Electronic dissertation

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The term electronic dissertation describes the publication of a thesis to obtain a doctorate via an electronic medium. This is why one also speaks of an online dissertation . The work is not printed as usual, but stored in a database. The procedures for this are not yet standardized, either nationally or internationally.

The variant of electronic publication of a dissertation comes from the USA. This option has been known here since 1987. Online publication has been possible in Germany since 1996 and in Switzerland since 2000.

advantages

The doctoral student saves considerable printing costs with electronic publication (however, individual universities still require a few printed copies), and electronic publication is much faster than conventional. Now that publications are created on the computer anyway (i.e. already available as a file), the additional effort is minimal. In principle, an electronic form enables the integration of further media (e.g. audio and video files). Electronically available texts are much easier to find, index, retrieve and process compared to paper texts.

Technical aspects

An essential aspect of electronic publications is the file format . In the past, the Microsoft Word program was often used because files of different versions were incompatible with one another. This is why the platform and version-independent PDF format ( Postscript ) is mainly used today .

Libraries

"The advancing development of electronic publishing inevitably affects the organization of libraries, their tasks, structures and functions".

With the increasing spread of electronic forms of publication, the effort for paper processing in the libraries decreases (e.g. storage space, shipping costs for interlibrary loan, copy), but this is offset by a certain additional effort for the management of electronic publications (corresponding computer systems plus staff).

But there are also certain fundamental difficulties. Changes to the text of the dissertation as an "electronic new edition" cannot be made available as a new edition as before.

The archiving of electronic documents has not yet been solved either.

Electronic publications mainly have an impact on the traditional information chain: While professional associations and book retailers have only rarely been involved in dissertations up to now, publishers (especially scientific publishers ) and the printing industry are now excluded from electronic publications .

Electronic dissertations are especially widespread in technical and natural science subjects. Electronic data processing was developed by these sciences and was the first to be applied, and multimedia representations of these subjects are also incorporated into the work, which is only possible with an electronic form of publication.

Databases at national and international level

The German National Library (DNB) operates a corresponding database under the name DissOnline , in which electronic dissertations and post-doctoral theses have been collected since 1998. However, not all electronic dissertations are available in full there. However, you will find at least one summary and a reference to the full text.

For some years now, databases have also been created at international level in which all electronically published dissertations are listed (e.g. UNESCO Clearing House on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD)) or at European level in the Dart-Europe project , an association of More than five hundred European universities from 28 nations. (As of January 2015) In the USA, the Library of Congress declared the collection of digital dissertations of the ProQuest company to be the official LoC depot in 1999 .

See also

Reading list

  • Rafael Ball: Science and Libraries. Active engagement in the context of electronic publishing. In: Beate Tröger: Wissenschaft Online (= magazine for libraries and bibliography , special issue 80), Vittorio Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 2000, pp. 21–36. ISBN 3-465-03081-8 .
  • Eileen Degenhardt: Electronic dissertations in libraries. Diplomica Verlag , Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8324-2010-X (Diploma thesis FH Hannover 1997, 91 pages).
  • Kai U. Jürgens: How do I publish my doctoral thesis? The safe way to your own book. (= Practice + Success. Volume 4), Verlag Ludwig, Kiel 2007, ISBN 978-3-937719-28-3 .
  • Regine Schmolling: Paradigm Shift in Scientific Libraries? Attempt to determine your position . In: Library Service . 35th year, issue 9, 2001, pp. 1037-1060.
  • The German Library: largest collection of online dissertations in Europe. In: Library Service. 38th volume, issue 6, 2004, pp. 812–813.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eileen Degenhardt: Electronic dissertations in libraries. Diplomica, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-8324-2010-X , p. 64.
  2. ^ Regine Schmolling: Paradigm Shift in Academic Libraries? Attempt to determine your position. In: Library Service. 35th vol., H. 9, 2001, p. 1048.
  3. ^ Regine Schmolling: Paradigm Shift in Academic Libraries? Attempt to determine your position. In: Library Service. 35th vol., H. 9, 2001, p. 1045.
  4. ^ Regine Schmolling: Paradigm Shift in Academic Libraries? Attempt to determine your position. In: Library Service. 35th vol., H. 9, 2001, p. 1047.
  5. ^ The German Library: largest collection of online dissertations in Europe. In: Library Service. 38th vol., No. 6, 2004, p. 812.
  6. ↑ Pages by the author, Eileen Degenhardt-Witte , on the subject of “eDiss” in the Göttingen University Library Contact