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Unisa Institutional Repository

The Unisa Institutional Repository (UnisaIR) is an open digital archive of scholarly, intellectual and research output of the University of South Africa. The UnisaIR disseminates and preserves theses and dissertations, research output (for example, articles, conference papers, book chapters and inaugural lectures) and many other digital assets produced by members of the Unisa community. It has the benefit of increased global discoverability and visibility of Unisa researchers.

Access the UnisaIR  at https://ir.unisa.ac.za

  • After examining and approving a thesis/dissertation, the supervisor should email the final edited copy in pdf to the Library at lib-drc@unisa.ac.za
  • Please enter the name of the student (author) in the subject field of the email message.
  • A confirmation message will be sent to the supervisor.
  • Theses and dissertations will be uploaded by the Library. Please allow at least three weeks for the processing and uploading of the item to the UnisaIR.
  • Kindly note that no alerts will be sent once the item has been uploaded. You may browse your name under “Author” on the UnisaIR web page.
  • Please do not submit ETDs that contain sensitive or confidential content to the UnisaIR as the University will not be liable for any legal action resulting from content submitted to the UnisaIR.

Click here to access the Master’s and Doctoral Degrees related policies, procedures and guidelines.

A few important aspects are highlighted below:

According to the Procedures for Master’s and Doctoral Degrees, supporting the Unisa Policy for Master's and Doctoral Degrees, the Library is not authorised to remove/update/replace your thesis/dissertation that was submitted by your supervisor once it has been uploaded to the Unisa Institutional Repository. Requests for removal should be submitted to the Vice Principal: Research, Postgraduate Studies, Innovation and Commercialisation or his or her delegated nominee.  For more information, see the extractions from the Procedures below.

  • Copyright and Intellectual Property (Procedures for Masters’ and Doctoral Degrees Chapter 5.51-5.53)
    Although the copyright of Unisa theses and dissertations is vested with the student, the intellectual property rights belong to the University. After completion, the student grants the non-exclusive distribution rights to the University. In exceptional circumstances, a candidate may apply to be exempted from granting this copyright license. Such an application must be fully substantiated.

  • Embargoes (Procedures for Masters’ and Doctoral Degrees Chapter 5.54-5.55)
    An embargo of 24 months may apply to theses and dissertations and students may apply for renewal of embargoes. Renewal of embargo requests should be submitted to the Vice-Principal: Research, Postgraduate Studies, Innovation and Commercialisation or his or her nominee.

  • Replacement of Archived Copies
    According to the Procedures for Masters’ and Doctoral Degrees (Chapter 8: Archiving) no amendments will be allowed to the final examined and accepted copy that was submitted by the supervisor and archived in the Unisa Institutional Repository.

  • According to the Unisa Intellectual Property Policy “a copy of all publications emanating from Unisa IP shall be deposited in the Unisa Institutional Repository for archiving" (par 10.2.5)
  • It is the responsibility of Unisa authors to deposit their published research in the UnisaIR, but they should abide by self-archiving policies and copyright regulations of the different copyright owners, for example publishers.
  • Authors are advised to retain copyright of their published articles and to keep a pdf copy of the accepted manuscript (post print) if archiving of the published version of an article is not permitted.
  • The Library will manage embargoes where applicable.
  • Open access, plagiarism, licensing and copyright are addressed in the Unisa Policy on Scholarly Publishing
  • The Unisa Library and Information Services is entering into various transformative agreements to enable Unisa authors to publish their research in Open Access. Please

  • SherpaROMEO website for publisher copyright policies and self-archiving.
  • Creative Commons Explore these featured Creative Commons Licensed resources below — from literary works, to videos, photos, audio, open education, scientific research and more! Choose a suitable Creative Commons licence for your work here.
  • Sherpa Juliet  Research Funders’ Open Access Policies.
  • Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is an international community-curated online directory of high quality, peer-reviewed open access journals.
  • Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers. All DOAB services are free of charge and all data is freely available.
  • SciELO South Africa is an open-access (free to access and free to publish) searchable database of selected, high quality South African scholarly journals. The project is inspired by a global movement towards the implementation of online journals, pioneered by the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) project, based in Brazil.
  • National ETD Portal – South African theses and dissertations
  • NDLTD Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
  • The Library will provide training and guidance with regard to copyright issues and the submission process by means of group and individual sessions.

Last modified: Tue Dec 02 12:52:37 SAST 2025