Call for Proposals 2013 TxETDA/USETDA Region 3 Joint Conference

The TxETDA/USETDA Region 3 Conference Planning Committee invites proposals for oral presentations and posters to be exhibited during the Texas ETD Association/USETDA Region 3 Joint Conference, which will be held at Texas A&M University on Thursday, February 28 and Friday, March 1, 2013.

USETDA Region 3 members are especially invited to attend this conference, but all of those with an interest in ETDs, regardless of location are welcome to attend.  USETDA Region 3 includes the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming..

We encourage proposals for oral presentations and posters relating to the following program theme: “Pioneering Partnerships”. Note: Strictly commercial presentations and posters will not be accepted.

Please submit a 200-300 word abstract that includes the following information:

• Title of poster or oral presentation
• Author(s), including institutional or corporate identity and email address
• Summaryof content to be included in poster or presentation
  • Well written, clear, logical, and well organized
  • Original, timely, and relevant to the ETD field
  • Contribute to the advancement of ETDs
  • Develop ideas, offer conclusions, and provide useful and practical findings
  • Provide a good visual description of the project (for posters only)

Poster and presentation proposals will be reviewed and selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• Relevance to the focus of the conference
• Significance of content
• Helpfulness/interest to conference attendees

Oral Presentation Details:

Oral presenters should plan for a 45 minute presentation with at least 15 minutes for questions and answers. Exact session times will be assigned following review and acceptance.

DEADLINE FOR ORAL PRESENTATION ENTRIES: Wednesday, January 9, 2013. Review of submissions will begin immediately.  Entrants will be notified of their acceptance or denial no later than: Wednesday, January 16, 2013.

Poster Details:

Posters will be displayed on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. All poster presenters must be present at the poster session to answer questions.

Posters size information will be forthcoming. Easels may be available at the conference site upon advanced request; however the TxETDA will be unable to provide power for multimedia displays.

DEADLINE FOR POSTER ENTRIES: Tuesday, January 22, 2013. Review of submissions will begin immediately.  Entrants will be notified of their acceptance or denial  no later than: Friday, February 1, 2013.

Oral presentation and poster entry information should be submitted via e-mail to: Billie Peterson-Lugo (billie_peterson@baylor.edu). Be sure to include your name, institution, e-mail address, proposal title, and abstract.

 

ProQuest and CALIS Unlock Global Access to Chinese Dissertations

English-language metadata and abstracts of 400,000 works will be added to ProQuest® Dissertation and Theses database (PQDT)

http://www.proquest.com/en-US/aboutus/pressroom/12/20120622a.shtml

TxETDA Issues Call for Posters and Presentations at TxETDA 2012

The TxETDA Conference Planning Committee invites proposals for oral presentations and posters to be exhibited during the TxETDA conference, which will be held at the University of North Texas on Thursday, February 23 and Friday, February 24, 2012.

Posters will be displayed in the conference presentation room on Thursday afternoon and evening, and Friday morning. All poster presenters must be present at the poster session to answer questions.

We encourage proposals for oral presentations and posters relating to the following program theme: “Beyond Boundaries:  Extending the Reach of Research.”  Note: Strictly commercial presentations and posters will not be accepted.

Please submit a 200-300 word abstract that includes the following information:

• Title of poster or oral presentation
• Author(s), including institutional or corporate identity and email address
• Summaryof content to be included in poster or presentation
  • Well written, clear, logical and well organized
  • Original, timely and relevant to the ETD field
  • Contribute to the advancement ETDs
  • Develop ideas, offer conclusions, and provide useful and practical findings
  • Provide a good visual description of the project (for posters only)

Poster and presentation proposals will be reviewed and selected on the basis of the following criteria:

• Relevance to the focus of the conference
• Significance of content
• Helpfulness/interest to conference attendees

Poster Details:

Posters should be 3′ X 4′in size. Easels may be available at the conference site upon advanced request; however the TxETDA will be unable to provide power for multimedia displays.

DEADLINE FOR POSTER ENTRIES: Tuesday, January 17, 2012. Review of submissions will begin immediately.  Entrants will be notified of their acceptance or denial  no later than: Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

Poster entry information should be submitted via e-mail to: Billie Peterson-Lugo (billie_peterson@baylor.edu). Be sure to include your name, institution, e-mail address, and poster title.

Oral Presentation Details:

Oral presenters should plan for a 45 minute presentation with at least 15 minutes for questions and answers. Exact session times will be assigned following review and acceptance.

DEADLINE FOR ORAL PRESENTATION ENTRIES: Tuesday, January 6, 2012. Review of submissions will begin immediately.  Entrants will be notified of their acceptance or denial no later than: Wednesday, January 25, 2012.

Oral Presentation entry information should be submitted via e-mail to: Ginger Dickens (dickens@uta.edu). Be sure to include your name, institution, e-mail address, and presentation title.

Top 100 WVU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Accessed in 2010

In their article from March 23, 2011, West Virginia University writes about the popularity of their students’ ETDs and how “Many students who provide open access to their research experience increased citation impact factors between two and five times greater than students who initially restrict access.”

http://thesis.wvu.edu/etd_news/2011/3/23/top-100-wvu-electronic-theses-and-dissertations-accessed-in-2010

TxETDA Conference to be rescheduled

Due to inclement weather conditions, the TxETDA 2011 Conference Program Committee made the decision today to reschedule its annual conference, which was scheduled to take place on February 10 at the University of Texas Arlington. The committee will work as quickly as possible to find an alternative date so that participants can plan appropriately. It was a difficult decision to make, but the planning committee all felt that safety was the foremost consideration. We hope to see you all in the very near future, and will make our best to attempt to keep you apprised as information becomes available regarding the rescheduled event.

Growing Concern Over Digital Thesis Deposit

Inside Higher Ed just released an article addressing the debate regarding creative writing ETDs and university requirements for electronic deposit. Given the ongoing interest in this topic amongst the ETD community, this is one article you will want to read. The article includes responses and practices from several well known institutions within the US, including UT Austin. A brief summary notes,

Concern is developing over how theses and dissertations in creative writing programs get deposited in order to satisfy graduation requirements. Institutions have begun electronically archiving creative final projects, along with scholarly ones, which could make them available online with varying degrees of access.

Some writers and poets fear those manuscripts may never become books.

University in Singapore publishes with ProQuest

ANN ARBOR, Mich., August 11, 2010 – Singapore Management University, through a joint project with its Office of Research and its Li Ka Shing Library, joins the ranks of research institutions worldwide who contribute to ProQuest’s acclaimed Dissertations and Theses database. With the addition of Singapore Management University’s intellectual output, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, the world’s largest commercially available repository of graduate works, will expand its global reach into Singapore.

Singapore Management University is the first university in Singapore to publish with ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. This is part of a larger movement of international universities that are raising their global profiles by making their graduate works accessible through ProQuest’s service.  Most exciting is the decision to use ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Open, which provides the full text of dissertations and theses to users free of charge. The University supports open access of theses and dissertations and makes its graduate research available for free on the open Web.

“This is an exciting step as we welcome our first publishing partner from Singapore,” said Austin McLean, ProQuest’s Director of Dissertations Publishing. “We’re confident this will enhance ProQuest Dissertations & Theses’ regional coverage of dissertations and enable researchers who rely on this database to have a more richly constructed global perspective on business, legal and social sciences issues.”

See the full text from ProQuest.

Libraries Catalog More Than 2,300 ETDs — Texas A&M University Libraries

TDL has posted a new member story to its website highlighting Texas A&M Libraries work to catalog a backlog of 2,300+ electronic theses and dissertations.

From TDL:

TDL member Texas A&M University Libraries recently completed a project to catalog an accumulated backlog of some 2,300 electronic theses and dissertations and to make them available in Texas A&M’s DSpace repository.

An excerpt from the original, published article:

On the back of every Texas A&M University Libraries’ employee’s name badge is the mantra —Everything Safe and Secure. Everyone Matters. Everything Speaks. Everything Done Well.

Little did employees of the Libraries know how this mantra would come into play when they were tasked with the feat of moving more than 2,300 electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) into the Libraries’ catalog in January.

See the full posting at tdl.org

ETD Project launches August 1 at The University of Western Ontario

In this article from Western News at The University of Western Ontario, the university announced it ETD Project launch for August 1, 2010. An excerpt from the article, states:

According to Library and Archives Canada, the increase in citation impact that results from electronic publishing ranges from 50-250 percent and leads to increased rewards from universities and granting agencies. Additionally, it helps raise the profile of research institutions and brings research to market almost immediately.

The article also includes a link for a full overview of the ETD project.

Rutgers University develops dissertation filing software now used by 80 institutions world-wide

If you are keeping track of the news regarding the OpenETD software developed by Rutgers University, then you may be interested in this news story from New Jersey Real-time News. It gives some history as to the purpose and development of the software program, as well as a few of the universities who have adopted OpenETD.