Faculty and PhD students’ perceptions of signature visibility in digital thesis repositories

Abstract

As digital thesis repositories increasingly support academic transparency, the inclusion of handwritten signatures in open-access doctoral theses has raised growing concerns about data privacy and identity security. In India, although the Shodhganga repository does not mandate public display of such signatures, many universities upload scanned approval pages containing them often without explicit consent. This study investigates the perceptions of PhD students, recent alumni, and faculty supervisors regarding the visibility of handwritten signatures in Shodhganga. Based on responses from 129 participants across central and state universities, the findings reveal that respondents from state universities expressed significantly greater discomfort with signature exposure. Most participants cited risks of identity theft, forgery, and misuse of personal identifiers, and showed strong support for alternative authentication methods such as digital watermarking, encrypted verification systems, DOI-based tracking, and institutional approval seals. In conclusion, the study confirms a widespread stakeholder preference for secure, consent-based alternatives that preserve thesis authenticity while protecting researcher identity. These findings emphasize the urgent need for policy reforms in India's digital thesis authentication infrastructure to align with global privacy and security standards.