Dissertation as a document provides data on new knowledge, but also – encodes important scientometrical information. A study of social structure of science through data found in dissertations and theses provides bibliometrical data for study of national style of science. The pilot study, described below encourages the library community to improve their documentation in this area, in particular, the notation of supervisors and institutions within a bibliographical record. It is proposed that the CBD argue for stricter standards of library/archive record of dissertation. Along with the dissertation data in the new IsisCB platform the social structure of the history of science community might be analysed. Scientometrical study of dissertation abstracts at a local level (ie., Lithuania) will provide a model for future studies of scholarly communication at global level.

1. Social structures in science from the perpective of
bibliometrical data of PhD abstracts: a pilot project of the CBD
Dr. Birutė Railienė
Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of
Sciences
New Directions in Digital History of Science. July 17,
2014, Berlin, Germany

2. • A dissertation as a document provides data on
new knowledge, but also – encodes important
scientometrical information
• A dissertation record may expose a scientific
relation of research-advising both in personal
and institutional levels within the certain
scientific area

3. • Research project was inspired by the rich
experience of PhD bibliographical tradition in
Lithuania
– Printed bibliographies
– Card catalogues
– E-library for records maintained after 1996
– Participation in Networked Digital Library of
Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
– Investigation of scientific schools

4. Pilot project aims to:
• analyze possibilities and quantities to register
retrospective data on PhD abstracts
• explore bibliographical description practices in
selected PhD bibliographical indexes
• explore PhD cataloguing practices in selected
databases
• suggest a change in cataloguing practice,
which will facilitate data scrapping

5. Expectations
• History of science – identify scientific schools
• Science policy – encourage (including
financial) informal social structures of science
at national, institutional levels
• Scientific school at individual level – a creator
of scientific school deserves recollection,
which also inspires followers in the future

6. Methodology
• To analyze possibilities and quantities to
register retrospective data on PhD abstracts
• Due to vast amount of entries the manual
survey of databases was excluded
• The research-advise contribution is an
optional field in a document description
• Institutional contribution is an mandatory
field in a document description

7. Field of survey
• MARC format of PhD abstract description
includes subfield (043.3)
• Possibility for classification

8. PhD issues on WWW
• DART-Europe is a partnership of research
libraries and library consortia who are working
together to improve global access to
European research theses.
• DART-Europe is endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes
de Recherche), and it is the European Working Group of the Networked
Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations(NDLTD)
• http://www.dart-europe.eu/About/info.php

9. PhD issues on WWW
• NDLTD, an international organization
dedicated to promoting the adoption,
creation, use, dissemination, and preservation
of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
• http://www.ndltd.org/

10. PhD issues on WWW
• OnlinePhDProgram.org
• http://onlinephdprogram.org/thesis-dissertation/

11. • http://www.academicjoy.net/phdcandidate-
Theses.html

12. International guidelines
• NDLTD, an international organization
dedicated to promoting the adoption,
creation, use, dissemination, and preservation
of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
• ETD-MS v1.1: an Interoperability Metadata
Standard for Electronic Theses and
Dissertations
http://www.ndltd.org/standards/metadata

13. ETD-MS v1.1
• This document should be used as a guideline
to develop a faithful cross-walk between local
metadata standards and a single standard
used for sharing information about ETDs

14. Variety of records at NDLTD

17. Difficulties for global search
• Vocabulary differences
• Classification systems
• Institutional coverage
• Language

19. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I
• This multidisciplinary database is the world’s
most comprehensive collection of
dissertations and theses from around the
world, spanning from 1743 to the present day
• http://search.proquest.com/pqdt?
accountid=146284

20. Conclusions
• PhD abstract is a formal source to indicate the
teacher-pupil communication link
• Research-advising is one of main formal links
in scholarly communication (together with co-authorship
and citation)
• Research-advising links