Iowa MFA Program to GooglePrint Theses

[sleigh]

The University of Iowa, which boasts one of the best-regarded graduate Creative Writing programs, has decided that they are going to make all their theses publicly available: in essence, publishing them. "At the center of the conflict is a routine form that students and their faculty advisers sign for depositing students' theses with the Graduate College. Language added to the form this semester says that the University of Iowa Library will scan hard-copy theses and "make them open-access documents," which it defines as freely available over the Internet and retrievable "via search engines such as Google." It is not clear who authorized that clause."

This has all the departments that produce creative work as their theses -- fiction writers, creative non-fiction writers, playwrights, translators, etc. -- up in arms, since typically the students in these programs will try to market their work for publication afterward. Having their work already available to anyone via a Google search may well mean that publishers will have far less interest in publishing them.

In order to graduate, all students must sign the form permitting their theses to be placed online.

There's now an online controversy raging over this decision, and various departments at Iowa are pointing fingers at each other. It does appear that there's a lot of miscommunication in this. At the moment, it seems the university library may have driven the change, since digitizing the theses and making them available via the web allows them to free up the space reserved for holding theses.

Even more interesting in this little controversy is language that says the library will not only do this with current theses, but will go back and scan all previous theses as well -- when those students have signed nothing. According to the Huffington Post article on this, : "Despite internal pressure from students, staff and faculty to change the language, the Graduate College won't budge."

It'll be interesting to see where this goes, and to see whether other universities will try to pull the same stunt...

Comments

[affinity8.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this. I think the graduate school dean is off his gourd. If I were a student I'd be up in arms.

The link doesn't quite work -- there are two https in it.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I'd be up in arms as well -- I think any Creative Writing student would be.

Thanks for the comment on the link; I'll go fix that now.

[erikted.livejournal.com]

This is actually on it's way to becoming standard practice at many schools nationwide, across disciplines.

Purely from the perspective of my field (public health), and I'm sure from many others too, it looks like a reasonable to good thing, as a fair amount of good work is produced by students that never makes it into peer-reviewed journals and thus remains otherwise inaccessible. And having something "published" as a thesis has never heretofore been a problem with getting it into a peer-reviewed journal. Or vice-versa. Many schools are moving towards doing journal articles in place of thesis/dissertations and I've never yet seen a journal upset about simultaneous or subsequent "publication" of something as a thesis/dissertation. But since 'we' (my field) clearly regard something published outside a peer-reviewed journal context as a 'lesser' source, it's actually probably not going to ever pose a big conflict. Probably.

But wow. If your thesis/dissertation is intended to be a marketable for-profit product (with of course the other benefits of establishing a foothold etc), or even get turned into your 'I need to make tenure now' book, it is a different ballgame. Or what if (thinking farther afield) you happened to design something you wanted to patent?

Sounds to me like creative writing in particular has been caught up in the sweeping reach of a broader new paradigm without a whole lot of thought about whether it fits.

Of course, technically all theses at all schools have *always* been freely publicly available via visiting the library. The change here is accessibility. By several orders of magnitude.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

You've hit on the issue: what makes sense in some fields doesn't make sense in all. For instance, my own Masters thesis was a novel. I intend to publish it one day (once I have a chance to work some more on the middle of it, which still needs some polishing). But if my university has already essentially 'published' it by making it available to the public, I've got a problem...

Yes, anyone can view my thesis by going to the university library and requesting it, but that's not the same. If the library were simply scanning and digitizing all the theses yet keeping those digital copies available only "at the library" as they are now, then there's far less of an issue (and they've still solved their space problem). But they've gone well beyond that kind of accessibility, it seems.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

*nods* When I left the university they were in the process of doing electronic versions of theses/dissertations. But it was optional.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Someone should sue.

I mean, like, seriously. Did students give up their copyrights for their theses? If not, this is purely illegal.

I first read that they were making their program available, a la MIT's OpenCourseware, and I thought that was much more awesome. :)

[ontology101.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine it will pass legal muster. I really can't see how.

A.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

I don't know; I suspect it actually might, especially if this is already being done in the technical fields.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I was cruising Amazon day before yesterday, and to my utter disgust, saw crappy reviews on the new book. Stand by for a counterblast. (though GRRM's good words will be a flood of sun to my pinprick of firefly light.)

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

All counterblasts to crappy review are welcome, as long as they're sincere! :-)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

No problem there.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

In most technical fields, publication is just fine. (In fact, a number of departments are moving to a policy where all papers are posted on the web.)

If the idea is to write something publishable, perhaps a contract that specifies a delay: "If you get it accepted for commercial publication within (2 years?), that's fine; otherwise, we'll make it available" would satisfy both sides to some degree. The writings would be available, but the market not damaged.

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

It's not a bad compromise, though two years (given the time it can take to market a novel or play) is probably too short. Six to ten years would be more market-realistic, especially given that a thesis novel probably isn't yet 'market-ready.'

The problem with Iowa is that they're not open to compromise. To graduate, the student must sign the contract as is, with no changes (as I understand the situation), and that contract calls for immediate 'publication' as an open source document.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Perhaps allow extensions if the work is still being actively marketed.

As for the enforced contract, what will happen when a student who entered and paid several years of tuition to get a degree had that requirement sprung on him without notice, and sues to get either the degree or a refund?

The school can put such requirements on new students, since they'll be aware of the restriction prior to enrolling (better, prior to applying). But putting it on current students might be a contract violation (despite the standard "We can change this whenever and however we want" adhesion clause).

That's the issue

[(Anonymous)]

That is a major issue. Four current students are standing against this and refusing to sign the document. They have been told that if it isn't signed by the first week of April, they will not be allowed to graduate. It is my understanding that an agreement to begin study at a university is a contract binding the student to a predetermined number of tasks in order to receive the degree... by changing those guidelines, they would be in breach of that contract (hence the reason for the form). But they are forcing them to sign. To get the inside scoop from a current Iowa student wrapped up in this controversy, you can click below.

http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/2008/03/university-of-iowas-open-access-debacle.html

-Adam B.

Re: That's the issue

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. Some changes in requirements are reasonable and acceptable. I don't think this one is; there's no argument that it makes the student more qualified (as would be, say, adding "basic knowledge of string theory" to the requirements for a physics Ph.D.).