Building to Last: Experiences & Best Practices from a Long-Standing ETD Program

Those who support the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) program at Kansas State University have learned much since starting the journey in 2004. Organizational structures, policies and procedures, and technology have changed dramatically over the years and have made supporting ETDs through periods of change challenging but by no means insurmountable. This presentation will provide an overview of K-State’s ETD program including personnel roles, submission and review workflow, support services, preservation, and how the infrastructure has evolved over the years. K-State’s ETD program and supporting services are decentralized with various organizational units providing support in specific areas but cooperating closely to ensure the 450+ theses, dissertations, and reports created every year are processed, preserved, and made openly accessible through the K-State Research Exchange, the institutional repository. The presentation will provide key pieces of good practices related to copyright (including author rights) services, ETD licensing, formatting assistance services, and how to build and maintain support services, even in a decentralized environment. Graduate students are being asked more and more to publish prior to thesis and dissertation completion and to work closer with private industry, potentially involving corporate intellectual property and trade secrets, to be more competitive post-graduation. The presentation will touch on ways to manage risk while maintaining a commitment to open-access. The presentation will conclude with considerations for the future and possible plans for the improvement of K-State’s ETD program.