Library & Cultural Services: Literature: Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations: Introduction

Theses and dissertations are a key source for finding the latest scholarship, additional material such as data sets, and detailed research. They can also help you find out what has been written on a topic, uncover other sources through citations, and get inspiration for your own research project. Use the resources below to search for PhD theses from universities in the UK and abroad. If you're a PhD student yourself, you can use the resources to make sure that your topic hasn't already been written about by other doctoral students.

Essex Theses

The Library received all Ph.D. and M.Phil. theses and M.Sc. (Regulation 3.5.) theses up to 30 September 2016. Theses submitted after this date are kept in the University of Essex Research Repository. We do not normally hold dissertations and theses connected with other degrees - the exception being LL.Ms. All of our theses are kept in Store and can only be consulted in the library - you'll need to use the online store request form or fill in a form at the library helpdesk to request them.

If you are looking for a specific thesis you can use Library Search to search for the author or title. If you want to find an Essex thesis on a particular topic/subject area, you can either add the word "thesis" to your keyword search, or limit your results to the "Essex theses" or "University of Essex Research Repository" collections.

Theses and Dissertations: Library E-resources

EThOS
EThOS aims to provide a 'single point of access' where researchers the world over can access all theses produced by UK Higher Education. The database can be searched by anyone, but individual users need to register to get access to the full text of theses. Many theses are free to download instantly, whilst others will only be available once digitisation has been requested. The hub automatically harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitises paper theses from participating institutions to offer the single point of access. Many UK institutions support Open Access to their theses, so download of their digital and digitised theses is free to the researcher. A small number of participating institutions may not be able to offer Open Access and in this case the researcher may have to pay for the digitisation. Where a thesis must be digitised before supply, you can expect a short delay. However, you will be informed when the thesis is ready for collection and you can then log on to the system and download it.
ProQuest dissertations and theses
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses: Global (PQDTGlobal) is the world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses. As the official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and as the database of record for graduate research, PQDTGlobal includes millions of searchable citations to dissertations and theses from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full-text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format. Over 2.1 million titles are available for purchase as printed copies. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full-text coverage for older graduate works. It also includes PQDT UK & Ireland content.

More than 70,000 new full-text dissertations and theses are added to the database each year through dissertations publishing partnerships with 700 leading academic institutions worldwide, and collaborative retrospective digitization of dissertations. Full-text dissertations are archived as submitted by the degree-granting institution. Some will be native PDF, some PDF image.

Each dissertation published since July, 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637. Where available, PQDTGlobal provides 24-page previews of dissertations and theses.

Note: Full text for certain publications is subject to market availability
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Theses and Dissertations: Free Websites and Portals

General

EBSCO Open Dissertations
Created from a collaboration between EBSCO and BiblioLabs, EBSCO Open Dissertations is a free electronic theses and dissertations database offering access to more than 800,000 ETDs, including those previously available in American Doctoral Dissertations.

Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations (NDLTD)
Portal to over 5 million digitised theses from around the world.
Open Access Theses and Dissertations
Resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations from universities around the world.
OpenThesis
Free repository of theses, dissertations, and other academic documents.

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