Wits Theses and Dissertations are deposited in full-text onto WIReDpace and are accessible around the world.
The intellectual property in Theses and Dissertations belongs to Wits, so in the event of students wanting to publish their theses/dissertations or being approached by publishers to publish their theses/dissertations, students would need to obtain permission from Wits Legal Office (Dawn.Taylor@wits.ac.za) or the Research Office (Iain.Burns@wits.ac.za).
WIReDSpace (Wits Institutional Repository on DSpace) is a digital repository of the research and intellectal output of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It provides full-text open access to research papers, articles, conference presentations, multimedia, theses and dissertations, and a host of other works produced by Wits staff, researchers and postgraduate students.
WIReDSpace is an important management and dissemination tool that facilitates global access to and dissemination of Wits' scholarly output. It also provides ongoing maintenance and preservation of the institution's research legacy. This is a university initiative, which is managed by the Library.
WIReDSpace is compliant with the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and is registered in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OPENDOAR) and the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR).
Any users (e.g. researchers, educators, librarians, organisations, individuals, Government officials and staff, students, literacy trainers, etc.) who search WIReDSpace from the Wits Library Website (via Google or any other search engine) will be able to access and use the material on WIReDSpace at no cost. Due acknowledgement of the source is required for all material used from WIReDSpace.
Educators may find relevant articles and other works on WIReDSpace to include in teaching material. Students can also use WIReDSpace for study material, research and other purposes. Researchers can showcase their publications in full-text, open access, on WIReDSpace.
To deposit your works in WIReDSpace, you will need to check the Copyright Policies of the relevant publishers (see Tab on Copyright Policies re: WIReDSpace, in this LibGuide).
You will then need to contact the Library Computer Services via Charl Roberts at 011 717 1950 or Charl.Roberts@wits.ac.za, to set up a Community/Collection on WIReDSpace and then request him or your Faculty/Branch Librarian for basic training on how to complete the WIReDSpace forms for submission.
All articles, papers, theses & dissertations and other literary works need to be submitted in PDF format.
Images should preferably be submitted in JPEG format. If you have them in other formats, first discuss with Charl Roberts before attempting to load them onto WIReDSpace.