From: Wilhelmina Randtke <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 23:01:42 -0500

Publishers, does the availability of the dissertation affect whether
or not there's a market for the book?

-Wilhelmina Randtke

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 9:21 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> From: Sean Andrews <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:12:59 -0500
>
> I agree that education on these matters is valuable - and would be
> interested to hear from publishers if having a digital version of the
> dissertation somehow affects the market for the book.  But otherwise,
> this seems to be a non-issue, at least in terms of the legal concerns.
>  If this person doesn't want his dissertation sold through third party
> retailers, he can write ProQuest and they will remove it.
>
> http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/tpd_retailers.shtml
>
> If it is on Barnes and Noble illegally, he can contact them with a
> DMCA takedown notice:
>
> http://www.barnesandnoble.com/include/terms_of_use.asp
>
> Of course, if a digital edition exists in the ProQuest database, then
> it might be easier to redistribute it illegally (I found my 2009
> dissertation through some illegal seller a few months ago - can't find
> the link now.) But this has nothing to do the legal code: just the
> software code.
>
> And the only other option is to (attempt to) prevent it from being
> digitally distributed at all.  Since there are likely some legitimate
> publishers out there - and certainly many researchers - who read
> through dissertations to find possible books (maybe even more now that
> they publish fewer books and want to be discerning) it seems
> counterproductive to act like we live in a print only world.  As many
> authors of works supposedly available only in print, who can likely
> find scanned pdfs of their work relatively easily online, this is head
> in the sand behavior.  Piracy may be a problem, but if demand exists,
> there is little you can do to absolutely prevent the illicit
> distribution of your dissertation - except perhaps convince a major UP
> to print it, based on the obvious interest shown in the rough cut:
> then you'll have their legal department's muscle.  Or might.
>
> I'd also point out that, for me, even though I was interested in
> digital distribution anyway (my dissertation being about IPR), the
> economics of the digital deposit for ProQuest were pretty compelling.
> If I had gone the "traditional" route, I would have to supply both my
> library AND ProQuest with a copy of the dissertation (all 450+ pages)
> on that fancy cotton paper. I don't remember the exact price, but I
> think it would have been an extra $100 or so to file in the
> "traditional" option. As it was, I sent ProQuest a CD-rom with the
> file.  Now they have an FTP site set up to upload it directly.  This
> makes the most sense anyway as their website says the only thing they
> do with the print copy is scan it in order to upload it.
>
> On the flip side, I have read through several very interesting
> dissertations complements of the ProQuest arrangement.  Most of these
> will likely not end up as books - or at least they haven't in the last
> 4-5 years.  For instance, though he has a PhD in economics from
> University of Illinois, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has never
> published a book on his theories or perspectives on economics.  But
> you can find a deposit of his dissertation on the topic in the UMI
> database.
>
> Likewise, and more topically, Sharon Farb has an excellent First
> Monday piece on library stewardship and the licensing of electronic
> resources.
>
> http://www.firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArticle/1364/1283
>
> It is based on a much longer dissertation writeup of her surveys of
> librarians. Since she's not published the latter in a book form, the
> best way to see the more extensive study is via the ProQuest/UMI
> database.  I suppose there might be IR versions, and they might even
> have it on a website somewhere, but this particular database is a
> good, general discovery window (and one that, as far as I can tell, is
> only accessible via an institutional subscription.)
>
> The alternative is that these aren't even filed with UMI, which would
> make it impossible to have the post-publication peer review that is
> central to scholarly communication. I have encountered several such
> cases - especially among older scholars in my field who claim that it
> is too embarrassing to have their dissertation available for all to
> read - even through the old, onerous process Dr. O'Donnell discusses.
>  I have my own opinions on this matter, I'll leave it for others to
> decide whether this is a legitimate claim - or if it should make them
> immune from the evolving scholarly conversation in which they claim to
> otherwise participate.
>
> It's a brave new world, but this particular issue seems the least of
> our worries.
>
> Sean Andrews
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 10:20 PM, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > From: Jim O'Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
> > Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 20:10:26 -0700
> >
> > A Cautionary Tale"
> >
> > http://chronicle.com/article/Dissertation-for-Sale-A/132401/
> >
> > This article from CHE reports a recent Ph.D.'s startled experience
> of finding that because he checked a box without thinking on the
> form with which he deposited his dissertation with ProQuest, his
> > dissertation was now available for sale for $32 on the Nook reader.
> > He objects, I think rightly, and I hope he can reverse the
> > box-checking.
> >
> > But what has changed is interesting.  It was always possible to
> obtain some or all of most dissertations by writing away to Ann
> Arbor.  But the process was cumbersome.  Intellectual access
> to the existence of a dissertation came through the indices to
> the bound volumes of *Dissertation Abstracts*; ordering the product
> was done by hand and surface post; and the product was at best
> a grainy print from a microfilm of a typescript.  Few bothered.
> >
> > Now it is a matter of femtoseconds for the metadata about the
> > dissertation to be searched by robots; a few more femtoseconds to
> > create the availability in a given format; and the product available
> > is searchable, handsome, and easily gotten.  It's all gotten easier.
> >
> > And of course the original notion of a dissertation was that it was a
> > published work of scholarship; the deposit of dissertation was
> > technically "publication" (microfilm at Ann Arbor replaced the old
> > practice of the privately printed dissertation paid for by the
> > candidate), but I dare say few if any dissertation-submitters today
> > think of the deposit as publication in any meaningful sense.  What
> to do? At a minimum, candidates could use better information about
> their options and the consequences of their options.
> >
> > Jim O'Donnell
> > Georgetown University