Kimberly Douglas

To Restrict or Not to Restrict Access: The PhD Candidate's Intellectual Property Dilemma

The NDLTD software allows submitting PhD candidates to restrict or withhold access to their thesis or portions of their theses. At the same time there is increasing agitation within the research and library communities that research results be made openly available. At Caltech in the U.S. a study was undertaken to examine the motivations and impact that the decision to restrict or withhold had for the first submitters, the group of PhD candidates who, in 2001/2002, voluntarily added their theses to the newly created Caltech ETD repository.

Aerosol Science and Technology: A professional society-library-publisher partnership in open access

Like many professional societies, the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR) serves its community by publishing a journal that provides a forum for researchers in the field to share the results of their research. Through peer review, journals like Aerosol Science and Technology, which is published by Taylor & Francis for the American Association of Aerosol Research, vet papers, certifying both the quality of the science and the exposition of the manuscript. Both the editors who manage the process and the reviewers who provide their expert opinions voluntarily invest their efforts to ensure that only quality research appears within the pages of society journals. Commercial publishers who produce printed and electronic versions of the papers contained within the pages of the journal, on the other hand, run businesses that must return a profit to their shareholders.

Taking the Plunge: Requiring the ETD

It made sense for Caltech, the California Institute of Technology (a private, technically focused, U.S. university, http://www.caltech.edu), to go electronic when it comes to theses. It took, however, more than three years: From March 1999 when Prof. Ed Fox of the Virginia Technical University spoke at Caltech to July 2002 when ETDs became required for all PhD candidates. How was it done and what are the lessons learned?