Quantitative Pathology of University Theses Written based on Lithographic Books

Based on research approaches and fields, various information sources are available to researchers. Although access to a part of these resources sometimes faces limitations, refusing to pay attention to it will lead to defects in the results. In the meantime, the use of archival sources is considered one of the important topics in the field of research. One of the sources in this field is lithographic books. This industry entered Iran from the middle of the Qajar period (1249 AH) and in a short time it replaced lead printing and was used until the end of the Qajar period (1344 AH) and shortly after, due to the widespread acceptance of the society. In about a century, numerous works were published using this lithography technique, which were mostly reprints of works from previous eras or published by the authors of this era. The aim of the current research is to answer several questions about how many of the university theses written in Iran have focused on lithographic sources and the geographical distribution (city-university), the field distribution, the distribution of courses and its year, in what way and in the meantime, what approaches have prevailed in the use of these research sources?

The method of this descriptive-analytical research and sampling is based on two databases approved by the Ministry of Science and academic and research centers (Irandoc and National Library) and the website of university libraries. However, the findings of the current research, like other quantitative researches based on the examination of samples, are not completely certain and there can be an error rate of 5-10 percent in it, because the primary and supplementary information recorded by a number of academic centers and students, sometimes It is accompanied by defects and mistakes.

Based on the case study of all theses extracted, the findings indicate that 43 university centers in 17 cities have written only 255 theses, among which Tehran with 15 universities and 183 theses. It is at the top of this statistic. The disciplines benefiting from 21 lithographic books and illustration with 115 theses have a noticeable distance from other disciplines. 1, 14, 223, and 17 theses have been written in associate degree, bachelor degree, master degree, and doctoral degree, respectively.