Accessibility, digitisation and analysis of historical European dissertations
Despite their scientific value, many historical medical dissertations are difficult to access. This has a negative impact on current research and diminishes the visibility and recognition of the original authors.
This interdisciplinary pilot project focuses on digitising medical dissertations from the Baltic Sea region (1880–1950), assessing their legally compliant reusability and creating more detailed metadata.
The project has three main objectives:
- Developing a prototype for the automated extraction of mortality data (dates of death)
- Evaluating the potential for historical research within digitised dissertations
- Producing a legal expert opinion on the comprehensive use of European dissertations, including their application in AI models
Focus on legally secure, sustainable use
The goal of the project is to make the digitised works are legally accessible, particularly in light of recent developments in artificial intelligence and large language models. A key priority is enriching metadata, and in particular to clarify copyright status by determining authors’ dates of death.
Networking and outlook
As part of a network of pilot initiatives, Dissify will engage in active exchanges with the scientific community. The results will serve as guidelines for other institutions and provide the foundation for a future European dissertation platform.
The long-term objective of the project is to improve the digital accessibility of historical dissertations and enhance their discoverability for researchers.
ZB MED’s role in the project
ZB MED is responsible for Work Package 1:
- Automated extraction of biographical data from texts
- Automated determination of dates of death to distinguish between individuals with identical names
- Automatically calculating the date a publication enters the public domain based on the date of death and adding this to the document’s metadata
- Transmitting enriched data to the Name Authority File
Duration
- 1 October 2025 - 30 September 2027
Funding body
- German Research Foundation (DFG) - Scientific Library Services and Information Systems (LIS)
Coordination project: Digitisation and provision of (still) copyright-protected objects
Project number: 565356721
Partners
- Prof. Dr. Nils Hansson, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
- Prof. Dr. Hannah Ruschemeier, Universität Osnabrück
