Unpacking the Impact and Usage of Electronic Theses and Dissertations: A Case Study

Date
2019-05-09
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Abstract
A graduate thesis or dissertation, for most graduate students, represents the culmination of years of research and study, and are an important record of the intellectual output of an academic institution. Like many academic institutions, the University of Calgary began in 2012 to deposit electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) into PRISM, the University of Calgary’s Digital Repository. PRISM provides a valuable archive and dissemination vehicle for unique research outputs of early career researchers. All theses are described and categorized with disciplinary information. Usage data is tracked from November 2015 – present. These characteristics of the ETD collection also allow for investigation into understanding the usage of these documents and how they relate to other research outputs, like articles and monographs, the impact of which are commonly measured by metrics such as citation counts or download statistics. For this case study, we investigated the usage patterns of the ETD collection to understand how these scholarly outputs fit into the scholarly communications ecosystem. Through analysis of statistics and metrics available through the repository as well as those available through academic databases, we explore the following questions: What do repository usage statistics tell us about ETDs as a scholarly output? Do factors like subject and length of time available influence higher usage of ETDs in a repository? And does repository usage correlate to a citation advantage, either for the thesis itself or for derivative works?
Description
This is a presentation from the 2019 Library Publishing Forum in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Keywords
institutional repository, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs)
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