Archiving theses electronically
G. Krishnakumar
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The University Grants Commission has come up with a draft plan to develop a system of electronically storing and archiving theses submitted at various Universities.
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GIVING WAY: Electronically formatted theses will soon replace the traditional ones.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has initiated a major step for archiving and developing a comprehensive database of Ph.D. theses in Indian universities.
Realising that "poor visibility" and "unseen" factors related to doctoral theses were affecting the quality of research, the Commission has decided to evolve a regulatory mechanism for archiving and accessing doctoral research output of universities.
This is also in line with international trend to preserve and centrally maintain repositories of electronic theses. The Electronic Thesis Online UGC (Submission of Metadata and full-text of Doctoral Theses in Electronic Format) Regulations, 2005, has been prepared to ensure the systematic creation, collection and compilation of cataloguing information (metadata).
Standardised format
The data on Ph.D. theses would be submitted to various universities in a standardised format. The regulation covers aspects such as setting up a mechanism for creation of metadata (bibliographic details of thesis being submitted) using uniform standards.
The Commission will set up a mechanism for submitting an electronic version of Ph.D. theses. A comprehensive database of doctoral theses submitted to the universities in India will be prepared. All universities will have to submit metadata for all the Ph.D. theses.
Regulations
Each doctoral student shall create a record for his/her theses on the website of Indian National Theses Database. The metadata submitted by the student should be duly checked by research supervisor / trained library staff for its completeness and accuracy. Corrections, if any, should be duly made in the Indian National Theses Database.
Each university would assign Indian Standard Thesis Number (ISTN) recommended by the UGC once the final process of thesis adjudication is completed. The national committee will work out the proposition for generating unique ISTN number.
Each university will send the metadata information to a centralised agency to be named by the UGC. Universities should make the submission of electronic version of the doctoral thesis a mandatory requirement for all doctoral students. This may be introduced by modifying the existing PhD regulations of universities.
Bibliographic details of cited items should be given in a standardised format. The National committee would recommend a format based on international standards for citing printed works as well as for citing web-based electronic resources. The thesis should include an abstract of not more than 200 words.
Universities have to get the author approval form signed by the students for assigning non-exclusive rights to the university to archive and disseminate the thesis. It has to evolve a copyrights policy relating to the doctoral theses, which may be included in the IPR policy of the university.
PDF files
Universities, through their libraries and computer centres, should provide facilities and assistance to researchers for converting their doctoral theses from word processing files to portable document format (PDF).
The thesis should be formatted in a standard format as formally recommended by the university.
The National Committee would evolve a model format along with mandatory fields. All universities should set-up an e-theses repository to facilitate the e-submission, archiving, maintenance and access to these repositories at the university.
Committee
The Chairman of UGC will constitute a committee for facilitating and monitoring implementation of these regulations. The committee will lay down data and technical standards, and create tutorials.
It will develop a phased implementation plan and advise UGC and the universities on the successful implementation of these regulations.
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