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Digitized Graduate Works 2019 Download Report

by Liz Svoboda on 2020-02-05T17:41:00-05:00 in Scholarly Publishing & Activity | 0 Comments

2019 was a record setting year for UM-Flint graduate students' final capstone projects, theses, and dissertations that have been uploaded to Deep Blue (the University of Michigan’s repository of scholarly work). In 2018 we finally completed the digitization project of legacy works dating back to the 1980s, so 2019 gave us a clearer picture about what the ongoing scholarly work of our graduate students looks like.

Let’s take a look at some of the year’s statistics. The following data includes all uploaded works as of December 2019 and all downloads that occurred in 2019.

  • Works added in 2019: 33
  • Total number works in collection: 790
  • Total number of open access works: 361 (46% of collection)
  • Total number of works accessible only on UM campuses: 429 (54% of collection)
  • Works downloaded at least once: 395 (50%)
  • Open access works downloaded at least once: 359 (99% of OA works)
  • Works accessible only on UM campuses downloaded at least once: 36 (8% of on campus works)
  • Total downloads: 110,881
  • Open access downloads: 110,795 (99.9%)
  • On campus downloads: 86 (0.1%)

While 2019 had the largest number of downloads to date, it was the first year that saw a downturn in the number of downloads as the year progressed. 2016, 2017, and 2018 all saw continual rises or plateaus of downloads with peaks during the Spring and Fall.

 

Total Downloads Compared Yearly from 2016 - 2019 bar chart

 

Monthly Downloads 2016 - 2019 line graph

 

The next graph shows the comparative percentages of downloads according to each program. Liberal Studies and Public Administration are the oldest programs and have more works associated with their programs (213 and 247, respectively), meaning they had more of a chance to earn downloads, but we were impressed by the Doctor of Nurse Anesthesia Practice Program whose 55 works also gained downloads in the 5-digit range. 

2019 Downloads by Program Pie Chart

 

Individual works also showed some changes in download trends in 2019. For example Gregson's Comparing Public and Private Prisons has routinely been the top downloaded work since 2017, and it regularly registered more than 1,000 downloads per month in 2018. Even though this thesis was still the most downloaded work, 2019 saw a steady decline in its number of monthly downloads, and it was not the top earner for five out of the last six months of 2019.

Top 10 Works Downloaded in 2019

Title Author Year Program Downloads
Comparing Public and Private Prison Systems Gregson, Joseph 2000 Public Administration 12,246
Is There a Relationship Between Class Size and Student Achievement? Ruggles, Mary Lou 2003 Public Administration 9,887
The Cult of True Womanhood: Women of the Mid-nineteenth Century and Their Assigned Roles as Reflected in Contemporary Writing Bonventre, Laurie 2005 Liberal Studies 8,846
A Study of Employee Engagement, Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention of Michigan CRNAs Carnahan, Donna 2013 Anesthesia 8,021
Classification: Absolutism vs Relativism Weist, Darren 2016 Computer Science 6,677
Faces of Feminism: The Gibson Girl and the Held Flapper in Early Twentieth Century Mass Culture Palso, Raina-Joy 2001 Liberal Studies 5,737
The Development of a Post Anesthesia Care Unit Patient Quantitative Assessment/Predictive Tool to Manage Post-Operative Health Alterations Cook, Robin E. 2017 Anesthesia 5,548
A Comparative Examination of German-American Women Immigrants in the Rural and Urban Areas of America in the Nineteenth Century Rex, Brigitte A. 2001 Liberal Studies 4,929
Unique Herpetofauna of Murphy Lake State Game Area, Tuscola County, Michigan : Northern Dusky Salamander (Desmognathus fuscus) and Six-Lined Racerunner (Aspidscelis sexlineata) Yoder, Theresa 2007 Biology 3,326
Oral Health Status of Students in One Mid-western University Duzdar, Rand 2016 Public Health 2,898

If you have any questions about depositing your graduate work please see our FAQ or contact Liz Svoboda at esvoboda@umich.edu.


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