Introduction
With the help of a small grant from the ESRC and with the kind permission of ASLIB and the R.A.I. (for some of the older data) a bibliography of (mainly) post-1970 British social anthropology doctorates including abstracts is being made available on Internet using the UKC World Wide Web Server. Currently this information is only available in the annual ASLIB Index to UK Theses and on a non-networkable CD. This project makes the data available world-wide via the Internet in a form that can be easily searched and has incorporated abstracts and titles not included on the ASLIB CD. It still reflects, however, the arbitrariness of the ASLIB classification: some theses from Social Anthropology departments have been classed as e.g. comparative religion and not cross-indexed so we have not been able to include them (yet). Jonathan Webber discussed this problem in the introduction to the printed index to "Research in Social Anthropology 1975-1980" the contents of which has been included (with permission of the R.A.I.) in the on-line index.
We now have an important and useful research tool, and one that I hope we can maintain. It is in the interest of every anthropology department, and of every doctoral candidate that their work be as widely known as possible. In the absence of ongoing funding the currency of the index can only be maintained by co-operation. Put simply we must ensure that students send us their thesis abstract (and bibliographic details) on diskette (or using Email). Further details on this are available in a separate document .
I do not believe that this is too onerous a requirement these days and I am firmly convinced that it is in all our interests to institutionalise procedures for the submission of bibliographic details in electronic form (as has now been done in Oxford). In the meantime we can encourage students to send in discs (or use Email) when submitting their theses - and to inform us when the degree is awarded.
Updated 10 October 1995.David Zeitlyn
Revised for new interface 14 Feb 1996
Updated 19 August 1996 by Steve C. Wilson
Further revised June 1999
Users (using online graphics) since 2nd February 96
