USETDA 2021 Conference - Call for Proposals
John Hagen
USETDA 2021 Conference
Call for Proposals
The US Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association (USETDA) will hold their 11th annual conference, “USETDA 2021”, September 22 – 23 as a virtual event. We invite graduate school, library, information technology and industry professionals to submit proposals for presentations, panel sessions, workshops, and posters.
Deadline: Proposals should be submitted on or before March 15, 2021 to be considered.
Submissions: https://www.ocs.usetda.org/index.php/USETDA/USETDA2021/schedConf/cfp
Audience: USETDA 2021 provides excellent educational opportunities for professionals from graduate schools, libraries, academic computing and others who work with electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), institutional repositories, graduate students, and scholarly communications. Our goal is to offer relevant, practice-oriented content that supports ETD productivity improvement, and ETD professionals, advances ETD operations, and encourages the formation of regional ETD associations and networking communities, as well as provide useful and innovative resources, standards, and technology for the development and support of ETD programs. Proposals are welcome from library, graduate school, information technology professionals, graduate students, and faculty as well as library and information systems / services representatives.
Theme: The conference theme “Making Connections – Scholarly Communication in the Digital Age” will focus on the impact and implications of connecting scholars and research from across the country and around the world. We will examine the present use and availability of ETDs and related initiatives. We will also explore new and emerging ETD practices, needs, and influences that impact administrative, graduate school, and library professionals.
Presentation proposals should reflect one or more of the following three categories: Research Practices, Streamlining ETD Processing, and the Impact of ETDs. Presenters are encouraged to use the examples under the subtopics as inspiration, but are not limited to these ideas and can expand upon them or generate new ones based on the subtopic themes.
I. Research Practices
- Philosophical perspectives from graduate school professionals on copyright, fair use and creative works
- Data sharing - researchers sharing their data within their research groups and with other researchers (e.g., figshare.com)
- Inclusion of previously published works in a dissertation/thesis including copyright related issues
- Author rights - exploring diversity/equity/inclusion issues as it relates to the world of ETDs, not just through IRs
- Connecting research and researchers through ORCID or other persistent digital identifiers
- Nontraditional ETDs and scholars - Best practices for handling of non-pdf dissertations/theses (comic books; works with Online components; etc.)
- Collaborative efforts by students
- Graduate Student panel (discussion of the student experiences in the ETD process including alternative formats, ease/difficulty with formatting requirements, communication gaps, etc.)
- Intellectual property: copyright, patent, prior publication issues related to repository access policies, joint authorship, review processes and educational outreach programs
- Copyright, embargo practices, working with technology transfer on patent protection, inclusion of published articles and manuscripts in ETDs
- Methods used to teach students ETD format and intellectual property information
- The evolving definition of a doctorate and the future of dissertations
- Trends in scholarly communication
- Discussion of communications best practices, issues and challenges with students about ETD requirements from various school experiences
- Engaging students with the ETD process--how to provide training and information before the crisis point of need
- Institutional repository collection integration with Research Information Management Systems (RIMs) or Current Research Information Systems (CRIS)
- Discussion about ProQuest services such as ETD Administrator, automated ingest from repositories, the microfilming and digital preservation of ETD deposits, registration with the Library of Congress, Dissertation Boot Camp, using APIs, working with IR providers, etc.
- Research compliance
- Professionalization of the ETD reviewer - Discussion on developing certifications to elevate the status of a reviewer by defining the important functions that the reviewer serves with a focus on student-centered services and other administrative tasks in the graduate school and libraries
II. Streamlining ETD Processing
- Best practices - graduate school and library workflows
- Best practices discussion - formatting review, issues, benchmarks
- Collaborative initiatives between graduate schools and libraries
- Connecting with advisors and committees
- Zoom defenses (best practices for virtual defenses)
- Utilizing technology better to improve ETD programs
- Streamlining the review process
- Starting from scratch - how to build an ETD infrastructure
- Integrating technologies into the thesis Approval and submission process enhancements
- Approval and submission process enhancements
- Signature sheet methods and solutions (physical vs digital / checklist item vs Adobe e-signature, etc.). Electronic signatures - rationale and methods
- Technologies and systems
- Technical considerations and workflow models related to the examination and preservation of novel dissertation forms for non-pdf/digital dissertation deposit and preservation
- Repository Round up: Overviews of repository systems - Discussion from IR provider and or institutional user perspectives including services and systems such as ContentDM, Dataverse, Digital Commons (BePress), DigiTool (Ex Libris / ProQuest), DSpace, EPrints, Fedora, Haplo, Invenio, DiscoveryGarden, (Islandora), Open Repository (Atmire), Samvera
- Institutional Repository / ETD systems, developments and innovations
- Processing and archiving multimedia ETDs
- Data curation, management and long-term preservation - campus policies and programs
- Student support and training
- Integration with Learning Management Systems
- Cataloging and metadata conventions and innovations
- Research Information Management Systems: Digital measures and integration of the institutional repository
- Examples of shared institutional repositories among multiple institutions
- ProQuest harvesting options
- ETD user group meetings (i.e. ProQuest ETD Administrator, Vireo, CGS, MAGS, etc.)
- Open Source Repositories - the good, bad and ugly
- Data cleanup for bulk catalog exports and student records imports
- Formatting software/technologies and support (LaTeX, Word, Adobe, Overleaf, Vireo, ProQuest, Overleaf, etc.).
- Building resource pages and templates
- ETD Plus Toolkit presentations / workshop
III. The Impact of ETDs
- Disseminating ETDs
- Creative writing and ETDs
- ADA Compliance with ETDs and IRs: disabilities panel presentation / workshop (could include IT or library technical experts) on digital accessibility, including practical workflows and walkthroughs of how to check and make documents accessible, PDF subtypes
- ETDs at HBCUs
- Open research tools
- Tracking citation data for ETDs
- Promoting ETDs/research through Three Minute Thesis, social media, and similar initiatives
- Enriching the ETD final submission record (including summary video, data files, metadata, etc.)
- Collecting and using statistics about ETD use (e.g., from your IR, Altmetric, Impactstory, PlumX, etc.); benefits of promoting ETDs to the institution, academic program, student
- Case studies of graduate work completed in novel, digital formats, e.g., museum exhibit, sound recording, website, 3D modeling, mapping
- Promoting open access among graduate students and faculty
- “Life of ETD research beyond graduation” - Case studies on post ETD publications based on ETD research including practices in various fields and students’ plans to use their ETD for articles, books, or just as a platform for future research
- Preparation of ETDs - providing students with skills they can use in their future professions
The U.S. Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association welcomes the following types of submissions:
Poster sessions - peer reviewed
Posters introduce late-breaking results, work in progress, or research that is best communicated in an interactive or graphical format. Two types of posters are encouraged:
● research posters presenting new and promising work or preliminary results of ongoing projects
● "best practices" posters presenting the practical implementations of an organization's practices or innovations
The content of the poster should clearly point out how the research or best practice contributes to innovative thought or design within the field, and how it addresses key challenges, as well as the potential impact on the participant's organization and/or practices in the field.
Joint submissions from students, librarians, graduate school administrators and other professionals demonstrating different perspectives on a single issue are particularly encouraged. Posters are expected to foster discussion in a personal and less formal setting. Poster presenters should submit an abstract of 350 words or less for consideration.
Single-session presentations and panels - peer reviewed
Single session presentations and panels are invited on topics that focus on the themes of the conference. You may choose between a 1-hour or 20 minute presentation format.
For single-session presentations, please submit a proposal of up to 350 words, providing a summary of the presentation topic and the qualifications of the speaker.
Panels must have a cohesive theme and promote lively interaction between panelists and audience members. Please submit a panel proposal up to 350 words, providing an overview of the issues to be discussed by the panel and brief bios of each of the panelists. Proposals should only list panelists who have agreed to participate and shall indicate the qualifications and contribution that each panelist will offer.
Conference workshops - peer reviewed
Conference workshops are invited on important topics that focus on the themes of the conference that need to be addressed in-depth. Workshops should provide participants with opportunities to engage with study materials, the presenter(s) and workshop participants through discussions in order to broaden and deepen understanding in a particular area. Workshops range in length from 2 to 3 hours.
Please submit a proposal of up to 350 words, providing a summary of the workshop topic and the qualifications of the speaker.
Resources
● USETDA Conference Presentation Selection Rubric
● Poster Session Resource Page (download doc)
Proposal Submission
Once you have prepared your proposal according to the above instructions, please use this online submission system to submit it for review.
Submission Steps
- Create a new user account or login to an existing user account - click here.
- Click on the "STEP ONE OF THE SUBMISSION PROCESS" link and follow the prompts.
Start here to submit a paper to this conference.
STEP ONE OF THE SUBMISSION PROCESS
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