According to the statistics from the National Central Library (NCL) regarding “National Dissertation and Thesis Database”, which came out at the end of October, TKU’s dissertations are ranked highest amongst private universities in terms of the frequency of downloading with a total of 125,385, which accounts for 3.3% of the entire frequency.
These statistics indicates that in terms of overall downloading rates, TKU ranks the 7th, while the top six are National Taiwan University, National Cheng Kung University, National Sun Yat Sen University, National Chengchi University, National Chiao Tung University and National Chung Cheng University. Colleges ranking behind TKU are National Taiwan Normal University, National Central University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, National Dong Hwa University and so on. These facts have made the achievements of TKU academic research plainly visible.
The Director of TKU Chueh-sheng Memorial Library, Huang Hong-chu, pointed out that this result is an encouraging sign to the quality of TKU’s research. Interestingly, the frequently downloaded dissertations tend to be trendy and topical issues, which are more digestible by modern readers. Therefore, holding the number one spot for the down-loading frequency among the private universities is a sign that the issues TKU dissertations address are more in vogue and in tune with contemporary interests; yet, she believes it is a pity that such statistics are limited in revealing how these dissertations have been applied in practice. Notwithstanding, Director Huang predicts that as such a computerized dissertation data base is still under constant construction, there is still room for TKU’s ranking to improve once more dissertations have been digitalized.
The total frequency of downloading of doctoral dissertations is 2868, while that of master’s is 122,517. Three of the 100 most downloaded dissertations came from TKU. Among the three, the most frequently downloaded dissertation, 1,645 times in total and ranked 35th out of 100, is “The key successful factors for ERP system of industry－electronic technological motherboard manufacturers exemplified”, a master's thesis written by Fang Chu in 2001.
The Dissertation and Thesis Abstract System at the NCL, which has collected dissertations from every university between 1956~2002 academic years, is a project delegated by the Department of Higher Education of the MOE. Since its inception in September 1997, the web-based index system has received nothing but positive feedback. At the moment, the system is used by at least 100,000 people per month. For more information, please go to http://www.ncl.edu.tw .
