ETDs at WVU

        West Virginia University has implemented a policy that all master's theses and doctoral dissertations are to be submitted electronically. This means that WVU no longer will accept paper copies of theses and dissertations. Electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) contribute to worldwide graduate education and unlock the under utilized results of graduate education for the scholarly community.

        The Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Initiative at WVU has several purposes, including helping students in their careers, helping other learners and researchers, and making available many scholarly works that are now inaccessible, such as theses that are only available through inter library loan. The main goals of the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Initiative are:

• for graduate students to learn about electronic publishing and digital libraries, applying that knowledge as they engage in their research and build and submit their own ETDs,

• for universities to learn about digital libraries, as they collect, catalog, archive, and make ETDs accessible to scholars worldwide,

• for universities to learn how to unlock the potential of their intellectual property and products,

• for graduate education to improve through more effective sharing, and

• for technology and knowledge sharing to speed up, as graduate research results become more readily and more completely available.

Policy on Electronic Theses and Dissertations

        At WVU, all dissertations written in partial fulfillment of the requirements for any doctorate degree conferred by the University, and all theses written in partial fulfillment of the requirements of any masters degree conferred by the University must ordinarily be filed electronically with the WVU Library system according to its procedures for such filing. Exceptions to filing electronically must be approved by the Office of the Provost. Copyright to electronic theses and dissertations is subject to the appropriate provisions of the WVU Copyright Policy.

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations

        West Virginia University is a charter member of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) in collaboration with other academic institutions. The NDLTD, originated at Virginia Tech, helps its member institutions share information in implementing ETD policies and ETD results. The NDLTD presently has a total of 215 members, consisting of 187 member universities (including 7 consortia) and 28 institutions. Information on the NDLTD is available at http://www.ndltd.org/.

Information on Electronic Theses and Dissertations

• General information on Electronic Theses and Dissertations at WVU and collection access is available on the web at http://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/.  
  
  
• ETD submission information and format guidance is offered by the University Libraries' Guide to the Preparation of Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.
  
  
• ETD technical assistance is offered by the Office of Information Technology and is available by email, appointment, or clinic and workshop attendance.

        Once a student has successfully defended the thesis or dissertation, they submit the ETD online. The ETD is submitted in the form of one or more computer files in Adobe Acrobat format. This file form retains all formatting information about a document, while providing an electronic structure which allows multi-media information to be viewed on any computer. The Acrobat format is generated by the program Adobe Distiller from a postscript file printed from the student's word processor.

        Once the ETD files are ready, they are submitted electronically through a web page that the student fills in with information on the thesis.

Availability of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

        ETDs at WVU are made accessible through the world wide web. All ETDs have an abstract available for worldwide access. Three levels of access to the body of ETDs are possible at WVU. The body of most ETDs are openly available for reading worldwide. Some theses are made readable only by computers at WVU, an option available to protect some copyright restrictions imposed by publishers. A few ETDs are restricted from viewing by anyone for a one year period in order to protect intellectual property rights.

        The world of scholarship depends on people making their research available to others. When that is done electronically, more people can get access at lower cost, and more knowledge transfer occurs. This can stimulate education and research. It also can ensure that people give credit to the student for their work, and that the research is cited in others' publications.

        Before theses and dissertations were available electronically, not many were read. Electronic access multiplies the number of times works are read by a factor of ten or more. Some ETDs have been accessed thousands of times

        With electronic theses and dissertations, students and universities can more easily share knowledge, with much lower costs. About 200,000 theses or dissertations are completed each year. It would greatly aid graduate education if as many as possible of these were made freely available.

For further information please feel free to contact us.

WVU ETD / Institutional Repository Task Force:

• Charles Baldwin, Department of English - Center for Literary Computing (Director)
   
• Sara Bishop, Office of Information Technology (Assistant Director, Information Systems)
  
  
• Harry Boone, Department of Resource Management (Professor)
   
• Jonathan Cumming, Office of Graduate Education (Assistant Vice President for Graduate Education)
   
• Daniel Ferreras, Department of Foreign Languages (Associate Professor)
  
  
• Kathy Fletcher, Office of Information Technology (Manager, Training and Publication Services - Technical Support Services)
   
• Keith Garbutt, WVU Honors College (Dean)
  
  
• John Hagen, Office of Academic Affairs & University Libraries (Manager, Institutional Repository Programs, ETD Task Force Chair & ETD Program Coordinator, Member of NDLTD Board of Directors)
   
• Monte Maxwell, University Libraries (Development Representative)
   
• Sohinee Roy, Department of English (Doctoral - Graduate Student)
  
  
• Frances Van Scoy, Department of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering (Professor) / WVU Center for Vision Enhancement Technology (Director)
   
• Carroll Wilkinson, University Libraries (Director, Information Literacy Programs)
  

Program Correspondence: John.Hagen@mail.wvu.edu
URL: http://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/