Who is Citing Undergraduate Theses in Institutional Digital Repositories? Implications for Scholarship and Information Literacy

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Undergraduate theses are available through open access institutional repositories. Is undergraduate work being integrated into the larger body of academic research, and, if so, how? Institutional repositories containing undergraduate theses were selected and titles were searched using the forward citation feature in Google Scholar to determine if and where undergraduate scholarship is being cited. Results show that 24% of citations to senior theses were in peer-reviewed or refereed journals, and 33% in dissertations and theses. This paper addresses citation source and the potential value of undergraduate scholarship as well as the implications for information literacy instruction to senior thesis students.

The impact of institutional repositories: a systematic review

“…The goal of making underrepresented work, such as ETDs, discoverable and citable can be achieved through making this work available in an IR and discoverable by Google and Google Scholar, which is also often linked to an improved citation rate. As Stone 2014 points out, "many senior theses are about regional and local issues or cutting-edge topics, both of which may have a dearth of publications in the mainstream scholarly literature due to interest and/or the scholarly publishing cycle" [22]. This makes an IR an important source for studies on new or niche topics and an accessible avenue for scholars.…”

“…Seven of the thirteen included studies focused on the increased exposure or discoverability that IRs provided for their content and their institutions [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. This was measured in a variety of ways, including download statistics, webometric indicators (e.g., page views and internal links), and availability.…”

The discoverability of award-winning undergraduate research in history: Implications for academic libraries

“…Institutional repositories are an online venue where students can distribute their scholarship, such as capstones, theses, and undergraduate publications (Caprio 2014). A study by Stone and Lowe (2014) of undergraduate theses held in digital institutional repositories found that these works are being cited in refereed journals, dissertations, and other theses. In addition to libraries hosting undergraduate research, some librarians serve as managers or collaborative managers of undergraduate research journals, which may or may not be included in the institutional repository (Farney and (Farney and Byerley 2010, 328).…”

Visibilidad e impacto de la literatura gris científica en repositorios institucionales de acceso abierto. Estudio de caso bibliométrico del repositorio Gredos de la Universidad de Salamanca

“…Este fue el impulso para trabajar los temas de la visibilidad y el impacto como temas centrales de esta tesis doctoral. Además como originalidad el estudio se realizaría sobre la literatura gris científica, concretamente sobre las tesis doctorales depositadas en Gredos, ya que la mayoría de los estudios disponibles hasta la fecha se habían realizado casi exclusivamente sobre el impacto de las publicaciones del tipo de artículos en acceso abierto (Hajjem et al, 2005;Harnad & Brody, 2004), y muy pocos habían tratado el tema del impacto de la literatura gris científica en acceso abierto (Friend, 2011;Vincent Larivière, Zuccala, & Archambault, 2008;Schöpfel, Chaudiron, et al, 2014;Schöpfel, Prost, et al, 2014aSchöpfel & Soukouya, 2013;Schöpfel, Stock, Farace, & Frantzen, 2005;Stone & Lowe, 2014).…”