Social Science Data and ETDs:
Issues and Challenges
Myron Gutmann
Director,
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
University of Michigan
Joan Cheverie
Head, Digital Library Services
Georgetown University
All valuable data associated with publications need to be preserved, including electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). These data need to be captured and preserved in order to permit replication and secondary analysis. While ETDs help solve the problem of availability that traditional theses and dissertations presented, institutions are facing a number of complex issues and challenges in making these ETDs available. In the social sciences, as in other fields of research, source materials (including data) may not be under control of the author, or may be limited by a variety of intellectual property rights issues. A series of questions arise: How should all kinds of research materials used in theses and dissertations be made available for replication? What does replication mean? Is the program code more valuable than the raw data and should it be included in the ETD? What are the rules for data deposit and should these extend to the source material regardless of discipline? What are the curation tasks for data and can or should institutions carry these out on their own? These challenges call for participation and collaboration beyond traditional institutional roles. In this session, questions such as these will be discussed and ideas for next steps to advance the long-term vision of the promise of ETDs.
Handout (MS Word)
PowerPoint Presentation
