Theses and Dissertations - ACS Publications - American Chemical

Theses and Dissertations ELEANOR B. MARR

Downloaded by UNIV OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA on April 20, 2013 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: January 1, 1961 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1951-0004.ch009

Hunter College, New York, Ν. Y.

This paper covers the relative importance of dis sertations as a part of the chemical literature, methods used in searching for dissertations, com ment on information and documentation centers, some recommendations for increasing the accessi bility of dissertations, and an annotated bibliography of useful sources of information.

Dissertations and theses are an important part of the chemical literature because they record original work. M o s t of them are doctoral dissertations, for many foreign univer sities do not grant a master's degree. Although there is great variation i n the quality of the work reported, the results throw light on a problem and prevent expensive duplica tion. Research for the M . A . or P h . D . is sometimes the first fruit of a brilliant scientific career and at other times a flash i n the pan—the only work of the author; i n either case, it is worth consideration. Dissertations and theses are often neglected i n literature searches or covered super ficially because i t is assumed that anything of value i n them will find its way into the more important scientific journals and reference works. Unfortunately, this is often not true. Dissertations are rarely printed i n full i n scientific journals; some appear i n obscure journals or academy of science publications that are not covered b y the chemical abstracting journals; and many are never published. Consequently, a large body of information is buried i n the records and libraries of the universities. The relative importance of dissertations i n chemical literature searches is increasing rapidly because the publication costs of scientific journals are skyrocketing and the volume of research is expanding rapidly, which makes i t necessary to publish many more papers i n abbreviated form. This also increases the proportion of academic work that appears i n obscure publications or remains unpublished.

Methods Used in Searching for Dissertations I n many cases there is no expeditious method, and there are always three problems to be solved: ascertaining the existence of a dissertation, finding an abstract or summary to see if it is worth while to look for the original paper, and locating a copy for examination. Literature aids for ascertaining the existence of dissertations or theses leave much to be desired. The chemical abstracting journals are useful but i n both the United States and foreign countries they include only material published i n the journals which they abstract. If the paper abstracted originated i n a university, i t m a y represent a portion of a dissertation, but the abstracting journals do not give this information. O t h e r Aids. Other aids include lists of titles of dissertations for countries and for individual universities, bibliographies, volumes of abstracts issued b y the universities, other university publications, and library catalogs. Unfortunately no one of these aids or combination of all assures complete coverage of dissertations at the present time. U n i o n lists of titles would seem to be the answer, but union lists of dissertations have been made only i n the United States of America, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, 51

In SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.


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The Netherlands, South Africa, India, and Canada. The compilation of a union list for Great Britain was proposed recently by Record {2). Some union lists have been issued for many years; others appeared recently. Lists of titles of dissertations that appear in university publications are difficult to find because locating them depends upon general bibliographic sources, none of which covers this material very completely. The lists of dissertation titles which are issued by the universities appear as separate pamphlets, or in yearbooks, serials, and commence ment programs. Bibliographies attached to papers or included i n books sometimes mention disserta tions and, occasionally, an extensive bibliography of dissertations on a given subject is found i n this way. Annual or periodic reviews of a field of chemistry are likely to refer to some dissertations i n the country i n which the review originated. Library catalogs of dissertations are printed very rarely. The cataloging of disserta tions is very incomplete i n many libraries; some have only author entries, and others have title and author cards but no subject classification. I n countries where there are no union fists, the lists of dissertations issued by the individual universities may appear regularly for a long period or only intermittently. Location of Unpublished Dissertations. The location of an abstract or a summary of an unpublished dissertation is another problem, because it is very difficult to judge content by title; and most of this unpublished material is very inaccessible for direct consultation. Some universities, both American and foreign, issued volumes of abstracts annually or at intervals; and others include abstracts of dissertations i n their other publications. The publication of abstracts of dissertations is by no means a universal practice and is most common i n Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. These volumes of abstracts must be located through general bibliographic sources, except for universities i n the United States and some i n Great Britain. The larger research libraries i n the United States receive these volumes of abstracts from the universities, but it is impossible to determine how complete their collections are. Accessibility. The accessibility of dissertations for examination is another stumbling block. N o library i n the United States has a complete file of dissertations from American universities and colleges. M a n y American universities exchange dissertations and have built up large collections for many different universities, but because printed catalogs are lacking it is necessary to consult the catalogs i n person if the libraries lack informa tion and literature searching services. Foreign dissertations are extremely difficult to locate for examination i n the United States. There seems to be no reference work i n existence which gives both the libraries that have collected foreign dissertations and the coverage of their holdings. "Special Library Resources" (3) is a very complete survey of the collections i n all the research libraries i n the United States and Canada. It gives specific information on scientific books and periodicals i n each library, mentions photographic and information services, gives the number of dissertations i n many of the collections, but does not indicate the proportion of foreign dissertations or their origin. The author knows from personal experience that Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities, the University of Chicago, the University of Minnesota, and the New Y o r k Public Library have many foreign dissertations i n their collections, and that there are very large numbers of them in the A r m y Medical Library and the Library of Congress, Washington, D . C . There is no international depository of dissertations where copies can be obtained, although one has been proposed many times; and few countries have a national center— to the best of the author's knowledge, only France and Germany at the Bibliothèque Nationale and the University of Berlin. W h a t happened to the collection at the Univer sity of Berlin during W o r l d W a r I I is still undetermined. The nearest thing to an international collection of dissertations is at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. It is a very large one which is the result of an exchange system operated by the M i n i s t r y of Education of France. This collection, and the ones i n the government libraries at Washington, D . C , the British Museum, and Oxford University, England, are the most important of the international but incomplete collections of dissertations In SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

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at the present time. The location and examination of a copy of a dissertation may involve an interlibrary loan, but more frequently a photoprint or microfilm, and considerable cor respondence with libraries and universities.


Documentation Centers and Information Services Documentation centers and information services operated by the libraries are helpful in locating and obtaining copies of dissertations. Unfortunately, the documentation centers i n most countries are not well enough organized to provide extensive services i n dissertation searches and there is no international cooperation between them at the present time. The American Documentation Institute, Washington, D . C , can give some informa tion on the activities of documentation centers i n other countries and their services, and it operates a microfilm and photoprint service. The Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux, London, England, can also give some information on documentation centers i n Great B r i t a i n and i n Europe. It is equipped to give various services, and i t can give information relating to the disserta tions of the universities of Great Britain. The American Documentation Institute and the U N E S C O Library, both i n Paris, can give some help i n locating dissertations and obtaining copies of those for European countries, but they are not able to offer extensive services i n literature searches, even for a fee. I n Austria and Hungary there are apparently no organized centers, but the Univer sity of Vienna Library and the Austrian National Library (The author is indebted to dis cussion from the floor for this information.) are good sources of information for those countries and for the universities i n the area of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. The information service of the Swiss National Library, Bern ( i ) , has been open to foreign countries since 1930. I t is part of a well organized documentation organization on a national basis, and i t can furnish information on dissertations i n the Swiss library collections which were not disrupted b y two world wars. For Scandinavian countries, there are no formally organized documentation centers, but these libraries are good sources of information for their respective countries : the U n i versity of Copenhagen, Denmark; Helsinki University, F i n l a n d ; the R o y a l L i b r a r y and the Swedish Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; the R o y a l Norwegian Society of Sciences and the University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. F o r India, the best source of information on dissertations is the Inter-University Board of India. T h e amount of scientific research i n Mexico and South America is increasing and information on dissertations seems to center around the principal univer sities of those countries.

Increasing Accessibility of Dissertations A union list of dissertations should be prepared for each country. E a c h country should establish a center where all its dissertations are available i n microfilm or some other suitable form. This center should utilize modern methods of cataloging and sorting its catalog cards—for example, punched cards or microfilm cards which can be sorted mechanically to obtain the location of desired information—and i t should cooperate with similar centers i n other countries. Perhaps the effort to build up one international collection of dissertations i n sciences should be renewed. Certainly such a center should use modern methods of recording dissertations and isolating needed information.

Conclusions It may seem that unpublished dissertations and theses are not worth the bother and expense of locating them until the tools for the process have been greatly improved, but it must be remembered that approximately 5 0 % of the doctoral dissertations and probably most of the masters' theses are never published. There are no exact figures in existence, but these estimates have been made on the basis of information available. In SEARCHING THE CHEMICAL LITERATURE; Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1961.

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These estimates are not based on printed dissertations but on the number that appeared in scientific journals or as books. There are still other problems: The published portion of a dissertation may not cover a l l of the useful information, and the deluge of scientific research necessitates further limitations on the publication of the results of academic work.

Bibliography The chemical abstracting journals have been discussed. These other aids for searching for dissertations cover a l l dissertations, and i t is necessary to consult their classification systems and indexes to find chemistry dissertations.


I.

II.

International but Incomplete Collections of Dissertations 1. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France. Printed catalog in existence for period 1882 to 1925. Card catalog in library must be consulted for 1925 to date. "Catalogue des dis sertations et écrits provenant des échanges avec les universités étrangères et reçus par la Bibliothèque Nationale," 1882-1925. 2. Library of Congress, Washington, D . C. Catalog of the unpublished dissertations in Library of Congress and in Geological Survey Library is included in Bolton's bibliog raphy. No other printed catalogs are in existence for Library of Congress collection of dissertations except one for U . S. dissertations. 3. The British Museum, London, England. No printed catalog of its collection of dis sertations. 4. Oxford University, Oxford, England. No printed catalog of its collection of disserta tions. Lists of Dissertation Titles of National Coverage 1. United States a. Bolton, H . C., "Select Bibliography of Chemistry," Washington, D . C., Smith sonian Institution, 1901-04. Section 8 is especially good for older unpublished dissertations of United States, France, Germany, and Russia for period 1492 to 1902 covered by this work, but it does not cover analytical chemistry. All foreign dissertations listed are not in Library of Congress and Geological Survey Library. Many titles came from cards in University of Strassburg and Uni versity of St. Petersburg. b. "Doctorates Conferred in Sciences by American Universities." Published an nually in Science, 1898-1915. Published in School and Society, 1916. 1917 and 1918 not compiled. c. National Research Council, Washington, D . C., "Doctorates Conferred in Science by American Universities," 1919 to 1932-33. Reprint and Circular Series, Nos. 12, 26, 42, 75, 80, 86, 91, 95, 101, 104, 105 (1920-34). In 1922-25 only chem istry and medicine published. d. "Doctorates Conferred in Chemistry by American Universities," 1922-25, J. Chem. Education, 3, 77-99 (1926). Data compiled by National Research Council. e. "Doctorates Conferred in Medical Sciences by American Universities, 1922-25." Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med., 1, 259-62 (1926). Data compiled by National Research Council. Many on biochemistry of interest to chemists. f. "Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities." New York, H . H . Wilson Co., 1933 to date. Annual. Compiled by Association of Research Librarians; gives titles for dissertations; appendix shows which publications of universities in United States contain abstracts; gives information on photo prints, microfilms, and other facilities that universities have for providing copies. g. Library of Congress, "List of American Doctoral Dissertations Printed in 19121938," Washington, D . C., Government Printing Office, 1913-40. Includes only printed ones which library received, mostly unpublished, some reprints from journals, mimeographed copies. h. Palfrey, T . R., and Coleman, H . E., "Guide to Bibliographies of Theses, United States and Canada," 2nd ed., Chicago, American Library Assoc., 1940. Mostly unpublished M . A . theses. i. Rosenberg, R. P., "Bibliography on Theses in America," Bull. Bibliography, 18, 181, 203, S 45 (January 1946). Additions and corrections for Palfrey and Cole man's bibliography. 2. France. "Catalogue des thèses et éscrits académique," 1884 to date, Paris, Ministry of Education. A n annual publication under normal conditions. 1939 volume appeared in 1945. Classified—author, subject, and title indexes. Covers all French universities and dissertations are on file at University of Paris and Bibliothèque Nationale. 3. Germany a. "Jahresverzeichnie der deutschen Hochschulschriften," 1885 to date. Berlin and Leipzig, publisher varies. Title changed in 1935 from "Jahresverzeichnis der an den deutschen Universitäten erschienen Schriften." Official list for all Ger man universities and under normal conditions issued annually. 1042 volume



MARR—THESES AND DISSERTATIONS

III.

IV.

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appeared in 1943. Classified author and subject indexes. Dissertations in national collection, Berlin. b. "Bibliographischer Monatsbericht über neu erscheinen Schul-, Universität-, und Hochschulschriften," 1889 to date. Leipzig, Frock, 1890 to date. Vol. 52, No. 6 (1944) latest available. Not as complete as official list for Germany but very useful. 4. Switzerland. "Jahresverzeichnis der schweizischen Universitätschriften," Basel, Verlag der Universität Bibliotek, 1897 to date. Includes all Swiss universities. Vol. 50 (1946-47) issued recently. 5. The Netherlands. "Catalogus van academische geschriften in Nederland en Nederlandsch-Indie verschenen," 1924 to date. Utrecht, 1925 to date. 6. Sweden a. "Swedish Books and Publications on Science, Medicine, and Humanities," 193747. Compiled by G . Ottervik and S. G . Lundberg, Stockholm, The Swedish Institute, 1949, 199 pp. Survey of important works published in Sweden, in cludes dissertations of Swedish universities. b. Tuneld, John, "Akademiska avhandlingar vid Sveriges universitet och högskolor," läsären 1910-11 to 1939-40. Lund, Sweden, Ohlssons', 1945, p. 336. c. Nelson, Axel, "Akademiska avhandlingar vid Sveriges universitet och högskolor," läsären 1890 to 1909-10, Uppsala, Sweden, A. B . Akademiska Bokhandeln, 1911. 7. Great Britain, no union list at present time. Newcombe, Luxmore, "Accessibility of British University Thesis Literature," Report of Proceedings of 16th Conference of Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux, London, 1939, p. 21,130. Gives list of British universities, shows their publications which give lists or abstracts of their dissertations, and gives information on accessibility of dissertation and on collec tions of foreign dissertations in libraries of universities in Great Britain. Covers Eng land, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland fairly completely and is being brought up to date. 8. South Africa. Robinson, A . M. L . , "Catalog of Theses and Dissertations Accepted for Degrees by South African Universities," 1918-41. Capetown, A . M. C. Robinson, 1943. 9. India. Inter-University Board of India, "Bibliography of Doctorate Theses in Science and Arts, Accepted by Indian Universities of Different Years," Bangalore, India, The Bangalore Press, 1949. 10. Canada a. See Palfrey and Coleman and Rosenberg in U.S.A. list. b. "Chemistry in Canada," Vol. 1 (1949), pp. 156-7, gives list of dissertations and theses for Canadian universities and expects to issue one annually. Publications of Individual Universities. (A few that are particularly useful. See IV for tools to locate others). 1. University of Cohenhagen, Denmark a. Annual pamphlet listing dissertations, 1897 to date. b. "Danish Theses for Doctorate and Commemorative Publications of University of Copenhagen," 1836-1926. Includes all dissertations for period, not limited to those written in Danish. Copenhagen, Levin & Munksgaard, 1929. 2. The University of Vienna. Faculty of Philosophy, "Verzeichnis über die seit dem Jahre 1872 and der philosophischen Facultät der Universität in Wien, eingereichten und approbierten Dissertationen," 4 volumes, 1935-37. Vol. 4 contains basic list for Innsbruck and 1934-37 supplement for Vienna. General Bibliographic Aids. (Useful for locating publications of universities, both U . S. and foreign, which give lists of dissertations or abstracts; bibliographies of dissertations for certain periods and individual universities.) 1. "The Bibliographic Index" (1938 to date), "The Education Index" (1929 to date), and "Library Literature" (1921 to date), New York, Ν. Y . , H . H . Wilson Co. Cover both United States and foreign countries. 2. Schneider, G., "Handbuch der Bibliographie," 4 aufl., pp. 422-37, Leipzig, Heirsmann, 1930. Very useful. 3. Besterman, Theodore, "A World List of Bibliographies," 2nd ed., London; Oxford University Press, 1947-49. Very useful. 4. Mudge, I. G., "Guide to Reference Books," 6th ed. and supplements. Chicago, Ameri can Library Assoc., 1936-46. New edition in press. Very useful. 5. "Universities of the World, Outside of U.S.A.," Washington, D . C., American Council on Education, 1950.

Literature Cited (1) Janicke, W., Report of Proceedings, 21st Conference, Association of Special Libraries and In formation Bureaux, p. 78, London, 1946. (2) Record, P. D., Library World, 51, 196-9 (1949). (3) Special Libraries Association, "Special Library Resources," New York, 1941-47. RECEIVED

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