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I'm getting close to finishing my PhD in medical physics. My university has a requirement that dissertations be submitted to the company ProQuest for electronic and microfilm archiving. The student has to pay a fee for this (something like $100, but the exact amount is unclear to me).
ProQuest claims to have the largest repository of theses and dissertations and "ProQuest's dissertation research tools have been the primary sources used to cite published dissertations and theses for decades." I personally have never come across any material cited as part of ProQuest's literature and have only heard their name in association with this requirement. Granted, it may just be that my field has not needed such a service.
My question is: has anyone submitted their dissertation to this company before? Does it provide any benefit?
Microfilim is clearly obsolete at this point. Generally in physics, students will post their theses and dissertations to arXiv.org, which is considered the definitive repository of "non-journal" literature and e-prints.
It is a requirement at my university, but I am considering filing a waiver request because it doesn't seem like a very good bang for the buck.
ProQuest claims to have the largest repository of theses and dissertations and "ProQuest's dissertation research tools have been the primary sources used to cite published dissertations and theses for decades." I personally have never come across any material cited as part of ProQuest's literature and have only heard their name in association with this requirement. Granted, it may just be that my field has not needed such a service.
My question is: has anyone submitted their dissertation to this company before? Does it provide any benefit?
Microfilim is clearly obsolete at this point. Generally in physics, students will post their theses and dissertations to arXiv.org, which is considered the definitive repository of "non-journal" literature and e-prints.
It is a requirement at my university, but I am considering filing a waiver request because it doesn't seem like a very good bang for the buck.