Looking for theses and dissertations part II

If budget is not a primary issue, it is often possible to buy a copy of a thesis or dissertation from ProQuest. Another approach might be to look at other publications in the same field by other authorities. For example, if theses are difficult to obtain, see if the same authors and their dissertation advisers have published books or articles on similar subjects that might be informative.

The student may explain:

I do not have the budget to purchase copies of dissertations.

Our solution might be:

In that case, try searching on PQDT Open.

PQDT Open, offered by ProQuest’s UMI Dissertation Publishing, provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. It is possible to find dissertations and theses useful for our research, and read them in PDF format.

If the student wants to know:

Is that the only source for free, open access thesis?

We may answer:

There are more free, open access options at Ebsco Open Dissertations, a free database with records for more than 800,000 electronic theses and dissertations from around the world.

Other solutions

The student may still need more advice, and might ask:

Are there any other places to look for dissertations?

Our reply would be:

It depends what the subject of research is, since some of the thesis websites are national in scope, although the subjects they deal with are international.

For instance, The British Library’s EThOS (E-Theses Online Service). As its website notes,

EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service… It demonstrates the quality of UK research, and supports the UK Government’s open access principle that publications resulting from publicly-funded research should be made freely available for all researchers, providing opportunities for further research. EThOS helps institutions to meet the expectation of the UK Research Councils that PhDs supported by a Research Council Training Grant should be made freely available in an open access repository…

EThOS aims to provide:

A national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK Higher Education institutions

Free access to the full text of as many theses as possible for use by all researchers to further their own research.

There are approximately 500,000 records relating to theses awarded by over 120 institutions. Around 260,000 of these also provide access to the full text thesis, either via download from the EThOS database or via links to the institution’s own repository. Of the remaining 220,000 records dating back to at least 1800, three quarters are available to be ordered for scanning through the EThOS digitisation-on-demand facility.

Naturally, with so many disserations on different subjects, it is possible that even if our TU students’ research has nothing to do with the UK, that a student from the UK may have written a thesis on a similar subject. So it is worth searching, especially since searches can be done so quickly. Other alternatives are The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) Global ETD Search service.

NDLTD is an international organization that promotes and preserves electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). Its goals:

• To be the leading international organization for promotion of ETDs worldwide.
• To provide useful and innovative resources, standards, and technology for development of ETD programs.
• To encourage institutions of higher education to use NDLTD resources and participate in NDLTD activities.

If more options are wanted, DART-Europe, a partnership of research libraries and library consortia working to improve global access to European research theses. As its website states,

The DART-Europe partners help to provide researchers with a single European Portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), and they participate in advocacy to influence future European e-theses developments. DART-Europe offers partners a European networking forum on ETD issues, and may provide the opportunity to submit collaborative funding applications to achieve DART-Europe’s vision for ETDs.

Dissertations.se, a collection of university dissertations written in English from Sweden.

The TU Library e-thesis webpage also lists DiVA – Academic Archive Online, a publishing system for research and student theses and a digital archive for long-term preservation of publications. DiVA is a product of another Swedish institution, Uppsala University Library. As with the case of the UK theses on the British Library website, the dissertations made available there are on all sorts of topics, and not just about national issues. Likewise, the Theses Canada Portal of the Library and Archives Canada offers over 500,000 theses. TU students searching this website should note that it is currently being updated. Right now, Theses Canada only offers theses and dissertations submitted up to 2016. Next year, when the system update has been completed, then all Canadian theses from 2016 to 2019 will be added and available for search and download.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)