oa The contextual factors that influence the adoption of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) programme in the Arab Gulf universities

The Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) initiative came into being after the developmentof electronic publishing on the internet and the technological platforms and software that support it (Reeves, Hagen & Jewell, 2006). The idea of ETD submission was first mentioned in 1987 by Universal Microfilms Inc (UMI) in the United States. Twenty years later, many institutions have adopted this initiative. The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) was established in 1996 with a mission to coordinate ETD-related activities and support the adoption and implementation of the ETD initiative (Allard, 2003; Suleman et al., 2001). In 2006, NDLTD had more than 233 members from all over the world (Reeves et al., 2006). These included institutional, consortial and individual members.

More and more academic institutions have started to adopt and develop ETD programmes all over the world. The rapid adoption and development of these programmes is influenced by many factors. This paper discusses the contextual factors that have been found to influence the adoption of ETD programs in the Arab Gulf States.