ProQuest

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by cookderosa, May 2, 2014.

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  1. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

  2. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I found this interesting regarding accreditation: ProQuest

    ProQuest/UMI Dissertation Publishing North American Accreditation Policy

    ProQuest's policy is to accept master's theses and dissertations from all institutions which have been accredited by one of the six regional accrediting bodies (Middle States Association, New England Association, North Central Association, Northwest Association, Southern Association and Western Association) for inclusion in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. Regional accreditation means that the accredited institutions are eligible for membership in the Council of Graduate Schools, which is the standard by which the higher education community judges itself. Master's theses and dissertations from independent medical and law schools accredited by the AMA and ABA are also accepted.

    We regularly conduct focus groups, interviews and other data gathering measures to ascertain if the content of the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database should be expanded to allow for participation from other non-regionally accredited universities. Each time, the staff and administrators of the nation's graduate schools and research libraries make abundantly clear that a narrow definition of accreditation should be applied to institutions represented in the database. In other words, the market credibility of the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database rests on the basic standard of institutional quality control as measured by regional accreditation. If an institution wishes to be included in the community of higher education institutions that appear in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database, that institution must be evaluated and judged as a peer of the community, requiring regional accreditation.


    Ouch, if you know what I mean.
     
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    If by "ouch" you mean "cartel", then yes. I mean you can scarcely find a better example of begging the question than: "Regional accreditation means that the accredited institutions are eligible for membership in the Council of Graduate Schools, which is the standard by which the higher education community judges itself."

    This policy is about exclusivity, not quality.
     
  4. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    That's one assessment. Here's another: It's both.

    Here's another: It's irrelevant because it is what it is, regardless of why.

    Here's another: Wasssuppp national accreditors?

    Here's another: It appears to exclude works done at non-U.S. universities.

    Here's another: Just another reason why it's hard to consider non-RA schools part of the academy when the works of their entering scholars (dissertations) are not accepted into the canon.
     
  5. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    The cartels are engaged in criminal activities, to include murders and kidnappings. Are you metaphorically associating the regional accreditators with the cartels?
     
  6. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Both ProQuest and the Council of Graduate Schools primarily serve regionally accredited institutions. But both organizations do make exceptions for certain non-RA schools that have reputations for rigorous graduate programs.

    - ProQuest accepts dissertations from independent law and medical schools, even if they are not RA, as long as they are accredited by ABA or AMA (as indicated in Post #2 above).

    - The Council of Graduate Schools includes Rockefeller University, which is accredited by NY Regents. I would bet that ProQuest handles Rockefeller dissertations.

    ProQuest is an independent for-profit company; they aren't an arm of the regional accreditation agencies. Their business is to collect and distribute the dissertations that matter to the academic community. If there are schools that feel unjustly neglected by ProQuest, they are perfectly free to start a competing business.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2014
  7. FJD

    FJD Member

  8. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    ProQuest got started in the US, and their coverage is probably most complete for the US. However, I believe that they also have good coverage for Canada (note that the Council of Graduate Schools includes Canadian institutions), and they are actively expanding to include schools in Europe, Asia, and probably anywhere else. They want to be a global player.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2014
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

  10. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Yes, and that's fine, but it certainly doesn't mean that observers can't offer opinions about how they do business. I wasn't calling for anyone to regulate them or sue them or whatever.
     
  11. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Observers are certainly free to offer opinions. But one fact that should be apparent to all observers is that ProQuest has been the unquestioned market leader in this particular business for around 75 years. Another fact is that they continue to grow rapidly internationally.

    Given these points, some observers might offer different opinions about ProQuest's business practices. For example, maybe ProQuest knows exactly what they are doing, maybe their business practices aren't broken, and maybe they don't need fixing.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2014
  12. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Maybe they don't. But I wasn't approaching this from the perspective of a ProQuest shareholder, I was approaching this from the perspective of someone who supports inclusiveness in higher education, so given their dominant position I wish that that they didn't systematically exclude theses and dissertations from students of nationally accredited schools, even while agreeing with you that it's their right to do so. I'm sorry that you seem to think I'm such a terrible person for feeling that way, but I do.
     
  13. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Believing that would obviously not make you a bad person.
     
  14. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    No implication that you are a "terrible person" is intended. The only implication is that ProQuest, with their 75 years of market-leading experience, may possibly have a better understanding of the market for academic dissertations than you do. And their policies may reflect that knowledge, rather than a desire to persecute non-RA schools.

    But they don't "systematically exclude" nationally accredited schools. As noted above, ProQuest handles theses and dissertations from schools with independent accreditation from AMA or ABA, and I'll bet they handle certain NY Regents schools as well. USDoE has historically classified these agencies as "national accreditors" when they act in an institutional accrediting capacity. They aren't RA.

    ProQuest is hardly the only possible way to distribute theses and dissertations. If ProQuest won't accept theses or dissertations from an NA school, then that school is perfectly free to make those theses or dissertations available for direct download from their own website. Some RA schools, like Temple, already do this, as an supplement to ProQuest.

    If NA schools were truly serious about making their scholarship freely available to the broader academic community, then they could do exactly the same thing, at minimal expense. So do they? If not, why not?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 2, 2014
  15. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    :hijacked:
     
  16. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Perhaps the thread isn't "hijacked." Perhaps it is evolving.

    The original subject is still available for discussion. Subsequent topics are related and relevant. What's the problem?
     
  17. In many cases posting a dissertation on ProQuest is a good idea. One caveat, however: The presence of your work on ProQuest (or on one of the "open access" sites) can make it more difficult to sell your work to a book publisher (which is often a pre-requisite for tenure, for example.) Earlier this spring I attended an ACLA workshop on this very topic, and have posted an article about the workshop here:

    From dissertation to published book | Language and Philosophy

    Bottom line seems to be that if a dissertation is on the Internet the author has to revise the dissertation much more extensively to interest a publisher.
     
  18. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Out of curiosity, does that mean that subsequent publishing of the dissertation as a monograph is more advantageous for tenure seekers than cutting the dissertation up into a series of journal articles?
     
  19. I imagine this will depend on the institution. I got the impression from the workshop that for some universities a published book is required (a series of articles won't do it) and also the book has to be published by one of the top university presses (such as Harvard).

    I should quickly add that I am no expert on this topic; All I know is what I learned from the workshop (which I have included in the article I posted.)
     
  20. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Thank you, that's helpful.
     

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