Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will know how to find theses from:

• universities in Australia and New Zealand
• universities in great Britain and Ireland
• North American institutions
• other universities world-wide

Theses from Australian and New Zealand universities

Libraries Australia

Libraries Australia provides you with a quick means of searching for theses and dissertations held in Australian university 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.

Entries for theses available as part of the Australasian Digital Theses Project (ADT) include links to the full-text of the thesis in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.

New Zealand Theses

Theses at New Zealand Universities can be found using the NZ National Bibliographic Database or by searching library catalogues at individual universities. Search the National Bibliographic Database with the keyword "thesis". Note: access to the NZ National Bibliographic database is limited to subscribing institutions.

New Zealand Theses are also included in the Australasian Digital Theses project.

Australasian Digital Theses (ADT) Project

The ADT aims to build a comprehensive electronic archive of Master and PhD theses from universities in Australia and New Zealand. Theses are usually available in full-text in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. Pull-down menus allow you to easily construct complex searches from the ADT Advanced Search window.

Searching ADT Search the ADT database for theses on your topic by clicking on the button below and entering some relevant keywords.

ARROW Discovery Service

Another way of searching for Australian digital theses is through the ARROW Discovery Service. In addition to providing information on unpublished theses, the Service provides details of preprints, postprints, journal articles, images, working papers and technical reports. The ARROW databases contains more than 137,000 records harvested from 23 university repositories and 12 other research collections. Most of the records in the ARROW database include links to full text.

You can search the ARROW database online at the Arrow site.

Obtaining copies of Australian theses

Older theses from other Australian libraries are usually available for loan or purchase. Formats and permissions vary from university to university. Your institutional library's document delivery service will usually act for you in acquiring theses from other Australian universities.

Increasingly, theses are being sold by Australian universities over the internet. The following universities have web pages where you can order copies of theses for yourself:

• Australian National University
• University of Melbourne
• University of Queensland
• University of Sydney

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 also provides abstracts for theses from 1970. Access is by subscription only. If your institution does not have a subscription to Index to Theses, details of most British doctoral theses are available in the British Library Catalogue. Perform an Advanced search with thesis as an added keyword.

In most instances, Index to Theses features abstracts only. Many full text theses accepted for Doctoral degrees by British universities are available from the British Library (BL) as part of the British Theses Service. Further information, and online ordering, is available from the British Library site.

A growing number of UK theses are available in digital form from institutional repositories. Soon these will accessible through the Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS), a UK digital thesis initiative which will make online theses available from over 90 UK Higher Education Institutions.

United States theses

The most complete source for theses from North American universities is ProQuest's Dissertation Abstracts. This database includes over 2.3 million PhD and Masters theses from the United States and Canada. Contact your institutional library for access information, as access is by subscription only.

Another ProQuest product is ProQuest Dissertation Express. Using the Dissertation Express, you can can search for theses by title for free. With a credit card, you can order an unbound copy of older theses for US$61.00 per copy for Express delivery (5 to 7 days) or US$41.00 for regular mail delivery (2 to 3 weeks).

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 Find a Thesis.
• Click on Search.
• Click in the All theses or Electronic Theses radio button.
• Enter your keywords in the Index box or Full text box.
• Click on Submit.

Finding theses elsewhere

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is a project designed to make accessible digital theses from libraries across the world, including theses from the UK and North America.

Searching NDLTD You can search the NDLTD using the search box below. The search syntax is Google-like and easy to use. Keyword

National thesis collections

Many European countries have digital theses projects or include information on theses in national library catalogues. For further information on accessing theses from Europe, see the Finding Theses page at eSKILLS Plus and the Guide page at E-thesis developments across Europe.

Institutional repositories

Many full-text theses are also available in institutional repositories at universities around the world. A good place to begin is the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR).

Summary

This module has shown you how to find theses from:

• universities in Australia and New Zealand
• European universities
• North American institutions
• universities world-wide.