Dear Toni (and all),
It is true that some universities like to count the number of times a thesis — or anything else — is downloaded from the institutional repository, but this is less relevant to the graduated doctor or to the research field. Universities vary dramatically in their ability to develop and manage a repository. For example, some universities have an IT staff or a library staff that is skilled at making a system easily accessible to search engines, while others are not. Some repository software systems seem especially opaque, but once a university buys the software license, they do not want the cost of a changeover. Instead, staff complaints about the invisibility of the system go on year after year and the answer is always the same: “We are aware of this problem. WE hope to resolve it.”
So what Toni writes is true — universities want high web visibility. At the same time, it is not generally a high priority, and getting proper accessibility and visibility for the thesis of a single PhD graduate has nearly no priority. If this were a priority, universities would take several measures — not merely to ensure the visibility of the thesis, but to build a page on the web site of each department or faculty that offers aggregated thesis information for every PhD graduate: author, title, abstract, and a link to the actual thesis on the central university repository.
However: the situation of North American universities is different. In the late 1930s, a company in Ann Arbor, Michigan, launched an undertaking to record every PhD thesis at every accredited PhD program in North America. Over the years, nearly every accredited university with a PhD program has joined the system. Formerly known as University Microfilms International, this company is now ProQuest. Nearly every thesis completed at a North American university is available on ProQuest, generally in three forms, .pdf download, print-on-demand hard copy, and microform. For newer theses, most are also available in a 20-page free sample.
ProQuest recently changed its subscription format to make using theses even easier. Earlier, one had to pay a fee for every thesis. Today, ProQuest sells paywall subscriptions much as journal publishers do. If a university library subscribes, staff and students can download as many theses as they wish from the ProQuest web site.
Many international universities are now joining the ProQuest system as a global repository in addition to the university digital repository. With the superior indexing and abstracting information now available on ProQuest, the convention of a global thesis repository has become a major service to all research fields.
Even where a graduate withholds right to make the thesis available in complete form, PhD graduates are required to post the abstract.
As one colleague noted in an off-list note, there are occasional repository and publication problems when a thesis contains copyrighted images such as copyrighted illustrations or photographs. In other cases, there may be delays due to material under embargo, where, for example, a thesis covers sensitive material or material that cannot be released for a specific time. While ways to resolve these difficulties are emerging, this involves a relative minority of thesis projects.
If you have completed your PhD thesis, it is a service to the field to make it accessible.
Best regards,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
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Toni Roberts wrote:
—snip—
Thanks Ken. I had mine up on academia but took it down once it was available through the university's research bank. I thought this might be important for the university to count the number of times people access it. Do you know if this is true?
I'm happy to put mine back up if not. It's quite nice to see people other than my supervisors show an interest in reading it. I had over a hundred downloads from academia while it was up.
—snip—
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