The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has required electronic submission of theses and dissertations (ETD) since 2012, making them available online in the UWM Libraries’ Digital Commons, an open access repository. While sharing ETDs in an online university repository has become routine at most colleges and universities in recent years, students and advisors continue to question the impact of openly accessible ETDs on future publication opportunities. This bibliography brings together research conducted in recent years to investigate publishers’ attitudes toward ETDs as prior publication.
Bibliography
Rupp-Serrano, K., & Waller, J. (2018). Dissertation-to-Book Publication Patterns among a Sample of R1 Institutions. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 6 (General Issue), eP2187.
https://doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.2187
- The authors conducted a study of over 23,000 dissertations from 12 U.S. universities to compare published versions of dissertations to the original, in order to determine the frequency with which dissertations are subsequently published with little-to-no changes. The study also identifies self-published books and questionable publishers.
Butkovich, Nancy J. (2015). Converting STEM Doctoral Dissertations into Patent Applications: A Study of Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, and Chemical Engineering Dissertations from CIC Institutions. Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, 81 (Summer 2015). https://doi.org/10.5062/F4RV0KQ0
- The authors examined dissertations in chemical engineering, chemistry, physics, and mathematics to determine frequency of patents awarded to dissertation authors, and the relationship of dissertation publication date to patent award.
Ramirez, Marisa L.; McMillan, Gail; Dalton, Joan T.; Hanlon, Ann; Smith, Heather S.; and Kern, Chelsea. (2014). Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences?. College & Research Libraries, 75 (6), 808-821. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/leddylibrarypub/32
- The authors surveyed publishers to better document attitudes toward ETDs as prior publication, and the circumstances under which publishers might accept or reject a manuscript based on that criteria. This study focused on the sciences, and follows a similar study (2013) aimed at publishers in the social sciences and the humanities.
Ramirez, Marisa L.; Dalton, Joan T.; McMillan, Gail; Read, Max; and Seamans, Nan H.. (2013). Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities? Findings from a 2011 Survey of Academic Publishers. College & Research Libraries, 74 (4), 368-380.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/leddylibrarypub/24
- The authors surveyed publishers to better document attitudes toward ETDs as prior publication, and the circumstances under which publishers might accept or reject a manuscript based on that criteria. This study focused on the social sciences and the humanities.
McMillan, G., Ramirez, M.L., Dalton, J., Read, M., & Seamans, N.H. (2011). An investigation of ETDs as prior publications: Findings from the 2011 NDLTD Publishers’ Survey. Paper presented at the 14th International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations, Cape Town, South Africa. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/univ_lib_facpub/53/
- This paper includes findings from a 2011 investigation of publishers’ attitudes toward ETDs as prior publication. Joan Dalton and Nancy Seamans had conducted earlier surveys of editors and publishers, and in this paper updated those findings as ETDs became more prevalent. This paper was followed by two more rigorous surveys in 2013 and 2014, aimed specifically at disciplinary differences (see above).