What are the benefits of making my thesis available electronically?
Approximately 4,000 degrees are awarded each year in Australia. Postgraduate theses represent a significant proportion of Australia’s research activity. However, lack of easy access to this information means other researchers can wait months or years before papers or books describing aspects of the research are published. These publications do not always comprehensively cover the valuable information in a thesis; information which in many cases is then effectively lost. Theses are an underutilised information resource. A thesis by its very nature is produced in very limited quantities and normally the only copy available is the archival copy deposited in the Library. It is estimated that copies of fewer than 1,500 per year are requested from the participating libraries, even fewer are supplied as the cost and delay factors are a significant deterrent.
Approximately 4,000 degrees are awarded each year in Australia. Postgraduate theses represent a significant proportion of Australia’s research activity. However, lack of easy access to this information means other researchers can wait months or years before papers or books describing aspects of the research are published. These publications do not always comprehensively cover the valuable information in a thesis; information which in many cases is then effectively lost. Theses are an underutilised information resource. A thesis by its very nature is produced in very limited quantities and normally the only copy available is the archival copy deposited in the Library. It is estimated that copies of fewer than 1,500 per year are requested from the participating libraries, even fewer are supplied as the cost and delay factors are a significant deterrent. The lack of usage is attributed to a number of factors: lack of knowledge that the thesis existslack of information about the contents o
