Enseña tu tesis: por qué todos los trabajos universitarios deberían ser públicos | Futuro

[google transl.] Teach your thesis: why all university papers should be public

The revolt surrounding the thesis of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has centred part of the political debate on the publication and transparency of doctoral work, a practice about which there are differences between the defenders of copyright and the promoters of open science, especially when it comes to work that has received public funding. Logic would be something like giving back to society what the university has given them.

The number of theses read in Spain has increased considerably in recent years, from nearly 8,000 in 2008 by the Ministry of Education to more than 11,000 in the last figure for 2014. Since the entry into force of Royal Decree 99/2011 of Doctorate, new doctors must submit to the Ministry of Education an electronic copy of their work, which is housed in the database of Teseo and, at least, leaves open a summary with the date of reading, the court and the rating.

The text establishes exceptions to this obligation, always at the request of the researcher and if an academic commission authorizes it. Normally, when there are economic interests in between, such as that researcher wants to publish in journals, a book or when the work is done in collaboration with companies and can lead to patents.

The aim of this regulation was "to achieve maximum accessibility to these scientific documents that come from public funds", recalls Professor and former Secretary General of Universities Marius Rubiralta, who points out that "the decree has ensured that the different university libraries function as an online repository of doctoral theses from practically all over Spain".