An Investigation of ETDs as Prior Publications: Findings from the 2011 NDLTD Publishers' Survey

Do publishers and editors of scholarly journals view theses and dissertations that are readily available on the Internet and through convenient Web browsers as prior publications? This has been a topic of discussion for well over a decade in the ETD community, not only of concern to graduate schools and libraries but also among research faculty and their graduate students. At the same time that a growing number of universities worldwide are requiring ETDs and making the research and scholarship of their graduate students publicly available, many faculty advise their students to restrict online access to their theses and dissertations due to concerns about future publication options. This paper reports on the 2011 survey results of journal editors' and university press directors' attitudes toward online theses and dissertations. This data and the open-ended comments from the survey respondents indicate support for open access to ETDs.