Angela Carritt and Sue Bird WISER Finding Stuff: Theses and Dissertations

 How to find Oxford theses  How to find theses from other Universities  How to obtain copies of theses from other Universities What will you learn in this session

Oxford theses

  Printed copies from c mid/late 1970s-  Digital copies of theses on ORA (Oxford’s research repository)   Digital copies of (mainly recent theses) – small collection at the moment  If you can’t find a thesis – ask your subject librarian…. Finding tools for Oxford theses

Science theses (D.Phil. and M.Sc.)1976/7- : Radcliffe Science Library Law theses : Bodleian Law Library Sub-Saharan Africa and Commonwealth (except South Asia) : Commonwealth and African Studies (Rhodes House) Library United States : Vere Harmswoth Library Economics M.Phils : Social Science Library Everything else : Bodleian Library (consult in Duke Humphrey) incld:  non-science D.Phil. Theses 1917-;  M.Litt./B.Litt  M.Phil  B.Phil. and B.D. Where are Oxford theses kept?

Searching SOLO: Author / Title

Searching SOLO: Author

Searching SOLO: Subject

Searching SOLO by Faculty / Dept

Searching SOLO for supervisors

UK and Irish theses

 Catalogue of theses accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland since 1716  Access via SOLO or Oxlip+ (search for Index to Theses)  For each thesis:  Bibliographic details: author, title, university, year etc  Abstract  Sometimes a link to full text  Via eThos  Via University research repository  If no link to full text doesn’t mean its not available! Index to Theses

Index to theses - searching Use boolean operators to combine terms e.g. OR for synonyms AND to find both terms “quotation marks” for phrases * For alternative word endings

Index to Theses - finding full text from the abstract Check for full text using British Libraries EThOS service Find URL for “institutional repository” – worth checking this for full text, if no full text available via EThoS

 Check SOLO – we do have some “non Oxford” theses  Check EThOS (  Other options (in no particular order)  Find out if the awarding University has a research repository – particularly worthwhile for recent theses  Ask your subject librarian about an inter library loan...but most universities don’t lend theses  Pay for eThOS to digitise the thesis  Arrange to visit the awarding University to read the thesis  Contact the author Finding full text

Theses from outside the UK and Ireland

 2.7 million dissertations and theses from around the World but especially the US  Access via SOLO or Oxlip+ (search for “Dissertations and Theses”)  Options for obtaining full text  Electronic full text available for many Social Sciences and Humanities theses. If not…  Speak to your subject librarian about obtaining a copy  Purchase a copy  Contact the author... Proquest’s “Dissertations & Theses”

Dissertations and Theses – searching If you get too many results limit by field. Abstract particularly good for subject searching Limit by date if appropriate Limit by degree Use “quotation marks” for phrases * for alternative endings

Dissertations and Theses – results page Narrow down your search by subject, author, school (institution), date etc Options for viewing / ordering , print, export to reference management etc Set up alerts for new theses matching your criteria

 Specialist theses databases (Oxlip+ - Subjects – Theses) esp:  Dart – Europe e-thesis portal  Australasian Digital thesis program  Database of African Theses and Dissertations  Theses Canada  Theses completed and in progress (Institute for Historial Research) Other options for non UK theses

 Check specialist bibliographic databases for your subject  Check library catalogues  Worldcat ( and Karlsruher Virtueller Katalog ( ) –Library catalogues from acround the Worldhttp://  COPAC ( –UK research librarieswww.copac.ac.uk  Catalogues of National Libraries  Sudoc ( – French academic librarieswww.sudoc.abes.fr Other options for finding theses

 Ask your subject librarian for advice Ask a Librarian