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