Can theses and dissertations be licensed to AI developers?
A thesis is a long, structured piece of original research with its methods, results, figures and appendices in one place, which is why it is of interest. It is also a document with several possible owners: the author, the university, a funder and sometimes a company. Who can license it is a question about rights, not about the document.
What a thesis or dissertation holds
| Methods in full | How the study was done, step by step, with the choices and the reasons for them. More detail than a journal article allows. |
| Results and figures | The measured outcomes and the plots, tables and diagrams that present them. |
| Appendices and supplementary material | Instruments, protocols, raw tables and code that did not fit in the main text. |
| Literature review | A synthesis of what was known, which is the author’s own writing even when it cites others. |
| Drafts and committee feedback | Earlier versions and the comments of supervisors. Rare to find, and hard to license because several people wrote them. |
Three possible owners
In many places the author keeps the copyright in the thesis but gives the university a license to store and share it. A sponsor or funder may have rights to the results, and a company-sponsored project can carry confidentiality terms. Check the author’s agreement, the university’s regulations and the funding contract before anything is offered.
Published is not the same as free to license
A thesis in a public repository can be read by anyone, which does not give anyone the right to license it to a third party. Repository terms often grant the university broad rights and leave the author’s rights in place. Unpublished or embargoed work raises further questions about who may release it and when.
Research subjects and data
A thesis based on human subjects carries the consent those people gave, and the terms of the ethics approval. Material from interviews, surveys or clinical studies may be covered by promises that bar sharing, so the work is checked against the consent forms.
What stays out of a thesis set
| Work with no clear owner agreement | If the author’s, the university’s and the funder’s rights are not settled, the work is left out. |
| Material covered by research consent | Interview transcripts and survey data stay out when participants did not agree to this use. |
| Embargoed and sponsor-owned work | Anything under an embargo or a company’s confidentiality terms waits until the terms allow. |
| Export-controlled research | Work subject to export or security rules is set aside before any other step. |
An example, invented for illustration
A university research office holds 400 materials science dissertations from the past twenty years. Counsel reviews the author agreements and finds that most graduates kept their copyright and gave the university a license to share. The office writes to authors asking for written agreement to a new use, sets aside works with sponsor restrictions, and offers the ones with agreement in a set with methods and appendices intact. The office approves a sample before the set leaves.
Questions owners ask about this
Can a university license all its theses at once?
Only if its agreements give it that right, which they often do not. It usually needs each author’s agreement or a clear license term.
Can a graduate license their own thesis?
Often yes, if they hold the copyright and no sponsor or embargo applies. The university’s own license for storage does not stop them, though it may limit what they promise.
Is lab notebook material treated the same way?
Notebooks add a layer, since the institution or a funder may own the notes. See the guide on lab notebooks and experiment records for that case.
Do the citations cause a problem?
Quoted and cited material belongs to its authors. A set is reviewed for long quotes, copied figures and reproduced tables, and those are removed where the right is not yours.
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Keep reading
Related kinds of records
- SOPs and knowledge bases: Procedures with their edit history and comments; published help articles add nothing.
- Lab notebooks and experiment records: Settings tied to results, failures included, with sponsor-owned work and patient data kept out.
Industries that keep these records
- Universities and research labs: Theses, protocols and grant drafts, and the ownership questions to answer before listing any.