesis; this is the peer reviewed manuscript before it has received any typesetting from the publisher (see example). You should include this version along with a citation and link to the final published article. If you plan to include the full publication you will need to check first, using the table below, whether you can include the final article as it appeared in the journal, or whether you can only display the accepted manuscript.

This table outlines how you may include copies of journal articles from the following publishers (unless the article was published open access through the publisher, in which case the final published PDF can be retained):

Publisher	Article version that can be included in thesis	Notes / conditions
American Psychological Association	Accepted manuscript	Include the written statement from their internet posting guidelines.
Cambridge University Press	Accepted manuscript	If published more than 6 months ago.
Elsevier	Final published PDF	Must include article DOI link (see guidelines)
IEEE	Accepted manuscript	Include copyright notice and disclaimer (see thesis section of IEEE page)
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins	Accepted manuscript	Must be 12 months after publication, see author permission guidelines.
Oxford University Press	Accepted manuscript	Must be 12-24 months after publication.
SAGE Publishing	Final published PDF	See excluded journals.
Springer	Final published PDF	Must include correct citation of final article, see author reuse
Taylor & Francis	Accepted manuscript	Must include prescribed statement with manuscript, and embargo periods apply for each journal (see journal lookup).
Wiley / John Wiley & Sons	Accepted manuscript	Embargo periods apply and set statement must be included; see guidelines.

For unpublished conference contributions such as posters, you will have retained the rights in these and can share them in your thesis (as long as they don’t contain third party images).

For queries on whether you can include a publication in your thesis, please contact the Copyright Librarian.

Removing sensitive content

Be mindful of any data, text, photos, or appendices that may not be intended for public viewing or which could be used fraudulently. Although you may have included the content when submitting for examination, you may prefer for the public library copy to not contain this information (see: Preparing your files). University computers provide access to Adobe Pro which has a built in function which allows you to redact sensitive information.

Examples of material to consider excluding:

assessment and survey tools (many, especially paid tools, will need to be excluded due to copyright)
photos of participant’s faces or of yourself
email conversations or private conversation included in appendices
personal signatures / autographs
revealing information (address or longitude & latitude) of sacred or private locations
phone numbers and addresses
permits and registrations in your name

Preparing your files

You have the option to submit two versions of your thesis to the library. All students must submit a ‘Master Copy’ which is the full complete examined thesis after any amendments have been made. If required, you can also submit an additional ‘Library Copy’ which is a file that has been amended for public viewing by removing copyright material and/or confidential/ sensitive content. If you do not plan on making a separate copy (because your thesis does not contain any material that needs to be redacted) then you can just submit the one Master Copy and that is what will be made public.

How to prepare files

Image describing which versions of a thesis are required

Applying for an embargo

By default, your thesis will become immediately available online (after it has been processed by university staff). If you are currently seeking to have portions published or have other valid reasons why your thesis should not be made available immediately, you can request an embargo through the library submission form. This allows you to choose a period of up to 3 years (36 months) delay before your thesis automatically becomes public. You should discuss the need for an embargo with your supervisor first. The submission form requires you to put in a reason for your embargo which will then go through a formal approval process. If you later need the embargo to be extended, you must contact HDR Exams no more than 2 months before the embargo was due to end and request an extension.

Be aware that even if your embargo is approved, the file you supply to the library during your submission will be the one that is made public at a later date. You will not have the opportunity to resubmit a new file at the end of the embargo period.