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European Conference on Information Literacy

ECIL 2015: Information Literacy: Moving Toward Sustainability pp 489–498Cite as

Systemic Disturbances in Thesis Production Processes

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 552))

Abstract

This paper discusses disturbances in thesis production processes that lead to anomalies in information use such as insufficient referencing and plagiarism in theses made in Finnish universities of applied sciences. We develop discussion concerning systemic dynamics of these anomalies. Four different cases of information use which are the result of vague referencing or plagiarism, and the possible solutions are presented. The librarians’ role on the borderline between traditional intermediary positions and their potential for more interventionist ones are discussed. Librarians can contribute to the thesis production processes in which several cultures of information seeking and use meet and challenge each other. Thesis production and evaluation processes are not homogenous. Instead, elements of machine-like systems as well as those of individuals’ unique being-in-the-world contexts appear together forming colonies of information use practices that can ignore problems in references and information seeking or allow plagiarism.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions to improve the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Studies, University of Oulu, Marjamäenkatu 23 C 5, 05820, Hyvinkää, Finland

    Juha Kämäräinen

  2. 82300, Rääkkylä, Finland

    Erja Moore

  3. English Department, University of Helsinki, Pärekuja 4, 05460, Hyvinkää, Finland

    Ilkka Mönkkönen

  4. University of Eastern Finland Library, P.O. Box 1627, 70211, Kuopio, Finland

    Jarmo Saarti

Authors
  1. Juha Kämäräinen
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  2. Erja Moore
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  3. Ilkka Mönkkönen
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  4. Jarmo Saarti
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juha Kämäräinen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Information Management, Hacettepe University, Beytepe, Ankara, Türkiye

    Serap Kurbanoglu

  2. DICEN IDF EA 7369, Université Paris Descartes DICEN IDF EA 7369, Paris, France

    Joumana Boustany

  3. University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

    Sonja Špiranec

  4. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Esther Grassian

  5. University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Diane Mizrachi

  6. School of Information, The University of Texas School of Information, Austin, TX, USA

    Loriene Roy

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Kämäräinen, J., Moore, E., Mönkkönen, I., Saarti, J. (2015). Systemic Disturbances in Thesis Production Processes. In: Kurbanoglu, S., Boustany, J., Špiranec, S., Grassian, E., Mizrachi, D., Roy, L. (eds) Information Literacy: Moving Toward Sustainability. ECIL 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 552. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28197-1_49

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28197-1_49

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28196-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28197-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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