Degrees of Secrecy in an Open EnvironmentThe Case of Electronic Theses andDissertations

International audienceThe open access (OA) principle requires that scientific information bemade widely and readily available to society. Defined in 2003 as a “comprehensivesource of human knowledge and cultural heritage that has been approved by thescientific community”, open access implies that content be openly accessible and thisneeds the active commitment of each and every individual producer of scientificknowledge.Today, the success of the open access initiative cannot be denied. Yet, in spite of thegrowing success of the open access initiative, a significant part of scientific andtechnical information remains unavailable on the web or circulates with restrictions.Even in institutional repositories (IR) created to provide access to the scientificoutput of an academic institution and central vector of the so-called green road toopen access, more or less important sectors of the scientific production are missing.This is because of lack of awareness, embargo, deposit of metadata without full text, confidential content etc.This problem concerns in particular electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) thatare disseminated with different statuses – some are freely available, others are underembargo, confidential, restricted to campus access (encrypted or not) or not availableat all. While other papers may be available through alternative channels (journals,monographs etc.), ETDs most often are not.Our paper describes a new and unexpected effect of the development of digitallibraries and open access, as a paradoxical practice of hiding information from thescientific community and society, partly while sharing it with a restricted population(campus). We try to explain these different shades of grey literature in terms ofdifferent degrees of secrecy related to intellectual property, legitimate interests,expected exploitation and trade secrets, and suggest some ways of increasingavailability of ETDs in an open environment (inter-lending loan and documentsupply, alternative format etc.). The study builds on a review of recent papers onETDs in institutional repositories and provides empirical evidence on this reality.The study also includes an overview of the thesis mandate policies of IR asmentioned in the ROARMAP directory, and an evaluation of the availability ofETDs in a small panel of European and American academic IR, networks andinstitutions