UW examines paperless theses

Are we about to enter the era of the paperless thesis at UW–Madison?

Graduate School Dean Virginia Hinshaw recently appointed a committee of faculty and staff to investigate that question, chaired by John Bennet, professor of classics. Its charge: Investigate whether UW–Madison should join the effort to develop the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.

Students may realize certain advantages by depositing their dissertations electronically, says Bennet:

• a thesis accessible over the internet is more likely to be used than a paper sitting in a library;
• electronic theses can include enhancements such as sound or video clips and live hyperlinks to other sites;
• preparing an electronic dissertation can develop valuable skills for the increasingly electronic environment of education and research.

On the other hand, some journals have taken the stance that placing something on the Web is a form of prior publication. Under current rules, it is permissible to delay thesis publication (paper or electronic) no more than one year to protect patent applications.

“For many dissertations,” says Bennet, “creating an electronic version is as simple as filtering with an application that produces a suitable Internet format, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) or Adobe’s Portable Document Format (PDF). In any event, determining thesis content will remain in the hands of students and their dissertation committees.”

You can give Bennet’s committee feedback on the idea of electronic theses via the Web.