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Publication Announcement
The ETDplus project (
https://educopia.org/research/grants/etdplus) has
published a set of six Guidance Briefs about the curation and
preservation of ETD research data and complex digital objects.
These open documents are ready to be adopted and adapted for local use
by universities/colleges to help students understand how to prepare,
manage, and store the research files associated with their ETDs.
The ETDplus project is generously funded by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS) and led by the Educopia Institute, in
collaboration with the NDLTD, HBCU Alliance, bepress, ProQuest, and the
libraries of Carnegie Mellon, Indiana State, Morehouse, Oregon State,
Penn State, Purdue, University of Louisville, University of Tennessee,
the University of North Texas, and Virginia Tech.
About the ETD Guidance Briefs
The Guidance Briefs are short (3-4 page) “how-to” oriented briefs
designed to help ETD programs build and nurture supportive
relationships with student researchers. These briefs are written for a
student audience. They are designed to assist student researchers in
understanding how their approaches to data and content management
impact credibility, replicable research, and general long-term
accessibility: knowledge and skills that will impact the health of
their careers for years to come.
In addition to providing actionable, easy-to-follow advice about how to
organize, store, and protect their research files, these Guidance
Briefs help students recognize how their own content management
practices will impact the credibility, replicability, and long-term
accessibility of their findings. This knowledge and skills will impact
the health of their careers for years to come.
Anyone can download, edit, and use the Guidance Briefs using the links
on this page. A forthcoming workshop series featuring these Briefs and
geared toward student audiences will also be available to ETD programs
in early 2017.
Use the Guidance Briefs
Interested ETD stakeholders can download copies of the Guidance Briefs
(as Word or RTF documents) at the following website,
https://educopia.org/deliverables/etdplus-guidance-briefs. The Guidance
Briefs cover the following topics:
1. Copyright
2. Data Structures
3. File Formats
4. Metadata
5. Storage
6. Version Control
We are releasing these Briefs as openly editable documents under a CC
BY 4.0 license. We want institutions to use and reuse these in whatever
ways work best for their local audiences. Each Brief includes generally
applicable information about its topic, and also includes a “Local
Practices” section that an institution should use to call attention to
what’s happening on its own campus.
If you have any further questions about the Guidance Briefs or about
the ETDplus project, don't hesitate to reach out to us:
Katherine Skinner, Principal Investigator
Sam Meister, Co-Principal Investigator
Courtney Vukasinovic, Administrative Coordinator
About the ETDplus Project
The ETDplus project is helping institutions ensure the longevity and
availability of ETD research data and complex digital objects (e.g.,
software, multimedia files) that comprise an integral component of
student theses and dissertations. The project is generously funded by
the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and led by the
Educopia Institute, in collaboration with the NDLTD, HBCU Alliance,
bepress, ProQuest, and the libraries of Carnegie Mellon, Indiana State,
Morehouse, Oregon State, Penn State, Purdue, University of Louisville,
University of Tennessee, the University of North Texas, and Virginia
Tech.