United States Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Administrators (USETDA)
2025

Presenters: Kristin Terrill, Iowa State University and Lily Compton, Iowa State University Graduate College

Abstract:

In this presentation we will map out the challenging terrain of implementing a digital accessibility mandate at an institution where nearly 25% of submitted electronic theses and dissertations are authored using LaTeX. LaTeX is a programming language used for creating documents, especially those containing technical and specialized typography. Many scholars in math, statistics, and engineering disciplines use LaTeX for document preparation. A significant limitation of LaTeX is its incompatibility with digital accessibility features of PDF, namely, tagging. We will provide an overview of the ongoing work by The LaTeX Project, led by Frank Mittelbach, to develop a way of exporting tagged PDFs with LaTeX. Despite admirable strides made by this project in the past several years, their current guidelines cannot be easily integrated into our institution’s Overleaf thesis/dissertation templates. Another tack is to remediate LaTeX PDFs in Adobe Acrobat. We will describe our progress toward securing Adobe Acrobat licenses for students who need that software to remediate their LaTeX theses and dissertations. Additionally, we will discuss some strategies by which we are attempting to bridge the Adobe Acrobat skill gap. Ultimately, we will summarize outstanding institutional needs and gaps in coverage and present a proposal for a workable solution that will best serve all stakeholders: graduate students and faculty who use LaTeX, institutional administrators responsible for enforcing federally-mandated policies, and users who rely on assistive technology to access emerging scholarship.

Presenters: Kristin Terrill, Iowa State University Graduate College; Lily Compton, Iowa State University Graduate College; Maryam Saneie, Iowa State University English Department

Abstract:

In this two-hour workshop, we will present our hands-on demonstration of Elicit, an innovative tool for streamlining literature search, information finding, and knowledge synthesis. The demonstration has been under development for 12 months under a faculty fellowship grant aimed at AI Across the Curriculum. The target audience is graduate students, postdocs, and early career researchers whose literature reviews function to ground their original research in their field. The workshop provides an introduction to generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) literacy for research and research integrity, then segues into a hands-on demonstration of Elicit. The demonstration draws on Boell and Cecez-Kecmanovic’s (2014) literature review framework, which was developed to initiate novice scholars into the cyclical, iterative nature of the literature review process. Attendees will learn how Elicit can be integrated into a principled literature review process with a demonstration of three key functions of the tool: Find Papers, Extract Data, and List of Concepts. We will also illustrate how the 3E Framework (Terrill et al., 2024) can be used to judge the appropriateness of various uses of GenAI in academic scholarship. At the end of this workshop, attendees will be able to use several key features of Elicit to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of their literature review process. They will also be able to describe the strengths and limitations of this tool. Finally, they will be able to evaluate GenAI tools with respect to a range of scholarly use cases.

References

Boell, S. K., & Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2014).  A hermeneutic approach for conducting literature review and literature searches. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34, Article 12. DOI:10.17705/1CAIS.03412

Terrill, K., Compton, L., & Cotos, E. (2024). The 3E Framework: Effective, Efficient, and Ethical Uses of GenAI in Scholarly Work. https://doi.org/10.31274/usp-20241210-1 

Presenters: Lily Compton, Iowa State University Graduate College; Kristin Terrill, Iowa State University Graduate College; Megan O'Donnell, Iowa State University Library

Abstract:

In this session, the speakers will introduce the development of an open access educational handbook that provides critical information on research ethics and research publication to graduate students and streamlines access to valuable information in a single, organized, and continuously maintained resource. 

Graduate students and early career researchers are faced with the task of producing and disseminating independent research while gaining credibility for their future careers. By engaging in this high-level scholarship, graduate students elevate their own reputations and that of their institutions. However, they must navigate a complicated array of overlapping policies, systems, and norms. Issues such as publication ethics and integrity, copyright and reuse permissions, authorship, digital accessibility, and the emergence of generative artificial intelligence weave a complex maze that is challenging for both veterans and novices. Furthermore, the costs of inadequately educating and preparing graduate students on these topics are high. Research integrity investigations, authorship disputes, copyright violations, and digital remediation all have costs – be it time, money, or reputation. 

To address this challenge the authors have created an open access handbook that covers research publishing basics, ethics and regulations of research and publishing, and technology for research publishing and digital accessibility. The authors will describe the three sections of handbook, discuss how the content was developed and piloted and share how the material has been evaluated and improved based on feedback from experts from across the university. Highlights of the presentation include previews of essential handbook content, such as a detailed research publication flowchart, scenario callouts exemplifying why certain policies and practices are necessary and procedural steps for formatting research articles.