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Do you think it would be worthwhile to upload something like a master's thesis that ultimately did not get published through a traditional journal? That happens

Do you think it would be worthwhile to upload something like a master's thesis that ultimately did not get published through a traditional journal? That happens to be my case. I am alright with my supervisors' decision to not pursue publication, however I still wish to have it out there in some form, as it took a sizeable amount of effort, and it might be useful as a way to advertise myself. On a tangent, is publishing the LaTeX source of a paper or thesis on GitHub something that people do...? I was also toying with the idea of writing my thesis with org-mode while including the code snippets I used for numerical calculations and graphs.

eigenket 5y ago
The tex for my thesis is on github but I don't expect anyone to ever look at it there (anyone who might read it will find it on arxiv), I just used github for backup & versioning (I'm not quite dumb enough to have a document representing 4 years work in one place).
jacobmischka 5y ago
I can't attest to ArXiv publication, I didn't consider it actually (I may now, though to be honest mine is not groundbreaking research by any stretch of imagination), but publishing the LaTeX source on GitHub is definitely relatively common. I and a few acquaintances I knew from my Master's program did that.
- galcerte 5y ago
  I imagine it depends on the field. Having perused your GitHub page and taken a look at what your program was about, I see why you might publish your thesis' source there. People working in theoretical physics aren't too inclined towards free software, so maybe that's why I haven't seen many related papers.
  - jacobmischka 5y ago
    Ah yes, I assumed computer science, apologies.
Bayart 5y ago
>On a tangent, is publishing the LaTeX source of a paper or thesis on GitHub something that people do...? I've definitely seen it done, although I suspect the prime concern is versioning and backup.
Boywithhalo 5y ago
"arXiv moderators expect submissions to be of scholarly archival interest to the communities they represent. A submission may be declined if the moderators determine it lacks originality, novelty, or significance. Submissions that do not contain original or substantive research, including undergraduate research, course projects, and research proposals, news, or information about political causes (even those with potential special interest to the academic community) may be declined." as explained in https://arxiv.org/help/moderation https://arxiv.org/help/moderation If your supervisors decided not to pursue publication then it seems likely that it does not match these criteria either. Note, this isn't a qualitative judgement about your thesis - as it says as much about academia as it does your thesis. Additionally, you might run into the endorsement system if you're new to arXiv. https://arxiv.org/help/endorsement https://arxiv.org/help/endorsement
- galcerte 5y ago
  > Submissions that do not contain original or substantive research Most, if not all master's thesis contain original research, and that is definitely my case as well. > undergraduate research, course projects, and research proposals, news, or information about political causes My thesis can't be classified under any of these categories, either. It does sound like I would be able to publish it there, but I'm going to have to reach out to my supervisors for an endorsement in arXiv, thanks for the tip. I believe they weren't inclined towards publishing it because I did not quite manage to fulfill their expectations with respect to the scope of the thesis. I came across quite a few bumps along the way which hindered my progress. It was still graded well enough, it has a good amount of original content, and I am relatively satisfied with its quality, though, so it's not like it was a complete disaster.
  - amcoastal 5y ago
    You should do it, but contact your advisor first. I know I'd like to upload my old masters thesis online, but the university retains a copyright on it. Its possible yours does to. I'm sure the information on that would be available on your schools website in the thesis format/guidelines sections.
  - 5y ago
8bitsrule 5y ago
>worthwhile to upload something like a master's thesis That'd be great. Seems dumb to let talented, hard-working student papers moulder on some basement shelf. (Or do they file 13 'em?) I've run across several onlined, very readable and informative masters' works over the years. Tend to be less hidebound about fresh theories/tooling as well.
cozzyd 5y ago
There are some theses on the arXiv but it's relatively rare. See e.g. https://arxiv.org/search/?query=dissertation&searchtype=all&source=header https://arxiv.org/search/?query=dissertation&searchtype=all&... Typically these are uploaded in some other archive that may be less open (e.g. often outsourced to proquest or something), but many universities have their own open archives. My PhD thesis is available on MIT dspace. Hilariously, it's a scanned copy of my printed thesis, since I had to print it out for submission, even in 2015. As for theses on GitHub, those happen but often people keep it private since they don't necessarily want the revision history exposed :).

eigenket 5y ago

The tex for my thesis is on github but I don't expect anyone to ever look at it there (anyone who might read it will find it on arxiv), I just used github for backup & versioning (I'm not quite dumb enough to have a document representing 4 years work in one place).

jacobmischka 5y ago

I can't attest to ArXiv publication, I didn't consider it actually (I may now, though to be honest mine is not groundbreaking research by any stretch of imagination), but publishing the LaTeX source on GitHub is definitely relatively common. I and a few acquaintances I knew from my Master's program did that.

galcerte 5y ago
I imagine it depends on the field. Having perused your GitHub page and taken a look at what your program was about, I see why you might publish your thesis' source there. People working in theoretical physics aren't too inclined towards free software, so maybe that's why I haven't seen many related papers.
- jacobmischka 5y ago
  Ah yes, I assumed computer science, apologies.

Bayart 5y ago

>On a tangent, is publishing the LaTeX source of a paper or thesis on GitHub something that people do...? I've definitely seen it done, although I suspect the prime concern is versioning and backup.

Boywithhalo 5y ago

"arXiv moderators expect submissions to be of scholarly archival interest to the communities they represent. A submission may be declined if the moderators determine it lacks originality, novelty, or significance. Submissions that do not contain original or substantive research, including undergraduate research, course projects, and research proposals, news, or information about political causes (even those with potential special interest to the academic community) may be declined." as explained in https://arxiv.org/help/moderation https://arxiv.org/help/moderation If your supervisors decided not to pursue publication then it seems likely that it does not match these criteria either. Note, this isn't a qualitative judgement about your thesis - as it says as much about academia as it does your thesis. Additionally, you might run into the endorsement system if you're new to arXiv. https://arxiv.org/help/endorsement https://arxiv.org/help/endorsement

galcerte 5y ago
> Submissions that do not contain original or substantive research Most, if not all master's thesis contain original research, and that is definitely my case as well. > undergraduate research, course projects, and research proposals, news, or information about political causes My thesis can't be classified under any of these categories, either. It does sound like I would be able to publish it there, but I'm going to have to reach out to my supervisors for an endorsement in arXiv, thanks for the tip. I believe they weren't inclined towards publishing it because I did not quite manage to fulfill their expectations with respect to the scope of the thesis. I came across quite a few bumps along the way which hindered my progress. It was still graded well enough, it has a good amount of original content, and I am relatively satisfied with its quality, though, so it's not like it was a complete disaster.
- amcoastal 5y ago
  You should do it, but contact your advisor first. I know I'd like to upload my old masters thesis online, but the university retains a copyright on it. Its possible yours does to. I'm sure the information on that would be available on your schools website in the thesis format/guidelines sections.
- 5y ago

8bitsrule 5y ago

>worthwhile to upload something like a master's thesis That'd be great. Seems dumb to let talented, hard-working student papers moulder on some basement shelf. (Or do they file 13 'em?) I've run across several onlined, very readable and informative masters' works over the years. Tend to be less hidebound about fresh theories/tooling as well.

cozzyd 5y ago

There are some theses on the arXiv but it's relatively rare. See e.g. https://arxiv.org/search/?query=dissertation&searchtype=all&source=header https://arxiv.org/search/?query=dissertation&searchtype=all&... Typically these are uploaded in some other archive that may be less open (e.g. often outsourced to proquest or something), but many universities have their own open archives. My PhD thesis is available on MIT dspace. Hilariously, it's a scanned copy of my printed thesis, since I had to print it out for submission, even in 2015. As for theses on GitHub, those happen but often people keep it private since they don't necessarily want the revision history exposed :).