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| What is an eThesis? |
| An eThesis is a thesis in electronic format that is archived and organized into a digital library collection and made accessible electronically via networks such as INTERNET. eThesis may be a born digital one or digitized version of a born analog (print) thesis. eTheses are also known as Electronic Theses and Dissertations or ETDs or Digital Dissertations worldwide. |
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| Why eTheses? |
| Today all theses are created electronically but for want of a mechanism and a system are not archived and hence erased forever! What a terrible loss to scholarship! |
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| Why should a thesis be archived? |
| A thesis is a rich and unique scholarly work. It also embodies the intellectual labour of four long years (average) of research. It is a national resource. India on a rough estimate produces around 25,000 doctoral theses a year. The investment – on a conservative estimate, on doctoral research in India is 3000 crores. The outcome of this investment is to be archived for the present as well as future generations of scholarship. |
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| Why should a University be concerned? |
| Preserving your university’s doctoral research is one way of showcasing the research accomplishments. A digital archive of theses is a kind of academic history of your university. |
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| Do we have the mandate to archive eTheses? |
| Yes. |
| | | Endorsement by Government of India, National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development. IT Action plan III Content Development Policy- (item 81) states –“ It will be made mandatory for all the Universities in the country to host every dissertation/thesis submitted for research degrees on a designated website” |
| | | UNESCO Workshop on International Project of electronic dissemination of theses and dissertations, September 27-29,1999, http://www.unesco.org/webworld/etd) - resolution endorses the eTheses initiatives worldwide |
| | | “UNESCO International Guide for Electronic Theses and Dissertations” (http://etdguide.org) outlines the rationale for eTheses |
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| What about copyrights? |
| The copyrights of the theses rest with the authors (doctoral researchers). The philosophy of copyrights essentially centres on two aspects- promoting the progress of science and arts and securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and their discoveries. A sense of balance between protection of private interests and public interests is implicit in the copyright laws. This balance is achieved through the ‘exceptions to the copyright’ |
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| Exceptions to copyrights? |
| Copyright is not absolute. Exceptions that are relevant in the context of archiving theses are- |
| | | Archiving and copying: Libraries and archives are permitted to make up to three copies of unpublished copyrighted works for the purposes of preservation, security or for deposit for research use in another library or archive. |
| | | Fair use: Factors that govern fair use are: ‘Purpose and character’ of use. Non-profit educational use is ‘fair use’; The ‘Nature’ of the copyrighted works - distinction between fact-based works and fanciful works; and ‘Course of activities of educational institutions’ |
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| Will a university infringe on the copyright of authors if theses are archived? |
| No. A university can insist on an electronic version and archive the same without infringing on the copyrights of the authors, under the following principles - |
| | | Fair use exceptions (for research use, course of activities of educational institutions) |
| | | Compulsory licensing (if works are not made public- non exclusive assignment) |
| | | Supported by Public funds and hence public good concept |
| | | Public defense conventions and traditions |
| | | To further and advance scholarship |
| | | Collaborative nature of the doctoral research |
| | | Academic research is ‘fact based’ and not fanciful. |
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| What about plagiarism? |
| Open access to eTheses effectively curbs / deters plagiarism. Furthermore, software are available for detection. |
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| What is a digital library of eTheses? |
| Maintaining a copy of the Electronic version of a thesis does not automatically result in an archive of (or digital library) of eTheses. A digital library is a collection of digital content and builds organization and services around the digital collection. A digital library of eTheses is an infrastructure and a facility for creating, archiving, storing, accessing and disseminating eTheses. |
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| What is the international scenario? |
| Worldwide, eTheses or ETD initiatives are becoming major steps towards strengthening and augmenting higher education and academic research. Some notable ETD initiatives are: |
| | | Australia : Australian Digital Theses Project |
| | | ( http:adt.caul.edu.au) |
| | | Canada : Canadian Theses Project |
| | | ( http://www.nlc.ca) |
| | | France : University Lumiere 2 Digital theses Project |
| | | ( http://www.uni-lyon2.fr) |
| | | Germany : Die Deutsche Bibliothek (The National Library of Germany http://www.dissonline.de) |
| | | USA: Virginia Tech |
| | | ( http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses) |
| | | California Institute of Technology |
| | | ( http://library.caltech.edu/etd) |
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| What is an e-Scholarship portal? |
| A portal is an online gateway for accessing information. E-Scholarship portal is a gateway to scholarly information and facilities. It offers a variety of tools, such as search engines, topic ontologies and others. |
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| What is e-Scholarship? |
| Today the world of scholarship has undergone dramatic changes brought about by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). ICTs have produced new and exciting opportunities for the creation, accessing, and delivery of information. Our future generation of scholars need to be prepared for the eScholarship paradigm. |
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| What are style sheets and templates? |
| Style sheets help content structuring. They also act as silent cues to the writer to fill in the appropriate content- may be such a simple thing as a Table of Contents, or a list of tables, or a list of appendices. They help standardize the look and feel of theses both in terms of formatting as well as constituent parts. Such a practice also helps data capturing and metadata creation. |
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| What are citing styles and Reference Management software? |
| Bibliographies and references that are part of any scholarly writing are to be given in a standard format. The format of citing a reference is known as citing styles. Most scholars collect references as they go along in their research work. The processes of collecting references, building a database of these references, managing such a database have been made simple by the availability of Reference Management software. There are many software that are available in the market today. Some examples are Endnotes, Procite, Refworks etc. |
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| What is Vidyanidhi? |
| Vidyanidhi understands the importance of archiving doctoral dissertations and is an initiative to advocate, promote and facilitate the archiving of theses. Vidyanidhi is an Indian initiative to archive and provide access to theses submitted to Indian universities. It is a Digital Library, accessible via networks. It is a portal that facilitates doctoral students with tools, resources and software for the production of theses. It is a national repository for eTheses. It is a consortium of universities and academic institutions for archiving eTheses |
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| What does Vidyanidhi do? |
| Vidyanidhi partners with universities, faculty, and researchers to |
| | | build a national repository of eTheses |
| | | develop an Indian theses database |
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| What are the services that Vidyanidhi offers? |
| | | Digitization of the theses collection of the participating universities |
| | | Building a database of the theses collection of participating universities |
| | | Install depositing software for online submission of theses |
| | | RefWorks- a Reference Manager software for managing references/bibliographies- making it easy to build bibliographic database |
| | | Templates and style sheets for creating theses in a standard format |
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| What types of access options may be made available? |
| Vidyanidhi is only a digital archive. It honours the wishes and rights of the creators of theses. Access to theses is as per the restrictions desired by the copyright holders. Following flexible options are available |
| | | View only (No downloads). |
| | | Preview Table of Contents /24 page only |
| | | Pay and download ( the royalties to be shared by Vidyanidhi and the participating university) |
| | | Free download |
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| | | Worldwide distribution |
| | | Vidyanidhi Consortium only option |
| | | My University only option |
| | | Restricted Access |
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| Why should I join Vidyanidhi? |
| | | By joining Vidyanidhi universities /researchers will be part of an emerging eTheses movement in India |
| | | Catalogue of your university theses collection will be integrated with the Vidyanidhi theses database |
| | | Your doctoral research works will reach a global audience and have higher visibility |
| | | Increased access will enhance readership, thus increasing the citations received and better visibility to the doctoral researchers |
| | | Open Access Publishing - eTheses is a part and the first step, will usher in better quality control |
| | | Vidyanidhi tools and services are a boon to the academic community. |
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