Speculation surrounding President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) doctoral dissertation has caused confusion. On Aug. 29, Tsai said: “If I received my diploma, I submitted my thesis. This is indisputable.” While Tsai is technically correct, these questions will not go away unless the public gets access to her dissertation.
According to Article 15, Paragraph 1 of the Copyright Act (著作權法), the author has “the right to publicly release a work” and can decide whether do so upon the work’s completion. The author can only exert this right once. Once the work is publicly released by the author, they cannot reclaim that right.
However, to facilitate academic research and the dissemination of knowledge, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph 3 of the article states: “Where the work is a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation written under the Degree Conferral Act and the author has obtained a degree,” the author shall be presumed to have consented to the release of the work.
In the past, graduate students unwilling to show their dissertation or thesis to the public would specifically make a written request on the copies submitted to their schools and the National Central Library that it not be made public, and the public would not have access to it.
Over the years, the Ministry of Education has repeatedly instructed universities to make dissertations available for public reference as soon as possible. The ministry has also proposed a five-year delay of public access when dissertations contain confidential information or the writers want to apply for patents. Nevertheless, this request is not legally binding, making its implementation difficult.
The Degree Conferral Act (學位授予法), amended in November last year, includes Article 16, Paragraph 2, which states: “If, however, the content involves confidential information, patent matters or is not permitted to be provided on statutory grounds and this has been confirmed by the university, the person is permitted to not provide a copy or public access to the material in question will be placed under embargo for a certain period.”
Otherwise, the National Central Library gives the public access to dissertations and theses within the library. The Degree Conferral Act takes precedence over the Copyright Act, so graduate students cannot ask the library and universities to not make their dissertations public.
The Accreditation Regulations Governing Teacher Qualifications at Institutions of Higher Education (專科以上學校教師資格審定辦法), used by the ministry to hire teachers and evaluate their qualifications, stipulates that academic works submitted for the purpose of obtaining a promotion should be published, circulated and made available to the public at a library at any time.
The regulation does not apply to doctoral dissertations submitted by an applicant as a qualification for their first-time appointment. The Copyright Act only applies to a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation written to obtain an academic degree under the Degree Conferral Act, which means that it does not apply to theses or dissertations for degrees obtained overseas.
The fundamental solution is to amend the Copyright Act so that it unambiguously states that authors writing a thesis or dissertation under the Degree Conferral Act also agree to make their work public, and cannot request that a thesis remain unpublished.
The ministry should also amend accreditation regulations by demanding that a dissertation submitted by a teacher as a hiring qualification must be published, circulated and made available to the public at a library.
Transparent access to theses and dissertations — which facilitates the distribution of academic research and supervision by the public — will reduce malpractice.
Chang Chung-hsin is an assistant professor at Soochow University’s Law School.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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