Educational programmes decide whether they want you to add your thesis to the  Student Repository. The faculties of Archaeology, Humanities, Governance & Global Affairs, Social Sciences and Science ask students to upload their thesis themselves by using the Leiden University Thesis Submission System. 

After all checks are done, your thesis details will become visible in the Student Repository. The thesis itself can only be made publicly available, possibly after an embargo period, if you, your supervisor and the external client (if applicable) have given their consent to do so. In some cases you will do this in the graduation form. If not, you can download the Thesis Publication Consent Form or ask your programme administration to give it to you. If one of the parties does not agree with publication, your thesis must stay under embargo (permanently or until a specified date). You can indicate this in the upload screen.

Before adding an academic publication to the Repository, every submitter is asked to accept the License to inclusion and publication of a Bachelor or a Master thesis in the Leiden University Student Repository. This license states the rights and obligations of both student and university. Among other things, it says the author keeps the copyright of his/her thesis. As the author, you state you don’t violate any rights of others (copyright, image right). The University is indemnified against any claims in this concern. The University is allowed to store the thesis, and – provided consent – make it publicly available. The University obliges itself to maintain the file as readable in the future, and warrant an embargo if applicable.

For a thesis to be published, the student and the thesis supervisor — and, if applicable, the internship company — must give permission via the Thesis Publication Consent Form. On this form, they can also indicate whether an embargo is required and specify the desired embargo period.

Availability of the full thesis depends on the mutual approval of the author and the educational board or supervisor. Bachelor theses are usually closed access unless both parties agree to publication. Master theses are generally available in open access unless an embargo has been requested.

Embargoes may be put in place for various reasons, including upcoming publications, involvement of commercial parties, sensitive subject matter, copyright or privacy considerations. Because embargoes and closed-access restrictions exist for valid reasons, the university will not provide access to embargoed or otherwise restricted theses to third parties.

• Only pdf-files are accepted. In word you can create a pdf by using the 'Save As' function and choosing pdf as file type.
• Please upload the final and approved version of your thesis.

• Theses in the Student Repository are indexed by Google and can be found by searching on author’s name, thesis title or words from the contents of the pdf (if publicly available).

• Do not put any personal details such as address, email address, phone number or student number in the thesis file!

• For questions concerning the procedure, or if you would like to make changes to the description of your own thesis, please refer to your Programme Administration.

The Student Theses Repository brings together the theses of many bachelor and master programmes at Leiden University. Students can use it for orientation and to showcase their thesis after graduation. To faculties, the repository means a safe and persistent digital archive, that also helps making their programmes more visible.

Copyright rules for using theses from the repository

The rights and obligations of the student (copyright owner), Leiden University Libraries (repository management) and the users of the repository are stated in the license that is accepted upon submission. The full license text can be consulted by clicking on the ‘Open Access’ text shown with (downloadable) files.  
The rights and obligations of the user are with the most recent license: 

Downloading is strictly limited to personal use and study. Any other use such as, but not limited to, copying, distributing, sale, loan, transfer, lease, provision, placing on a website or other digital platform, is permitted only with the Student’s prior written permission. 

Policies and take down procedure

If a publication in our repository infringes upon your rights, please contact either the repository manager or the coordinator/secretariat of the educational programme in question. In your request let us know: 

• The url of the infringing publication (preferably as handle from the share link functionality) 

• Whether you are the author of the publication 

• The reason for starting the procedure (this is not required but helps us to deliver better service) 

As a part of our response we may (temporarily) close the publication and/or remove metadata if needed conform the agreed upon license. 

Joining our repository

The Student Theses Repository is open for theses from educational programmes that take part in the repository. This is a decision by the faculty or programme board. If your programme is interested in joining, please contact the repository manager.