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Frequently Asked Questions: ETD |
Questions and Answers
Why must I submit electronically?
By preparing an ETD and submitting it electronically you learn about electronic
document preparation and about digital libraries. These skills will help
prepare you for your future role in the Information Age, whether you teach, research,
or use the research results of others.
Furthermore, you may be able to better convey the message of your thesis
or dissertation in an electronic as opposed to a paper document. Thus,
you can easily have color diagrams, color images, hypertext links, and
even include audio, video, animations, spreadsheets, databases, simulations,
virtual reality worlds, etc. in your appendices.
By submitting electronically you also allow your university to fulfill
more economically its responsibilities of recording and archiving your
thesis or dissertation. This is a key responsibility of the university,
that is easier and less costly (in this time of tight budgets) to fulfill
when the work flow involves electronic documents.
Note that electronic submission is totally separate from electronic
access. So, please realize that regardless of what is arranged in terms
of access to your work, electronic submission is required.
Why is there no paper version required any longer for University Libraries?
The University only requires electronic submission (though your committee
and/or department may still want a paper version). It commits to electronic
archiving of works received, making sure that these will be accessible
in the future, regardless of changes in media and standards. This is a
firm guarantee so you need not worry. Furthermore, paper documents can
easily be produced from electronic documents, but not vice versa.
By not accepting paper*, the University reduces handling and library
costs, saves you money, and makes access to the body of knowledge easier.
How will people be able to access my ETD?
If you allow your ETD to be freely available worldwide, which we recommend
(see below for reasons, and for discussion of other options), we will work
to make your ETD as easily available as possible. We will allow
access over the WWW, so people can link to our collection for browsing,
and even link directly to your ETD (with a special type of URL that is
not subject to change). In the record for your ETD that will be
in the LSU library catalog, we will have link information, so those searching
that catalog can connect directly to the ETD. Additionally, several search
engines, including but not limited to WorldCat, Google Scholar, Google, certain
scientific sites, will register your data and link to your document. Your
ETD can be found by anyone searching the NDLTD [Networked Digital Library of
Theses and Dissertations] (i.e., the full distributed
collection of ETDs made available by institutions that are part of the
initiative).
Why should I make my ETD freely available?
The world of scholarship depends on people making their research available
to others. When that is done electronically, more people can get access
at lower cost, and more knowledge transfer occurs. This can stimulate education
and research. It also can ensure that many people give credit to you for
your work, and that your research is cited in others' publications, which
adds to your prestige and can help your future advancement. We can log
all accesses and provide a report to you of the count, to pass on to your
supervisors, if you request this.
Before theses and dissertations were available electronically, not many
were read. Electronic access multiplies the number of times works are read
by a factor of ten or more. Since you spent a great deal of time on your
research, it should encourage you to know that others are reading that
work. Your literature review may guide others, and your results may save
others the time of redoing your study.
With electronic theses and dissertations, students and universities
can more easily share knowledge, with much lower costs. We believe that
about 200,000 theses or dissertations are completed each year. It would
greatly aid graduate education if as many as possible of these were
freely available.
Since we aim to maximize access, which seems especially appropriate
for a land grant university, we will not charge and so will not have any
royalties to share.
What are the options regarding electronic access?
LSU gives you three options regarding affording electronic access to your ETD.
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The first option, which we recommend (see above) is to make it freely available
worldwide.
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The second option, which we hope will be needed rarely, is to make the
ETD freely available to the University community but at the same time disallow
access from others. So that these others will gain access as soon as appropriate,
this restriction on access is only for a period of one year. To protect
you, the University will allow the period to be extended, a year at a time,
as long as necessary, and will not release your work until you and your
advisor provide written authorization.
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The third option is to restrict access for a period of a year, even disallowing
access by the University community. This option addresses situations such
as when a patent application is planned, or when proprietary interests
are at stake.
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*Students receiving the degree of MFA in Creative Writing also have the option of
placing a paper copy of their document in Hill Memorial Library and permanently
restricting electronic access. These students must still submit an
electronic thesis from which the bound copy will be produced (at no charge to
the student). The electronic copy becomes part of the permanent electronic
repository archives of the University.
You should consider these options carefully. Feel free to talk with the LSU Office of Intellectual
Property or seek legal counsel for advice, and to discuss this with your advisor.
If you intend to work with a publisher for journal or book publications,
be sure you understand their policies and any agreements you would sign.
We are happy to explain these options further, beyond what appears below,
and are actively working to document publishers' views regarding ETDs.
Please note that you can help us prepare guidance for other students by
completing the questionnaire we provide about reasons for your option selection,
and about student practices and plans regarding publications related to
theses or dissertations.
What if I want to write a book related to my thesis or dissertation?
We realize that some students, especially in the humanities, prepare books
related to their theses or dissertations. In general it appears to be the
case that electronic release of early versions of a book leads to greater
sales of such books. Indeed, having an electronic work made available on
the Internet, and telling a publisher that there have been a large number
of electronic accesses to that work, may help you land a book contract.
Usually, books that relate to theses or dissertations turn out to be
significantly changed as part of the editorial process. This makes it likely
that those interested in your work will buy your book when it comes out,
even if they have reviewed your ETD.
However, since publishers vary widely in their policies, it may be wise
to share this information and other documents about the ETD initiative with
publishers to which you are likely to submit your work.
We are open to discussions with publishers regarding policies or helping in
the publicity process.
What do I need to know about signing agreements with publishers?
When you have your research published in a conference, book, or journal,
you usually sign some type of agreement with the publisher. You should
read that agreement carefully before signing, making sure you understand
AND AGREE with the terms and conditions. If you don't, you may want to
change the agreement in connection with discussion/negotiation with the
publisher, and possibly with advice of legal or other counsel. The agreement
should be explicit about what future rights of use you retain. If you want
to include the materials in a dissertation or to reuse the materials for
teaching or a book chapter, say so.
As the author you are entitled to discuss your plans with the publisher.
We encourage you to obtain an agreement that allows you to include your
research in a freely available electronic thesis or dissertation.
During these negotiations you may want to discuss matters of timing
and revision. You have the right to negotiate with a publisher to reduce
access to your ETD to your university only for a limited amount of time,
if they request this as a condition on publishing your article. However,
most publishers consider a thesis or dissertation to be quite different
from a journal article. Typically the article is much shorter than the
chapter or full work, has been revised as a result of the editorial process
and peer review, and sometimes has several authors, resulting in many publishers
having no concern regarding fully accessible ETDs.
What if I want to have a journal article as a chapter in my thesis?
If you have published an article or articles before you turn in your thesis
or dissertation, and you wish credit for that for your graduate requirements,
you have a number of options. These should be discussed with your committee,
and possibly with your publisher. First, you can simply cite that publication
in your references. Second, if the publisher has the publication online,
you can link or point to it (with permission of the publisher, who usually
has protection so that paying customers or subscribers are the only ones
allowed access). Third, if the publisher gives you a signed release, you
can include the publication in your thesis or dissertation as allowed in
that release. If the publisher restricts access in that release, say to
your university, you may want to have two versions of your thesis or dissertation--one
with and one without the chapter (e.g., published article) in question.
This matter may be avoided if your thesis or dissertation talks about
your research in a very different way from the published article. That
often makes sense, since articles are typically short, and your thesis
or dissertation may be the only place where all the details, data, tables,
and other aspects of your research are made available.
Remember that preparing a thesis or dissertation is part of your graduate
experience, one aim of which is to prepare you to be a part of the world
of research and publication. While this letter may help make the philosophy
of the ETD Initiative clearer, the ultimate success of the initiative depends
on you. We hope you will treat this a part of your educational experience,
and will take steps when you deal with publishers to help other students
gain the widest possible access to your research.
etd.lsu.edu
LSU Graduate School
This page was last updated:
01/27/08
Questions? Comments? gradetd@lsu.edu