Hidden Treasures: Opening Data in PhD Dissertations in Social Sciences and Humanities | Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication

Prost, H., Malleret, C. & Schöpfel, J., (2015). Hidden Treasures: Opening Data in PhD Dissertations in Social Sciences and Humanities. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication. 3(2). "Abstract: PURPOSE: The paper provides empirical evidence on research data submitted together with PhD dissertations in social sciences and humanities. APPROACH: We conducted a survey on nearly 300 print and electronic dissertations in social sciences and humanities from the University of Lille 3 (France), submitted between 1987 and 2013. FINDINGS: After a short overview on open access to electronic dissertations, on small data in dissertations, on data management and curation, and on the challenge for academic libraries, the paper presents the results of the survey. Special attention is paid to the size of the research data in appendices, to their presentation and link to the text, to their sources and typology, and to their potential for further research. Methodological shortfalls of the study are discussed, and barriers to open data (metadata, structure, format) and legal questions (privacy, third-party rights) are addressed. The conclusion provides some recommendations for the assistance and advice to PhD students in managing and depositing their research data.