Depository required?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Nicole-HUX, Dec 27, 2001.

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  1. Nicole-HUX

    Nicole-HUX New Member

    Some of you can speak to the general requirements better than I can, but I know my university requires all master's theses be deposited with UMI (or whatever the nom de annee is). I'm not sure if UMI is the only depository company (it is if you're from Michigan {g}), but I believe it to be one of the most widely used.

    Do those degree mills that require a thesis or dissertation have a depository requirement? Do they use UMI or another company? Do they use a depository company at all?

    Thanks for your thoughts.
     
  2. levicoff

    levicoff Guest

    As a general rule, the answers are no, no, and no. In that order. [​IMG]

    Incidentally, UMI has, in the past, allowd individuals to deposit their theses and dissertations with them (for the usual fee). I thought of doing this at one time for my M.A. thesis, since Vermont College (then of Norwich University) did not have such a requirement. However, as I recall from John Wetsch, Antioch did have require M.A. theses to be filed with UMI. I ultimately decided not to bother, since the web made it far easier to "publish" (UMI's term) such documents; to that effect, I understand that UMI has largely moved out of the publishing end of theses and dissertations.

    I mention this since I have always used publication of a dissertation by UMI as a criterion to discern whether someone holds a legit doctorate. This is not necessarily a reliable criterion, since UMI will accept an individual's filing; however, it gives an indication of whether there is an institutional requirement to file. (Union, for example, has had this requirement for many years.)
     
  3. qjackson

    qjackson New Member

    To answer:
    http://tls.il.proquest.com/hp/Support/DServices/prepare/packets.htm

    Which states:

    "UMI publishes dissertations and theses only from accredited institutions and only with a signed publishing agreement from each author."

    Cheers,
    Quinn

    (Now, they don't state what form of accreditation they mean, but one can assume they mean DoE sanctioned accreditation and leave it at that.)
     
  4. Chip

    Chip Administrator

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    Unfortunately, either the policy is very new, or there is a policy of ignoring the policy, or UMI gets taken in by claims of fraudulent accreditation, because there are definitely a number of dissertations, theses, etc from bogus schools which can be found on UMI.

    It would be interesting to know what means they use to administer their policy.
     
  5. qjackson

    qjackson New Member

    Probably more important than publication is citation, anyway, IMO, and that isn't as easily tracked down. It can be done, but it takes forever and a day, and is typically months/years behind publication.



    ------------------
    Quinn
     
  6. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

    How about a competing organization for mill thesis, we could call it a supository!
     
  7. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    But at least a suppository makes you feel better.....


    Bruce
     
  8. I believe that MIT doesn't require that dissertations be deposited. So neither presence in, nor absence from, the UMI index is completely reliable.
     

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