INTRODUCTION

An ETD is an electronic document explaining the research of a graduate student.  Ideally these documents are submitted electronically, are searchable, and freely available over the Internet.  In the fall of 2001, the University of New Brunswick and the UNB Graduate Student Association (GSA) began an investigation of the issues surrounding ETDs.  In addition to a literature review, the research included consultation with UNB stakeholders, several case studies and hands on testing through an ETD pilot program.

Once completed this research will inform UNB’s decision on whether and how to adopt an ETD program.  The goals of an ETD program can include improved accessibility to theses and dissertations, public access, and empowering students to use hypertext and multimedia technologies as part of their work.  Another benefit cited in ETD literature is the development of the practical skills required by students for electronic submission to journals.  These are acquired when students go through a similar process at their own institution.   For institutions that do not require paper in addition to electronic submission, costs may also be reduced.  

This paper briefly reviews UNB’s research and the emerging models UNB may adopt if an ETD program moves into production.

THE ISSUES

Institutions must address a number of issues before adopting an ETD program: the most important revolve around resources, publication, and copyright.  Formats for ETD submission, dissemination and archiving must be decided. Workload shifts or increases must be determined and funding obtained to support them.  Finally, where local ETD initiatives fit into national and international strategies should be addressed as well as the role universities play in these strategies.

Copyright and Publication Issues

Universities must determine how to deal with copyright and publication concerns.  Questions such as when should a thesis be released and to whom?  How should copyright be handled?  If a thesis is distributed on the web and then the author wishes to publish a related paper in a journal, will the journal consider the material already published?  Will dissemination on the web increase the incidences of plagiarism?

UNB’s Emerging Direction in Copyright and Publication Issues

Paper copies of thesis and dissertations will continue to be submitted to the UNB library as well as to the National Library of Canada applying the copyright procedures currently in place.  Access to electronic theses stored at UNB will be controlled by the library based on information provided by the student at the time of submission.  Four access levels are to be available.  These are: unrestricted availability to the world, available only to the university community, no access (limited time) and mixed access.  Mixed access means that access control may be applied to individual thesis chapters. 

Table 1 summarizes the ETD access levels of Virginia Tech, and the University of Waterloo

Case Study University	Levels of ETD Access and Special Copyright Requirements
	4 Levels of access    unrestricted world    unrestricted university,    no access (limited time)    mixed access
	Special signoff for electronic publication World wide distribution only

1.2     Submission, Distribution, and Archiving Formats

Submission, distribution, and archiving formats must be determined.  Should the student be able to submit in any electronic format?  How will a submission format affect the work an institution must do to get the document ready for electronic distribution and archiving?  If submission formats are to be limited, what should they be limited to?  How can data integrity be maintained when converting documents from a word processing format to another format such as PDF?  Is providing templates in popular word processing formats an effective workflow in publishing, distributing and archiving files?  Should submission, publication and archive formats be the same, or can they be different?  For distribution, what formats are most accessible to an online researcher?  For archive purposes, proprietary formats such as PDF files may be easy to use, but may be inaccessible in a few years.  Other formats, such as XML may be good from a longevity point of view, but might be more difficult to implement. Also, at the time of writing, an XML DTD or schema for ETDs has not yet been agreed upon in the ETD community. Finally, should both paper and electronic versions of the work be archived?

UNB’s Emerging Direction in  Submission, Distribution and Archiving Formats

UNB will accept multiple submissions formats.  However UNB’s ETD pilot will concentrate on submission of works in XML through conversion from MS Word using Word templates.  It is believed that the bulk of theses and dissertations will be submitted using this method.  A suitable product to perform this conversion is a challenge.  Commercial products tend to have much more capabilities than required for the scope of the conversion and UNB does not have the required funding to purchase one.  Some shareware products, although limited, may be able to be modified to accommodate thesis requirements.  The Electronic Text Centre at UNB is currently partnering with the Université de Montréal's érudit team and will no doubt adopt their processes in the near future.   Part of the érudit team’s work is to develop software to directly convert MS Word documents, using templates, to XML.  UNB may also partner with érudit to develop a suitable XML schema for ETDs.  UNB will continue to require students to submit their theses and dissertations in paper format.

ETDs will be distributed from UNB via the WWW in XML and PDF formats.  In addition the current method of distribution by the National Library of Canada (NLC) through UMI and the NLC’s own catalogs. Some exceptions may apply. 

The National Library of Canada will continue to archive UNB theses through UMI and its own catalogs.  During the course of its research, it was learned that the National Library had been exploring a national XML ETD initiative based on a model developed by the Université de Montréal.  This document and the recommendations it outlined, including a national adoption of XML as an archiving format, has not moved to publication as far as the authors are aware. With the recent signing of its’ contract with UMI, the National Library simply states that it supports the electronic submission of theses and dissertations. It is therefore left to individual institutions to decide on the format(s) it chooses to use.

Table 2 summarizes the implementation of  submission, distribution, archiving formats of Virginia Tech, University of Waterloo and the Université de Montréal.

Case Study University	Submission, Distribution, Archiving Formats
	Submission – 99.9% PDF, minimal XML or LaTeX Distribution/Archiving – PDF No paper copies
	Submission – postscript Publication  – PDF Archives – postscript, metadata in XML Optional paper or ETD (about 10% ETD)
	Submission – Word/WordPerfect w/template Distribution/Archiving – XML, PDF, HTML Archive – XML

 Workload and Cost Implications

What are the workload and cost implications of running an ETD program?  How will the electronic thesis be processed?  How will it be sent to the National Library?  Should the local library try to digitize old theses?  Who should verify ETDs: the student, graduate school, the local library?  Will the initiative require more staff or less staff? Should ETDs be maintained as a separate database or or integrated into regular library collections?  Will the program require additional software or training for the student?

UNB Workload and Cost Implications

Workload and on-going cost implications for an ETD program will become clearer as the pilot progresses.  It is worth noting that every group consulted with at UNB had reservations on removing the requirement for paper copies of theses.  If UNB requires students to produce both electronic and paper copies, it will require increases in the workload of students producing the thesis, as well as staff processing the finished product.

Table 3 summarizes the workload and cost implications of ETD programs at  Virginia Tech, University of Waterloo and the Université de Montréal.

Case Study University	Workload and Cost Implications
	Resources allocated from paper to electronic workflow Slightly lower cost Student training provided
	Student creates postscript file Grad School creates PDF Some student training provided Not paper photocopies if ETD (cost saving) No additional funding
	Pilot – 6 FTE staff  (analyst, technical, others) Student training provided Savings – UMB commercial service Cost and staffing still in transition

 Institutional, National, International Responsibilities

Who should be setting the standards?  Should each institution be making its own decisions, or should a national or international body be determining standards and identifying best practices in all or some workflow elements?

UNB’s ETD Institutional, National, International Responsibilities

UNB continues to be a participant in the National Library’s Canadian (NLC) Theses Service including the latter’s services with UMI. While the NLC supports Canadian universities in their setup of electronic submission processes, it has not yet set a national standard of best practices.

 At present the ETD pilot is using the NDLTD developed open source ETD database. 

CONCLUSION

The improving technology of the Internet and the desire for rapid access to information is driving universities, students and providers of access to graduate student research to meet the demand for electronic access to theses and dissertations.  As more universities begin ETD programs, national standards will need to be identified.  Meanwhile the gap is filled by initiatives such as the Networked Library of Digital Theses and Dissertations (NLDTD) [2] that has taken the lead by providing information, a forum for discussion, as well as software that when installed, allows a free, central, seamless access point to digital collections residing at participating universities.  The ETD committee hopes that its’ own pilot program, and participation in national and international initiatives, will provide the basis for adopting an ETD service that meets the needs of researchers, students, faculty and administration.

REFERENCES

Moxley, Joseph M.   “Universities Should Require Electronic Theses and Dissertations” Educause Quarterly, Number 3, 2001.

National Digital Library of Thesis and Dissertations Web Site.  http://www.ndltd.org/.

National Library of Canada Theses Services.  http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/thesescanada/index-e.html

NDLTD Steps to Initiate and ETD on your Campus.  http://www.ndltd.org/join/steps.htm.

ProQuest Digital Dissertations Web Site.  http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/about_pqdd.

Soete, George J.  “Issues and Innovations in Electronic Theses and Dissertations” Association of Research libraries, Office of Leadership and Management Services, Washington DC, c1998.

UNB ETD Web Site. http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/etd.

UMI Submitting your Dissertation or Master’s Theses in Electronic Format.  http://tls.il.proquest.com/hp/Support/DServices/prepare/submit.htm

UNESCO Guide to Electronic Theses and Dissertations. http://etdguide.org/

Université de Montréal  Érudit Web Site. http://www.erudit.org/

Université de Montréal ETD Web Site.  http://www.theses.umontreal.ca.

Virginia Tech ETD Web Site.  http://etd.vt.edu/.