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Finding thesesLearning objectives
By the end of this module, you will know how to find theses from:
- world-wide digital theses collections
- national collections of digital theses.
Finding theses world-wide
Students studying at graduate level or above can order copies of theses from universities elsewhere through our interlibrary loans service. Theses are not counted as part of your quota and must be paid for separately.
You can also search for and download many digital theses without charge.
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) makes accessible digital theses from libraries across the world, including theses from the Europe, the UK and North America.
You can search the NDLTD using the search box below. The search syntax is Google-like and easy to use.
Institutional repositories
The NDLTD is not alone in providing a searchable database of digital theses. The DART-Europe E-theses Portal provides access to around 100,000 full-text research theses from 12 European countries
Another resource is BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine), which has more than 25 million records from 1,700 repositories worldwide. BASE is easy to search and has an English language interface, despite coming from Germany.
Sources such as the NDLTD, DART and BASE do not cover everything. Many full-text theses are available only from institutional repositories at universities around the world. One place to begin is the OpenDOAR. In addition to providing links to institutional repositories around the world, OpenDOAR lets you search for repositories or search repository contents.
Recent UNE theses
Over 300 UNE theses are available in e-publications@UNE, the University's collection of research outputs. There are a number of ways to access this content. If you wish to browse the theses in the collection:
- Click on the by form of material link under Browse at the e-publications home page
- Choose thesis doctoral, thesis masters research or thesis professional doctorate.
The advanced search allows you to find theses on your topic by entering your keywords and using thesis as one of your search terms. Most of the results of this search will be UNE theses. Many of the theses in e-publications@UNE are available in PDF for immediate download.
Older UNE theses
The University Library keeps copies of most Masters and PhD theses and some Honours theses. If you know the author's name or the exact thesis title you can locate the item with a simple Browse search in the UNE Library Catalogue. Finding theses on a particular topic requires a Keyword search.
- Go to the Keyword search screen
- In the first box, type university of new england theses
- Select Title as the Search Type
- Choose AND from the drop-down box to the right
- Type your keyword in the second box.
- Select All as the Search Type
- Click on the Search button.
If you search for university of new england theses AND account*, you will find theses with words such as account, accounts, accounting, accountant or accountants in the title.
Many older theses have been microfilmed and have a call number beginning with MF000. These are in the Microform collection on the Ground Floor. More recent theses are held in paper on the Lower Ground Floor. Call numbers beginning with ED indicate Masters of Educational Administration theses. All other theses have call numbers starting with TH.
If the thesis you require is not in the catalogue, it is possible that it is held elsewhere on campus. Schools or Faculties keep copies of fourth year, Honours and M.Litt theses. Contact the relevant School or Faculty if you need to read these theses.
Except in special circumstances, the UNE theses in the Library's collection are available for loan and will be sent to external students free of charge.
Trove
Trove provides links to Australian digital theses and details of theses in paper form. Many Australian institutions now have institutional repositories which include the full text of digital theses. A list of institutional repositories at Australian universities is available from the CAIRSS site.
Libraries Australia
Libraries Australia provides you another means of searching for theses and dissertations held in Australian university libraries. Note that a search of Libraries Australia will also find theses from other countries held in Australian libraries.
- Go to the Libraries Australia search screen.
- Click on the Advanced Search tab.
- Choose your search type and keywords.
- Click in the check box next to the word Theses.
- Click on the Search button.
New Zealand Theses
Theses at New Zealand Universities can be found using a number of sources. These include the following:
- New Zealand Libraries' Catalogue
- Kiwi Research Information Service
- New Zealand Educational Theses Database
You may also like to search the library catalogues of individual higher education institutions in New Zealand.
UK and Irish theses
Index to Theses is an online database which lists all UK and Irish theses from 1716 to the present. Index to Theses provides both abstracts (from 1970 onwards) and an increasing number of links to full text.
Many UK digital theses are available in full-text through Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS). For information on using EThOS, see the page on the Reading university site.
United States theses
The most complete source for theses from North American universities is ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT). This database includes over 3 million PhD and Masters theses, mostly from universities in United States and Canada. package.
This collection can be searched through ProQuest Dissertation Express. Using the Dissertation Express, you can can search for theses by title and keyword for free. With a credit card, you can order copies of a thesis in PDF format or paper.
Another ProQuest product is PQDT Open, which provides open access theses and dissertations from the ProQuest collection. PQDT Open allows anyone to download free full-text dissertations and theses. You can search PQDT Open by date, author, title, school and keyword.
UNE's ProQuest subscription includes 30,000 full-text dissertations. Most of these theses are in the areas of business, psychology, physical sciences, health and education, although there is also a smaller number of theses in other disciplines. To your limit the search to dissertations you need to ensure that only Dissertations and Theses is selected in the Source Type menu.
Canadian theses
The National Library of Canada's Theses Canada Portal provides free online access to the full-text of Canadian dissertations and theses from 1998 onwards.
- Go to the Theses Canada Portal.
- Click on Search the Thesis Collection.
- Choose to search All Theses or Electronic Theses and enter your search or Search the full text of electronic theses.
Dutch theses
NARCIS provides access to the full-text of over 12,000 PhD theses from Dutch universities. Many of these theses are in English. All are available for immediate download. To search for a Dutch thesis:
- Go to the English-language version of the NARCIS main page.
- Enter your search terms.
- Click on Search.
French theses
The Système universitaire de documentation (SUDOC) provides an online catalog for theses holdings at French academic libraries. Coverage goes back to 1972 for theses in the humanities and social sciences. SUDOC theses are not generally available in full-text.
- Go to the SUDOC Advanced Search page.
- Uncheck everything except Thèses (version de soutenance) under Type de Publication.
- Enter your keywords.
- Click on Search.
German theses
German digital theses are available through dissonline.de. Follow these steps:
- Go to the dissonline.de full-text search window.
- Enter your keywords.
- Click on the Suchen button.
In a many cases, you can download the full-text of a digital thesis at no charge.
Finnish theses
The University of Helsinki's e-Thesis site provides the full-text of recent theses. Many of these theses are in English. To search the University's database:
- Go to the e-Thesis main page.
- Enter your keywords in the search box (searching is based on Google).
- Click on the Search button.
Italian theses
Tesionline allows you to search Italian theses.
- Go to the Tesionline search page.
- Enter your keywords.
- Click on Cerca for a keyword search or Cerca frase esatta to run a phrase search.
Spanish theses
An excellent starting point is Bases de Datos de Tesis Doctorales (TESEO). This source includes details of theses completed at Spanish universities since 1976. It can be searched by author, title, keyword, abstract, and university. To find Spanish theses:
- Go to the TESEO search page.
- Enter your keywords.
- Click on Buscar en Teseo.
Swiss Theses
Helveticat is the online catalogue of the Swiss National Library. To find Swiss theses:
- Go to Helveticat's English-language interface.
- Enter your keywords in the Search boxes and choose the appropriate.
- Click on Set Session Filters.
- Click on Theses under the Nature of Contents filters.
- Click on Save.
- Click on Search.
Japanese theses
JAIRO allows you to search the repositories of 84 Japanese educational institutions.
- Go to the JAIRO search page.
- Click on the Check Clear button and click on the Thesis or Dissertation check box.
- Enter your keywords.
- Click on Search button.
Finding theses in progress
This is a difficult topic. For some advice, see the page on theses and dissertations at the Lancaster University Library site.
Summary
This module has shown you how to find theses from:
- universities world-wide
- the University of New England
- other universities in Australia and New Zealand
- North American institutions
- European universities
- Japanese universities.