When Open Access and ETDs FUSE : Open Access Now

Free US ETDs (FUSE), a new scholarly communication blog, launched over the weekend with the singular mission to advance free and open access to American graduate electronic theses and dissertations. Historically American universities have relied on a commercial third party to disseminate graduate research, and subsequently put a substantial amount of student works behind a commercial pay wall. FUSE is managed by Gail Clement, Librarian and Associate Professor in Digital Services and Scholarly Communications at the Texas A&M University Libraries. The blog aims to address the question: What will it take to set free our American theses and dissertations? ... The blog will highlight potential solutions and the current work being done at Texas A&M University, other institutions and at the national level to free ETDs in the United States. The first example is from Texas A&M University where a doctoral student 'freed' their dissertation. After objecting to the requirement that dissertations must be submitted to the third party commercial vendor ProQuest, the student requested for the requirement to be eliminated or a waiver to be granted. The student received a waiver from Texas A&M University, and submitted their dissertation to the university’s digital repository as an open access document. At the national level, Clement and others have begun the conversation on the possibility of a national  OA portal to US ETDs.  With the majority of OA topics focused on faculty research and publishers, FUSE will be provide another angle from the graduate research perspective. For those interested in contributing to FUSE or joining the discussion, you can contact Gail Clement, gclement@tamu.edu ..."