Study of ISO Standard Consideration in M.A. and Ph.D. Theses Abstracts in Shiraz University during 1999-2009

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor in Library and Information Science, Regional Information Center for Science and Technology, Research Department of Evaluation and Collection development

2 M.A. in Library and Information Science

Abstract

Objective: this study aims to compare the M.A and Ph.D. theses of technical and engineering courses in Shiraz University with ISO 214 international standards.
Methodology: content analysis and descriptive survey methods were used in this study. The population included 1194 Persian abstracts of M.A. theses and 23 abstracts of Ph.D. theses during the period of 1999 - 2009. To collect data, we compared the abstracts with ISO 214 standard.
Findings: The findings showed that M.A and Ph.D. abstracts (x=5.94, SD=1.66) are in conformity with ISO international standards. The content of abstracts and the “aim” elements had the most conformity (89.1%) with ISO 214; however the style and representation and the “key word” elements showed a low conformity with ISO 214. In general, Ph.D. theses abstracts (x=7.04, SD= .47) are more in accordance with ISO 214 than M.A theses abstracts (x=5.92, SD= 1.67). The abstracts of aerospace engineering theses showed the most conformity in terms of content (x=4, SD= 0) and in terms of representation style (x=3.15, SD= .69)

Keywords