Third level publishing studies: Lithuania, a case study

Under the umbrella of Book Science, research in publishing has a long tradition in Lithuania and is today perceived as an independent branch of scholarship within the Communication and Information Sciences. On the basis of original sources, the aim of this article is to analyse the work conducted by the Institute of Book Science and Documentation of Vilnius University in implementing third level publishing studies (meaning PhD level) and to outline the merits, weak points, opportunities and threats in the planning of further training of scholars within this particular branch. The key research sources are documentation governing doctoral studies in Lithuania, at Vilnius University and the field of Communication and Information Sciences, as well as Communication and Information Sciences doctoral study programmes and descriptions of disciplines, PhD student lists, students’ publication indexes and different archival documents of doctoral studies at the Institute of Book Science and Documentation of the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University.


Introduction
Although there are no published scientific articles on third level publishing studies in Lithuania, there are still several sources of information regarding doctoral studies in Library Science and Book Science. These sources include the text of Stanislovas Dubauskas about postgraduate studies in Library Science at Vilnius University (VU) that was written in 1999 on the 50 th anniversary of Library Science at VU (Dubauskas 1999, 123-129). Based on the list of PhD students between the years 1975 and 1998 (Dubauskas 1999, 312-317), the author conducted a review of the PhD students who had defended their dissertations both in the Soviet period and the first decade of independence. He also used this collated material in his work (Dubauskas 1997) when writing about thirdlevel studies in the encyclopaedic dictionary Knygotyra (Book Science). Another source of information is Domas Kaunas's article "Doktorantūra ir doktorantai" ("Doctoral studies and doctoral students") which was published on the 60 th anniversary of the Institute of Book Science and Documentation (IBSD) in the informational publication "Knygotyros katedra" ("Institute of Book Science") (Kaunas 2000). Referring to the text written by the same author (Kaunas 1997) and published in the abovementioned dictionary Knygotyra in 1997, this article presented a more extensive review of the third-level studies, discussing them as one of the fields of activity of the Institute in 1990-2000. A decade later, when the Faculty of Communication was preparing documents in relation to the right to organize third-level studies in the field of Communication and Information Sciences (CIS) at VU, Alma Braziūnienė generalized the data on postgraduate studies managed by the Institute in 1999-2010 and thus contributed to other collective considerations (Vilniaus universiteto dokumentai 2010, 29-31). Additionally, several other informational publications should also be mentioned: firstly, in 1997 and 1998, facts on the third-level studies in the field of CIS were presented in the activity reports of the Faculty of Communication (FC) (Komunikacijos fakultetas 1997; Komunikacijos fakultetas 1999); secondly, while implementing the 2008 project "Preservation of National Identity under Conditions of Globalization: The Renewal of Doctoral Study Programme in the Social Sciences and Humanities and the Creation of Postgraduate Studies Model" (BPD2004-ESF-2.50-03-05/0058), documents of doctoral studies at the VU Faculty of Philosophy and FC were published (Šaulauskas 2007;Šaulauskas, Vaškevičienė 2008); thirdly, upon request of the Ministry of Education and Science of Lithuania in 2009, models of organization and financing of third-level (doctoral) studies were examined, and later the results and recommendations on how the doctoral studies in Lithuania could be improved were announced (Doktorantūra 2009); and fourthly, the first article about doctoral studies in the field of CIS was published in 2014, generalizing the information about doctoral dissertations and their authors between the years 1993 and 2014 (Navickienė 2014). These works are of different nature and of differing importance. Some of them are generalized informational texts, whereas others are significant as published resources, documenting the situation of doctoral studies in the field of CIS that existed at those particular periods of time. Others again can be considered as guides providing knowledge on doctoral studies in Lithuania, as well as outlining best practice of European universities and presenting guidelines for improvements to be made in the sphere of third-level studies in the country. Until now, nobody has provided a thorough account of Lithuania's experience in third-level studies in publishing, nor investigated the legal basis on which doctoral studies in the field are based. Also, the range of students attracted to the field, the process of studies and issues of preparation for dissertations and results thereof have never previously been considered in detail.
The objective of this article is to analyse the experience of the Institute of Book Science and Documentation (IBSD) of VU in third level degree studies in publishing, to distinguish the main stages of development in these studies, and to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the studies with a view to planning future training of scholars. The main sources used in this article include documentation governing doctoral studies in Lithuania (the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Education and Studies), regulations governing doctoral studies at VU, rules governing doctoral studies in the field of CIS, CIS doctoral study programmes and descriptions of disciplines, PhD student lists, defended dissertation indexes and different archival documents of doctoral studies at the FC of VU. It is presumed that considerations in the article will contribute to the studies of the history of the CIS schools in Lithuania and will help to generalize the experience in organization of third level publishing studies at VU.

Period prior to establishment of doctoral/thirdlevel studies in publishing in Lithuania
Although Book Science has existed in Lithuania for several centuries, with publishing research linked to this branch of science, it was only in Soviet times that a formal system for training researchers in this field was established. Prior to 1975, doctoral dissertations in Book Science at VU were, in common with Library Sciences and Bibliography, conducted within the framework of postgraduate studies in Philology and History. The only other possibility open to Lithuanians at that time was to defend their theses in Moscow or Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 1975, postgraduate studies in Library science were introduced at VU (Dubauskas 1999, 123) and, together with the aforementioned postgraduate studies in History and Philology, served as the basis for today's third-level studies in Book Science, as well as for publishing within it.
With the restitution of Lithuania's independence, changes within VU saw the opening of the FC in 1991, with the re-establishment of the IBSD as a structural unit. Once re-established, the Institute continued the pre-war traditions of independent Book Science 1 , developed research in this field and monopolised the training of book science researchers, including those interested in publishing.
In today's post-independence Lithuania, two periods can be identified in regard to the development of doctoral studies in publishing. The first one covers a ten-year period from 1993 with the introduction of doctoral studies of Library Science and Book Science within Humanities at Vilnius University. The second period, running from 2003 to the present, reflects efforts to develop research in the field of publishing in Lithuania within Social Sciences at Vilnius University and to implement the EU's common agreements on doctoral studies.

1
Although in existence for only three years following its establishment in 1940, the Department of Bibliology was the first academic structure in the field of Book Science in Lithuania and, as such, formed an essential building block to today' s Institute of Book Science and Documentation. Libellarium, VIII, 1 (2015): 101 -112.
Doctoral studies in Lithuania, 1993Lithuania, -2002 Reacting to changes in requirements and regulations on studies following independence in Lithuania, this period was characterised by the creation of a new system of studies and training of Book Science researchers. Amongst the changes, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania began compiling a rolling five-year list of study institutions that could deliver doctoral studies, as well as introducing a number of laws to regulate universities. Consequently, with these new laws and internal regulations based on them, the relevant documents of universities across Lithuania came into effect, laying down requirements for the delivery of PhD studies, as well as regulating required qualifications for supervisors of PhD students, members of doctoral studies committees and dissertation defence boards, and opponents. These new regulations also provided for the procedure of organisation of PhD studies and defence of dissertations, and amended the length of PhD studies from five to four years.
The middle of this period witnessed a fundamental phenomenon of the institutionalisation of CIS which had a decisive influence on their further development. After centuries of existence within the fields of History and Philology, the era from 1997 has seen Book Science developing within a completely new field, namely Communication and Information Sciences. The first classification of sciences approved in independent Lithuania 2 categorised this field as a group of nine related sciences divided into three branches and attributed to the research area of the Humanities. According to this classification, the FC was authorised to provide doctoral studies, providing the stimulus for the development of CIS as a centralised school for the nine sciences, including research in publishing.
In the period from 1993 to 2003, there were nine doctoral dissertations on publishing successfully defended, representing an impressive 75% success rate (favourably comparable to the 64% for the IBSD as a whole, the even lower figure for VU in its entirety and the 40% for doctoral dissertations across Lithuania). The aforementioned nine doctoral dissertations and three non-defended dissertations dealt with the history of publishing, including analyses of Latin and Polish books of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL), the Lithuanian books in Lithuania Major and Lithuania Minor in the 19 th and early 20 th centuries, publishing in Lithuanian emigrants communities and the publishing of children's books in Soviet times, as well as the non-historic topic of publishing e-periodicals. The authors of these doctoral dissertations were graduates of the Vilnius university program Library Science and Bibliography Studies or experienced philologists working in old and rare book departments and other research-related units of In the context of these changes, the first PhD study programme in the field of CIS was approved in 2003 and subsequently has been used as the basis for creating individualised study plans for each doctoral student consisting of at least 20 credits (currently 30 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits) in compulsory and optional courses. The programme has been subject to multiple updates and amendments, including the refinement of subject profiles and introduction of new subjects 5 . Further significant changes came , but also entrenched higher qualification requirements for supervisors of PhD students and other persons working with third-level students, as well as tightened requirements for the dissemination of the outcomes of doctoral research and broadened the international character of doctoral studies (membership of a foreign expert in a dissertation defence board has become mandatory, except for dissertations dealing with Lithuania-related subjects).
Adaptation of the IBSD to the new requirements was facilitated by opportunities for PhD students to engage in the activities of NORSLIS (the Nordic Research School in Information Studies) and to join the multinational and multidisciplinary network HIBOLIRE (the Nordic-Baltic-Russian Network on the History of Books, Libraries and Reading) which is focused on the education of young scholars. Dissemination of research outcomes in publishing was implemented mainly through regularly held scientific events (converted to international conferences from 1999 and now transforming into regional events (Bliūdžiuvienė 2012) and publication in "Knygotyra" ("Book Science"), the recognised peer-reviewed, open access scholarly journal of VU (Braziūnienė 2013 University of Educational Sciences, Kaunas University of Technology, etc.) 8 . Since 2003, a total of nine students have worked on doctoral dissertations on publishingrelated issues, covering such modern topics as distribution of books, university publishing, handbook publishing, advertising and digital publishing. However, only four dissertations were successfully defended 9 , of which two dissertations tackled historical topics on censorship and regional book culture of the first half of the 20 th century and the other two were on publishing topics relevant to the current day, namely advertising and the quality of digital books. Comparing with the pre-2003 period, there was no decrease in the number of students choosing research into publishing 10 , but the rate of successful defence of research work was lower (44%) 11 . This was in line with the general trends of third-level studies of the IBSD unit (effectiveness decreased from 64% to 55%) and the average effectiveness in Social Sciences and Humanities in Lithuania, although there is severe competition for admission to doctoral studies in these areas. This lower success rate can be attributed to a number of factors, including the changing crop of applicants, problems with changing types of studies (full-time, part-time, in conjunction with work, etc.) 12 and social problems faced by PhD students due to insufficient funding, as well as generational changes in the scientists able to supervise such doctoral dissertations 13 and influences of the extended range of dissertation topics presented.  1905-1944. 10 The total number of PhD students at the IBSD increased to 18 (compared to 14 during the first stage). 11 This was in line with the general trends of third-level studies of the IBSD unit (effectiveness decreased from 64% to 55%) and the average effectiveness in social sciences and humanities in Lithuania, although there is severe competition for admission to doctoral studies in these areas. 12 It was characteristic of the Humanities and Social Sciences that applicant sought state-funded studies. However, in 2006 the first part-time doctoral student was admitted in the field, and the whole area too, who paid for studies herself. Yet, part-time studies when students have to conciliate their studies and work, and pay a fixed annual fee to the university, appeared to be unpopular and lacking effectiveness. Studies of the first foreign PhD student of Book Science in the field of CIS, Juan Pablo Blanco Garcia from Spain, also ended without success, as the student failed to pass the first-year study plan. 13 A comparison of researchers working with doctoral students in publishing field during the first and second stages suggests that number of them was growing and new generation began their career as supervisors. Today they represent a half of the Doctoral Studies Committee in the field of CIS, which is the main VU structure responsible for doctoral studies in this field, as well as account for 40% of the total number of faculty' s researcher qualified to work with third-level students.
Over the past decade, the process of preparing and defending doctoral dissertations that are more oriented towards current publishing problems was assisted by recognised Lithuanian researchers from the Institute of Social Research, Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Gediminas Technical University, Kaunas University of Technology, Vytautas Magnus University, Mykolas Romeris University, the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania and Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. From 2014 onwards, the participation of foreign experts in the activities of dissertation defence boards has been mandatory. This requirement is quite challenging due to the uncompetitive financial situation of Lithuanian research and studies institutions.
One more change worth mentioning in the context of the second period is the clarification of the concept of CIS at the level of classification of sciences.
In the updated version of the Lithuanian classification of sciences adopted in 2011, the field of CIS encompassed various branches previously scattered across the Humanities and Social Sciences, and fell within the field of Social Sciences 14 . This was the first time that this classification had been detailed at a sub-branch level and, in this classification, the branch of Book Science was presented as a structure consisting of 21 separate sub-branches, including publishing research 15 . Although the classification failed to identify the field as a multidisciplinary structure, it reflected the dynamics of the CIS field and its branches, illustrating linkage between the sciences at issue with the Humanities, Social Sciences and Information and Communication Technology Sciences.

Conclusions
While concluding, it should be noted that over several decades of competing in the Lithuanian academic market, Vilnius University has won the right to be the sole institution delivering doctoral studies in the CIS field. The FC has established itself as an academic unit with the greatest number of scholarly staff in this field and the IBSD has been the only institution providing doctoral studies in publishing. While widening its arena from solely traditional publishing history research, the Institute has become an academic body that also analyses current processes and has developed third-level publishing studies across the integrated nine fields of studies in the CIS. Having implemented the Bologna Process, the future outcomes and quality of studies will depend on external and internal factors that could be identified as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Strengths. PhD studies in publishing are an integral part of CIS doctoral studies at VU, the sole institution in Lithuania to deliver doctoral studies in this field. As a research centre for Book Science, the IBSD is the regional leader in the Baltic States in terms of scope and sustainability of research works, as well as in the pace of development of relevant topics. With the experience of professors and associate professors in the organisation of publishing studies at all three levels, the IBSD represents a concentration of scholarly and educational potential in this field. Topics of doctoral studies in publishing are closely related to research projects conducted by IBSD researchers. "Knygotyra", the scholarly journal of the IBSD, provides a possibility for PhD students to publish research outcomes on publishing topics. The IBSD tradition of organising international scientific events promotes dissemination of doctoral research findings beyond Lithuania's borders and creates opportunities for third-level students to establish and develop international research contacts.