Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has recently passed a requirement that all its graduate students must now post their master's theses and doctoral dissertations on the Internet. In a movement that marks a first for American universities, Virginia Tech officials have enabled scholars and the public to study the students' work for free in an effort to make the latest graduate research more accessible. Officials added that the policy is a way to oppose publishers who have raised prices for scholarly journals -- to which a single subscription can cost thousands of dollars. But some faculty members and students are opposed to the Internet requirement, saying it deterred from the publish or perish mentality. Many publishers want to be the first to distribute original research and will not accept such work if it has already been distributed electronically. "We think [the policy] is a very significant change in graduate education and in the ability to access the results of graduate education," Virginia Tech's Associate Provost for Graduate Studies John Eaton said. Eaton added that the United States Department of Education is paying the university $210,000 over three years to create a national digital archive of dissertations. Twelve universities have agreed to participate, but Virginia Tech is the only one making the Internet posting a requirement. Now displaying approximately 300 theses and dissertations, the archives include sophisticated interactive graphics, sound and digitized video. Advocates of the new policy agree that on-line dissertations are more widely available. They said that anyone with access to the Internet can search for the latest scientific research more quickly than through interlibrary loans or microfilm services. But the biggest problem that opponents cite is the block on publication. Graduate students often do their work in conjunction with a professor who later hopes to include the research in a scholarly publication -- many of which will not accept research that has appeared on the Internet. "One of the major components in the evaluation of an untenured faculty member is the quality of peer-reviewed publications, i.e., their record of scholarship," Virginia Tech chemistry department chairperson Richard Gandour said. And Victor Rosas -- who just completed his doctorate in chemistry at Virginia Tech -- said publishing "is everything." Virginia Tech officials insist that scholarly publications pose the problem. They say a handful of commercial publishers have pushed up subscription prices over the last two decades, forcing research libraries to cut back on the number of journals they stock. But Virginia Tech responded to some criticism -- incurred since the spring -- by a agreeing to allow students to delay posting their theses or dissertations on the Internet for a year or more if they are seeking publication.
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