1. Tracking the Elusive PhD Thesis Peggi Kamisato, W. M
Tracking the Elusive PhD Thesis Peggi Kamisato, W.M. Keck Observatory, Xiaoyu Zhang, Gemini Observatory,
Abstract
In addition to tracking the refereed publications, institutions are increasingly tasked with providing evidence of the educational impact. To accommodate this requirement from funding agencies, Gemini and Keck observatories have independently tracked PhD theses that are based on the respective observatory data. Commercial subscription services for dissertations are costly and usually geographically centric. University repositories of accessible theses are increasing but not universal. In this poster we share our methods and challenges in finding the observatory dissertations.
Challenges
Theses
We combined the Keck and Gemini theses entries for a simple look at possible trends regarding open access availability. For the time frame , Keck and Gemini have a combined total of 530 dissertations. Thirty-seven dissertations contained data obtained at both Keck and Gemini. We counted these once, resulting in a total of 493 theses.
PhD theses/dissertations differ from refereed articles. Simply stated, theses are more difficult to find. The sources for theses seem boundless ̶ there many more universities granting PhDs than the number of astronomy journals . That means more sources to search. ADS is the first choice for a comprehensive literature search, but ADS does not cover theses to the same level found for journal articles and conference proceedings.
Not every university provides a public repository of theses or has a repository that is full-text searchable. Additionally, a fair number of theses are written in foreign languages or by students from institutions that are not formally affiliated with the observatories.
Open access
Non-open access
ADS bibcode
No ADS bibcode
Island of Oahu, home to Honolulu and Pearl Harbor
Search Strategy
SAO/NASA ADS
Free, astronomy specific
Observatory user communities
Check repositories of partner organizations
Send annual to PIs
Enlist assistance of directorate
University repositories
Number of repositories growing
Search options vary among institutions
Open access repository portals
arXiv -
OATD -
BASE -
EThOS -
Trove -
PQDT Open -
Commercial indexes
Costly subscription rates
Incomplete coverage
Our method for discovering PhD thesis
Island of Hawaii,
site of Gemini and Keck observatories
As observatory librarians
we are asked to collect productivity metrics for our respective institutions. Refereed articles and PhD theses are the primary measures.
68% of this theses collection is indexed in the ADS collection.
Only 42% of this same collection enjoys open access.
Open Access and ADS availability by publication year
Submission of PhD abstracts to ADS lag by several years. We don’t believe ADS rates are dropping as the graph would seem to indicate.
W.M. Keck Observatory has two telescopes on Mauna Kea, Island of Hawaii, USA. The founding institutions are University of California and California Institute of Technology. The University of Hawaii, NASA, University of Swinburne, Yale University and Australian National University also have access to telescope time.
Gemini Observatory has two telescopes, one on Mauna Kea, Hawaii and the second on Cerro Pachon, Chile. Gemini is operated by a consortium of Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Canada and United States. Australia and South Korea, as limited-term collaborators, as well as University of Hawaii also have access to telescope time.
Keck & Gemini
Conclusions
Open access to dissertations is gaining popularity.
As a community, librarians should encourage PhDs to submit their work (at minimum an abstract) to the ADS/Zenodo Astronomy Thesis Collection.
Open access repository portals are the best place to locate theses so far. They provide a single search engine across a number of institution repositories and are usually full-text searchable.
Acknowledgements
W.M. Keck Observatory, is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck Foundation.
The Gemini Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil) and Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina).
Gemini Observatory forefront at sunset
Keck Observatory forefront at sunrise