12.0250 e-publishing of dissertations

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Mon, 12 Oct 1998 06:17:38 +0100 (BST)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 12, No. 250.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

[1] From: Glenn Everett <aaff@utm.EdU> (51)
Subject: RE: 12.0241 e-publishing of dissertations

[2] From: "David L. Gants" <dgants@english.uga.edu> (33)
Subject: Re: 12.0241 e-publishing of dissertations

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 10:01:36 -0500
From: Glenn Everett <aaff@utm.EdU>
Subject: RE: 12.0241 e-publishing of dissertations

Note that this issue is being somewhat clouded; the requirement at Conner's
university (West Virginia?) was simply that "graduate students . . . file
their theses and dissertations electronically," and Conner goes on to say
that the accessibility ("privileges") is under the control of the student.

The fear that "no publisher will ever publish a dissertation which has been
made available electronically locally" sounds like normal graduate student
paranoia. A document's mere residence on a computer-even a
fileserver-cannot possibly be construed as publication or even distribution.

Now of course if the author decides to actively distribute, widely, a work,
I suppose there might come a point where a publisher might have some
legitimate concerns.

Glenn Everett
English Dept.
U of Tennessee at Martin
geverett@utm.edu

---------------------------------------------------------------

> Date: Thu, 01 Oct 1998 00:59:17 -0400
> From: "Patrick W. Conner" <pconner@wvu.edu>

> Our university has just made it a requirement of graduate students to file
> their theses and dissertations electronically. This means that all theses
and
> dissertations sit on a server, and they may be accessed (according to
> privileges set by the student at the time) only by persons with a
computing
> account at this university, or by anyone on the Internet.
>
> Some students are convinced that no publisher will ever publish a
dissertation
> which has been made available electronically locally, let alone one which
has
> been available to the whole internet. I rather think that dissertations
have
> always been available freely to members of the home institution, and often
to a
> wider audience as well. I've also never seen a dissertation which didn't
need
> to be thoroughly rewritten for publication.
>
> Does anyone know of a publisher with a policy not to publish books derived
from
> dissertations which may have been locally available on the Web? Do you
expect
> good publishers to have such policies? Do you have any opinion about how
> electronic dissertation publication affects subsequent hard-copy
publication?
>
> Many thanks for any contribution to this debate.--Pat Conner
>

--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 14:04:01 -0400 (EDT)
From: "David L. Gants" <dgants@english.uga.edu>
Subject: Re: 12.0241 e-publishing of dissertations

>> From: "C. Perry Willett" <pwillett@indiana.edu>

He may not be aware of it, but Dr. Strahorn's dissertation is already
available electronically on the Internet for a fee. Most US universities
send one copy of all dissertations they receive to UMI, publisher of
Dissertation Abstracts. In the past, UMI microfilmed them and sold copies.
Now, UMI is making copies of all dissertations they receive (after 1997)
available in PDF format <http://wwwlib.umi.com>. They claim to have over
70,000 dissertations available already. I don't think that they are
giving authors a choice in the matter.

Perry Willett
Main Library
Indiana University
PWILLETT@indiana.edu

> --[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 14:14:52 -0400
> From: "Strahorn, Dr. Eric" <estraho@fgcu.edu>
> >
> I think the fundamental question here isn't the potential publication of
> the dissertation, but control over intellectual property. It is my
> opinion that student work of any kind should not be posted on the
> Internet without the permission of the student. Administrators should
> not require students to give up their rights, but should make
> publication on the Internet optional. I know that I personally would
> not want my dissertation on the Internet. My dissertation may or may
> not be publishable, but I want to reserve the right to decide whether it
> should be posted on the Internet.
>
> Eric Strahorn
> Assistant Professor of History
> Florida Gulf Coast University
> 10501 FGCU Blvd. South
> Fort Myers, Fl 33965-6565
> (941) 590-7214
> estraho@fgcu.edu

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Humanist Discussion Group
Information at <http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
=========================================================================