Bergen Open Research Archive

Employees of UiB can self-archive their scientific works in UiB’s institutional repository BORA. By doing this you will make your work more visible and easier to share.

In 2019 UiB passed an instruction on archiving and open access to research articles. Researchers must ensure that a peer reviewed full-text version of all research articles is uploaded in Cristin. Articles that are uploaded in Cristin are transferred to BORA and made openly available in line with the UiB rights retention policy.  

The author holds the copyright to scientific works that has not been published. For published work where the copyright is transferred to the publisher, permission must be obtained before the work can be made available in BORA.

How to self-archive your scientific works in BORA

Research that is registered or should be registered in CRIStin can be self-archived by using the following instruction:
Upload publications in Cristin

It is also possible to upload your scientific works directly in BORA. Please contact bora@uib.no if you are not registered as a user.

If you have questions or need help, please contact us.

How to make your thesis available in BORA?

The University of Bergen encourage all master students to make their thesis available in BORA.

You can agree to publish your thesis in BORA when you submit it for assessment. If the thesis is approved it will be transferred to BORA after examination.

You can also choose to make your thesis available at a later stage by sending a signed licence to bora@uib.no or to: Bergen Open Research Archive, Postbox 7808, 5020 Bergen, Norway

You can withdraw the thesis from BORA by contacting bora@uib.no

Why make your thesis available in BORA?

• Master’s theses are an important contribution to Norwegian research.
• Students, researchers and others can benefit from reading your thesis. In BORA, you distribute your thesis to others efficiently.
• Google, Google Scholar, library catalogues and other search engines index BORA. Your thesis will be searchable and available all over the world.
• You can refer to you thesis when you apply for a job.
• BORA is a non-commercial system that ensures long time archiving. Your thesis will always be available through a permanent link.
• You give the University of Bergen the possibility to collect and make visible its research output.

The University Library no longer receives printed versions of theses, so BORA is the only place where your thesis will be available to read, download and copy.

Who owns copyright?

You own copyright to your master’s thesis, and have the right to decide if it should be made available in BORA or not. If an external funder has financed the thesis, the thesis must be made available in accordance with the funder’s guidelines. 

Do you consider publishing based on your thesis? It is possible to postpone access to the file itself, when submitting the thesis. Information about the thesis will be available in BORA, but the file will be closed for 1-5 year(s) (depending on how long you choose to postpone). This solution will give you time to publish, yet the thesis will automatically be available in BORA after the chosen timespan. This is also the alternative you choose if your thesis is part of an ongoing research project, and have to postpone the access. 

Norwegian copyright law protects material in BORA. Master’s theses are available with a licence that gives users the right to read, download and copy for private use. The author keeps copyright. The University of Bergen gets a non-exclusive right to make the master’s thesis available.

If you want to use a Creative Commons-license, you can contact bora@uib.no. By choosing an open license, you give users extended re-use rights.

When re-using other's material you must ask the creator of the work/the rights holder for permission. This, for example, applies to the re-use of pictures, illustrations and graphs in the thesis. 

For more information about your rights and re-use of other’s work, see the page Copyright to own scientific work.

How to make your thesis available in BORA?

When submitting your thesis in Avhandlingsportalen you choose if your thesis is going to be available in BORA. It is also possible to choose postponed access, meaning that information about the thesis will be available immediately, while the file is closed for the chosen timespan.

If you said no to BORA in Avhandlingsportalen and wish to make your thesis available at a later stage, send a signed licence agreement to bora@uib.no. We will than transfer the thesis and make it available. 

BORA clears copyright for articles before making the thesis available. As a default, unpublished articles are not made available. 

 Why make your thesis available in BORA?

• Researchers, students and others can benefit from reading your thesis. In BORA, you distribute your research to others efficiently.
• Google, Google Scholar, library catalogues and other search engines index BORA. Your thesis will be searchable and available all over the world.
• BORA is a non-commercial system that ensures long time archiving. Your thesis will always be available through a permanent link.
• You can link your thesis to your research profile in CRIStin and other web pages.
• You give the University of Bergen the possibility to collect and make visible its research output.

Who owns copyright?

As a rule, you own copyright to your PhD thesis. However, a publisher might own copyright to the whole thesis or to articles. 

Norwegian copyright law protects material in BORA. PhD theses are available with a licence that gives users the right to read, download and copy for private use. The author keeps copyright. The University of Bergen gets a non-exclusive right to make the PhD thesis available.

If you want to use a Creative Commons-licence instead, you can choose this when submitting the thesis. By choosing an open license, you give users extended re-use rights.

When re-using other's material you must ask the creator of the work/the rights holder for permission. This, for example, applies to the re-use of pictures, illustrations and graphs in the thesis. You do not need to ask for permission for work made available with an open license.

For more information about your rights and re-use of other’s work, see the page Copyright to own scientific work.

Article-based PhD theses

The publisher usually owns copyright to published articles. There is an exception for articles published Open Access with an open license. In such cases, the author usually keeps copyright and gives others extended re-use rights. From December 2022, UiB has introduced a rights retention policy which ensures that authors can make their accepted manuscripts of published articles openly available. If you hold on to your peer-reviewed author version of the article, it is more likely that you can make the complete thesis available in BORA.

BORA takes care of clearing copyright for articles, so you do not need permission from the publisher.

You must yourself obtain permission (oral or written) from co-authors to make articles available online. You do not need permission for articles made available with an open license.

In BORA, we refer and link to the full-text version of the articles on the journal homepage (see example from BORA).

More information about clearing copyright and versions of articles. Contact us at bora@uib.no if you have any questions.

Monographs

You might either have published your PhD thesis, or plan to publish it, with a commercial book publisher. In such cases, it is a possibility that the publisher will not allow you to make available your thesis in BORA. This will vary from publisher to publisher, and often it will depend on how much you revise the thesis in the process of publishing.

We recommend you to contact the publisher and enquire what guidelines they have when it comes to making the thesis available online. Often it will be possible to make the PhD thesis available after some time, especially if the book goes out of print. Many book publishers give rights back to the author after some years if the author asks for this.

More information about clearing copyright.