Early Results from the Council of Graduate Schools Study of the Bepress/UMI Online Submission Application ECURE March 2, 2005 Bill Savage UMI Dissertations Publishing

Publication Nearly 700 institutions submit theses and dissertations on a regular basis. Over 55,000 new dissertations and Masters theses submitted annually. 2 million citations in the Dissertation Abstracts database extending from 1861 to the present. Over 1.7 million titles available in full text.

The Changing Environment Over 80 institutions submit some or all of their dissertations and Masters theses in digital format through various delivery means. FTP, downloads, CD-ROM, attachments.

Why ETDs Professional Training Fluency in information technology is required for professional activity Scholarly Communication On-line submission and publication is becoming the norm across all disciplines

The Changing Environment UMI Dissertations Publishing began working with Berkeley Electronic Press in late 2003 to distribute a web- based application to facilitate submission and administration of ETDs. Submission software is made available to graduate schools or other appropriate entities at no charge.

The Changing Environment In 2003, the Council of Graduate Schools agreed to conduct a survey of students submitting manuscripts and of the administrators who control the sites.

The Questionnaire 17 total questions 10 questions used to rate the ETD submission process – Ratings from 1, Very Difficult, to 5, Very Easy 5 questions to solicit opinions on statements about the process – Opinions rated from 1, Strongly Agree, to 5, Strongly Disagree

The Questionnaire 2 open ended questions where authors could suggest steps to be added or deleted from the submission process and to provide additional comments

The Questionnaire The first survey of 410 subjects was conducted without institutional or discipline identifiers The second survey of 135 responses used institutional and discipline identifiers

Survey Results Preliminary results indicate that the online submission application provides authors with a simple, but effective, means of submitting electronic documents for publication. Interesting avenues for further research are also suggested.

Survey Results 1. Establishing a student account 77.8% rated it as very easy 2. Completing agreement form 87.4% rated it as somewhat to very easy 3.Completing contact information screens 88% rated it as somewhat to very easy 4.Completing submission screens 84% rated it as somewhat to very easy

Survey Results 5. Copying abstracts78% rated it somewhat to very easy 11.1% rated it somewhat to very difficult 6. Reformat to PDF53% rated it somewhat to very easy 13.7% rated it as somewhat to very difficult 7. Uploading ETDs Nearly 80% rated it as somewhat to very easy

Survey Results 8.Uploading Supplementary Files 74.7% registered no response Of the 25.3% who did respond, 62.8% rated the process as very easy 9.Reviewing Reformatted PDF Documents 37.4% registered no response. 48% rated the process somewhat to very easy 10. Correcting the Submission 58% registered no response. 25% found the process to be somewhat to very easy.

Survey Results 11. Clear & easy Grad School guidelines 70.4% agreed or strongly agreed that campus guidelines were easy to follow. 12. Quality of on-line technical help 41.8% provided no response. 33.5% agreed or strongly agreed that online help was sufficient. 12.5% neither agreed nor disagreed. 12% disagreed.

Survey Results 13.Communication with Grad School 49.8% agreed or strongly agreed that there was adequate communication. 21.2% expressed no opinion. 13.9% neither agreed nor disagreed. 9.5% disagreed. 5.6% strongly disagreed. 14. Distribution options met authors’ needs 45.6% expressed no opinion % agreed or strongly agreed. 4.6% disagreed.

Survey Results 15. Recommend to other students? 67.4% would recommend using the software to other students. 25.6% either registered no response or neither agreed nor disagreed. 2.1% disagreed. 4.4% strongly disagreed

Survey Results Recommendation of software to others by field: Business 88% Education 80% Engineering 81% Life Sciences 63% Physical Sciences 86% Social Sciences 62% Humanities 42%

Survey Results Ease of reformatting by field: Somewhat–Very Easy Neither - Nor Business % 0% Education % 15% Engineering % 5% Humanities % 25% Life Sciences % 5% Physical Sciences % 0% Social Sciences % 10%

Survey Results Ease of reformatting by field: Somewhat - Very Hard No Response Business % 0% Education 0 - 5% 15% Engineering 8 - 3% 32% Humanities % 8% Life Sciences % 11% Physical Sciences % 21% Social Sciences % 14%

Survey Results Questions about copyright and a general uncertainty about manuscript distribution. It appears that authors had a less than adequate understanding of their rights as authors or their responsibilities as researchers who use materials created by others. Obtaining permission to use previously copyrighted material was another area where students were unclear of their responsibilities.

Survey Results Difficulties of reformatting Particularly evident in Humanities students where 42% of Humanities students found reformatting very difficult while the majority of Business and Education students found it relatively easy.

Survey Results Difficulties of reformatting Questions concerning reviewing reformatted documents and correcting submissions garnered minimal responses from all authors. Were authors so unfamiliar with the submission software or with PDF that they were reluctant to review and correct their submissions?

Survey Results Inclusion of supplementary materials Almost 75% of authors who submitted manuscripts did not respond to the question. We assume that these authors did not submit additional electronic materials. We might then want to ask, when they began writing the dissertation, did those authors envision the document as a digital document with all its attendant functionality or as a simple paper document in digital form?

Survey Results Questions for further research: Is instruction in information technology part of professional training? Has the department or graduate school established formal standards of information technology fluency?

Online reformatting help provided through links: Native Formats to PDF DocMorph PDF Zone PS to PDF Babinszki Distiller Ghostscript PS2PDF PStill TeX/LaTeX to PDF LaTeX2PDF PDF-LaTeX GhostScript PDFTeX dvipdfm

Additional instruction to be provided through tutorials: Creating a PDF File Word PDF Maker Print to PDF Modify a PDF File Set Document Properties Page Numbering Insert/Delete Pages Rotate Pages PDF Navigation Add/Nest Bookmarks Add Page Link Edit a Link Add Multimedia Add Movie Clip Add Sound Clip

Contact Information Bill Savage UMI Dissertations Publishing ext. 3810