Practical Solutions to ETD Issues

The University of Texas at Austin has required electronic dissertations from its graduating doctoral students since the summer of 2001. During that time, over 1,000 etds have been submitted, with topics spanning the gamut of almost 100 disciplines, and formats ranging from traditional PDF versions of word processing documents to non-linear etds consisting of text and multimedia files embedded within html pages. Along the way, numerous problems have arisen (as one can imagine). This presentation will focus on technical and legal issues that may be present with traditional paper dissertations, but have become larger issues with etds. These include copyright and other issues associated with the university's becoming a digital publisher, working with traditional dissertation publishing companies, fonts as proprietary software, formatting issues, implications for future publication of all or part of an etd, and ownership and proper use of data and information previously published. Issues themselves as well as principles used to approach solutions will be discussed. This presentation is appropriate for those considering etd implementation, as well as those whose programs are already implemented. There will be time for discussion at the end of the presentation