Dissertation + Google Books - 120 pages = bad
March 13, 2012 8:12 PM Subscribe
Somehow, my Ph.D. dissertation ended up on Google Books. Hooray! "Pages 30 to 147 are not shown in this preview." Boo!
So, I'm not sure how this happened, but Google Books ended up with my dissertation. I'm very much in favor of that. However, the full document isn't available, only the first 30 pages along with the last page. I want it all to be available. What do I do?
Relevant information:
-It is freely available for download from U. Maryland (to avoid self links, check my profile for a link), with the easy-to-google title "polymer concepts in biophysics". Trust me, it's a page turner.
-I didn't email Google, so I wasn't involved in the document being included in Google Books at all. The link to the Google Books page is in my profile as well, or is the third hit for a google search of the title.
-ProQuest LLC appears to have given this to Google. They added a page claiming copyright on the "microform edition."
-ProQuest is I think the company that prints a physical copy of the book for UMD, so I'm pretty sure I emailed them a copy of my thesis. So this isn't as shady as it might sound.
I think it's great that it ended up on Google Books, so my goal isn't to remove it. My goal is to make the whole thing available (seriously, they just including the last page of Appendix D?! That was the best Appendix). Any advice from the hive mind?
So, I'm not sure how this happened, but Google Books ended up with my dissertation. I'm very much in favor of that. However, the full document isn't available, only the first 30 pages along with the last page. I want it all to be available. What do I do?
Relevant information:
-It is freely available for download from U. Maryland (to avoid self links, check my profile for a link), with the easy-to-google title "polymer concepts in biophysics". Trust me, it's a page turner.
-I didn't email Google, so I wasn't involved in the document being included in Google Books at all. The link to the Google Books page is in my profile as well, or is the third hit for a google search of the title.
-ProQuest LLC appears to have given this to Google. They added a page claiming copyright on the "microform edition."
-ProQuest is I think the company that prints a physical copy of the book for UMD, so I'm pretty sure I emailed them a copy of my thesis. So this isn't as shady as it might sound.
I think it's great that it ended up on Google Books, so my goal isn't to remove it. My goal is to make the whole thing available (seriously, they just including the last page of Appendix D?! That was the best Appendix). Any advice from the hive mind?
If you want your thesis to be freely available, even if it's not on Google Books, you could always post it to arXiv. It's not done as much in biophysics as in other subfields of physics, of course, but there is a category waiting for you. You might want to check with ProQuest to see if this is allowed, but I seem to remember that it wasn't an issue for mine.
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:01 PM on March 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Assay at 9:01 PM on March 13, 2012 [1 favorite]
ProQuest won't let Google show it all because ProQuest is selling your content through its proprietary database, Dissertations and Theses Abstracts. (Probably.)
Do a search for your dissertation in Google Scholar. The cite will probably have a link to your dissertation in the repository. This means anyone looking for it for free should be able to find it. I wouldn't bother trying to get between ProQuest and whatever agreement they have with Google Books.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:41 PM on March 13, 2012
Do a search for your dissertation in Google Scholar. The cite will probably have a link to your dissertation in the repository. This means anyone looking for it for free should be able to find it. I wouldn't bother trying to get between ProQuest and whatever agreement they have with Google Books.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:41 PM on March 13, 2012
This document contains Proquest's current publishing options (pdf; I am actually trying to figure out what option to choose for my dissertation) on page 3. Might be useful if you end up in conversation with the folks proquest - one option sounds like what you want.
posted by jrb223 at 11:06 PM on March 13, 2012
posted by jrb223 at 11:06 PM on March 13, 2012
Best answer: The previous answers are on the right track. Most university libraries have an institutional repository now, so your electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) gets deposited two places:
1. Your university's IR. This is where the full text copy you can find by searching at U. Maryland is located. When you deposited your ETD you probably chose to make your document available with "open access", meaning anyone who wants to can read the full text of your work. Other common options are "campus access", where only those with a log-in at your school can read it, or "embargoed", where no one can read it for a period of a year or two (usually chosen by those with pending patents.)
2. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Abstracts. This is a database of dissertations from all over the country. (Almost) every library deposits their works here, because it's a useful tool for someone who wants to search across all dissertations. You might have used it yourself when conducting your lit review, because it's a great way to see if anyone has done their dissertation on your topic recently. ProQuest makes money by selling subscriptions to their database to university libraries and selling copies of your dissertation to anyone who wants to purchase it. (They pay you royalties when this happens.)
Having your ETD available via open access in your university's IR will ensure that there's always a way for people to get to your work and read it for free. Most IRs are, as bluedaisy mentioned, indexed by Google Scholar, so it shouldn't be hard for someone to get to your work. However, if you want to ensure that ANYONE, no matter how they encounter your work, can read it for free right away, you could go with ProQuest's "open access" option. In this case you pay them $135 up-front to make your dissertation available for free through their website. Basically, what you're doing is compensating them in advance for any revenue that they might, in the normal course of events, make by selling copies of your dissertation. That also means that you won't get royalties from them. (I personally think that $135 is a pretty generous estimate of how much revenue they'd earn from the typical dissertation, but it's what they feel they can get away with charging.)
When I advise the students here at my university (I'm the ETD and IR librarian for WVU), I usually tell them to not bother with the extra ProQuest fee, because as long as their ETD is available in our repository, people will be able to find it. If you want to be absolutely sure that the maximum number of people can read your dissertation, though, it might be worth it to you to pay the ProQuest open access fee. You can either do that through whatever office at your university you did your original ETD deposit with, or they can put you in touch with ProQuest directly.
Hope this helps and I'm happy to answer anything that needs further clarification!
posted by MsMolly at 10:19 AM on March 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
1. Your university's IR. This is where the full text copy you can find by searching at U. Maryland is located. When you deposited your ETD you probably chose to make your document available with "open access", meaning anyone who wants to can read the full text of your work. Other common options are "campus access", where only those with a log-in at your school can read it, or "embargoed", where no one can read it for a period of a year or two (usually chosen by those with pending patents.)
2. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Abstracts. This is a database of dissertations from all over the country. (Almost) every library deposits their works here, because it's a useful tool for someone who wants to search across all dissertations. You might have used it yourself when conducting your lit review, because it's a great way to see if anyone has done their dissertation on your topic recently. ProQuest makes money by selling subscriptions to their database to university libraries and selling copies of your dissertation to anyone who wants to purchase it. (They pay you royalties when this happens.)
Having your ETD available via open access in your university's IR will ensure that there's always a way for people to get to your work and read it for free. Most IRs are, as bluedaisy mentioned, indexed by Google Scholar, so it shouldn't be hard for someone to get to your work. However, if you want to ensure that ANYONE, no matter how they encounter your work, can read it for free right away, you could go with ProQuest's "open access" option. In this case you pay them $135 up-front to make your dissertation available for free through their website. Basically, what you're doing is compensating them in advance for any revenue that they might, in the normal course of events, make by selling copies of your dissertation. That also means that you won't get royalties from them. (I personally think that $135 is a pretty generous estimate of how much revenue they'd earn from the typical dissertation, but it's what they feel they can get away with charging.)
When I advise the students here at my university (I'm the ETD and IR librarian for WVU), I usually tell them to not bother with the extra ProQuest fee, because as long as their ETD is available in our repository, people will be able to find it. If you want to be absolutely sure that the maximum number of people can read your dissertation, though, it might be worth it to you to pay the ProQuest open access fee. You can either do that through whatever office at your university you did your original ETD deposit with, or they can put you in touch with ProQuest directly.
Hope this helps and I'm happy to answer anything that needs further clarification!
posted by MsMolly at 10:19 AM on March 14, 2012 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks everyone! I'm assuming I opted against the $135 option when I sent in my document and have since forgotten that it was an option.
posted by bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated at 2:28 PM on March 14, 2012
posted by bessel functions seem unnecessarily complicated at 2:28 PM on March 14, 2012
Also, google books errs on the side of caution. There are many, many public domain government documents that are digitized but only have a few pages available. I don't know what, if anything, an end user can do about that.
posted by rockindata at 12:20 PM on March 15, 2012
posted by rockindata at 12:20 PM on March 15, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
Please note I have little except my own experience to back up these theories. And I'm glad you posted this, because I see that my thesis too is up there and I would have never known...
posted by Tandem Affinity at 8:39 PM on March 13, 2012