European OpenGrey system enables open access to UK theses

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OpenGrey, a multidisciplinary repository for European grey literature, has now been enriched as the result of a partnership between the British Library and the Institute for scientific and technical information (Inist-CNRS). The project aims to promote data from EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) to the OpenGrey system. The partnership adds more than 113,000 doctoral theses records from the UK dating back as far as the year 2003.

OpenGrey is a repository for bibliographic records of reports, theses and other documents that have previously been described as ‘difficult to locate and access’. It currently provides open access to more than 1,001,000 references from 1980 to today in all disciplines.

Every reference provides a hyperlink to the corresponding EThOS record, which shows the user how to access the full thesis. Users can download a thesis from EThOS, connect to the institution’s own copy, or order a scanned copy from the British Library. 33,000 of the records include links to the full-text versions of digital or digitised theses. The partnership permits OpenGrey to reinforce its coverage in humanities and social sciences with 45,000 records and medicine with 16,000 records.

In addition, over 10,000 new theses records supplied by the British Library will be added to OpenGrey content each year.