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Finding Theses
Workbook
Edition 3 November 2014 Document reference: 3832-2014
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Finding Theses
Contents
1. Where to Start Where to Start ................................................................................................................. 1
2. Finding UK Theses Index to Theses ............................................................................................................... 2 EThos.............................................................................................................................. 2 Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA) ................................................................................ 3
3. Finding International Theses ProQuest Dissertations & Theses .................................................................................... 4 China Doctoral and Masters Dissertations Full-text database .......................................... 5 DART Europe E-Theses portal ........................................................................................ 5 Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network ............................................... 6 OpenGrey : grey literature in Europe ............................................................................... 6 Google Scholar ............................................................................................................... 7 What about theses currently in progress? ....................................................................... 7
4. Hands On exercises : Theses databases Index to Theses ............................................................................................................... 8 ProQuest Dissertations & Theses .................................................................................... 9
5. Finding theses held at the University of Edinburgh Theses @ Edinburgh..................................................................................................... 10 How to find a U of E Thesis ........................................................................................... 11 Consulting Theses......................................................................................................... 11 Obtaining theses not held at Edinburgh ......................................................................... 12 Getting help ................................................................................................................... 13
6. Useful websites Useful websites ............................................................................................................. 13
Finding Theses
1. Where to Start 1
1. Where to Start
The Theses Subject Guide is the best place to start.
1. Choose ‘Subject Guides’ from the Library Essentials Web page or MyEd Library tab
2. Find ‘Theses’ in the A-Z List
3. Then to find out what theses have been written – at Edinburgh University and elsewhere – choose the Theses databases link.
4. Key databases are highlighted in the list.
Finding Theses
2 2. Finding UK Theses
2. Finding UK Theses
Index to Theses
You can find out about British theses using Index to Theses. This indexes theses accepted for higher degrees by the universities in Great Britain and Ireland, since 1970. Abstracts are available for the most recent theses. Index to Theses is the most complete source of information for British theses. It contains links to full text where available on institutional repositories / Ethos BUT in many cases you need to note theses’ details and pursue the references elsewhere.
EThos
A British Library service providing full text of thousands of UK Higher Education theses (free to staff and students of the University of Edinburgh). Registration is required for full-text access and there may be a delay of some days in receiving required copy. Coverage is not as complete as Index to Theses.
Note: Not all UK institutions are part of the EThOS scheme - Oxford and Cambridge Universities are notable omissions
Finding Theses
2. Finding UK Theses 3
Edinburgh Research Archive (ERA)
ERA is a digital repository of research produced at The University of Edinburgh. It is a selection of our best research including full-text digital Theses and Dissertations. Since autumn 2005 all UoE theses have to be submitted in electronic form into ERA.
Tip: So that means if you’re looking for a University of Edinburgh Thesis from 2005 you should be able to find it in full text
online
Finding Theses
4 3. Finding International Theses
3. Finding International Theses
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses claims to be the world’s most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offer full text for graduate works added since 1997, along with selected full text for works written prior to 1997.
Note: Don’t expect PQDFT to be a single resource for all theses though - it isn’t – particularly for UK Russell Group Universities where full text is rarely present.
Finding Theses
3. Finding International Theses 5
China Doctoral and Masters Dissertations Full-text Database China Doctoral Dissertations and China Masters’ Theses. contains thousands of such texts from higher education institutions and research institutes in China since 1984.
DART Europe E-Theses portal For a Europe wide search, the DART Europe E-Theses portal http://www.dart-europe.eu/basic-search.php – at the time of writing, this is offering access to 555760
open access research theses from 566 Universities in 28 European countries.
Tip: The search screen citation record & abstracts are in English, but the theses are in Chinese so you do need to be able to read Chinese
Finding Theses
6 3. Finding International Theses
Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network For theses from further afield, you could try the Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network. http://www-apps.crl.edu/catalog/dissertationSearch.asp
Open Grey : system for information on Grey Literature in Europe
OpenGrey covers grey literature, that is written material such as reports and dissertations which is not published commercially or is not widely accessible. It includes data on theses.
Finding Theses
3. Finding International Theses 7
Google Scholar
But why bother with all of this when you could just use Google Scholar? Google Scholar says it indexes theses and dissertations from throughout the world. But what is it actually searching?
theses posted on institutional digital repositories or on personal web pages.
ProQuest has an arrangement with Google Books which allows indexing and
searching across bibliographic data for works published in 2007 onwards, plus
Google Books provides a preview of up to 20% of a dissertation or thesis.
This means that the number of full text theses may be limited.
What about theses currently in progress?
Finding out about theses and dissertations in progress is not easy.
There’s no single reliable source of information for theses currently in progress. Those that do exist, such as the Universal Index of Doctoral Dissertations in Progress http://www.phddata.org/, receive submissions on a voluntary basis and are likely to be incomplete.
Tip: Try including either "master's thesis", "doctoral thesis", or "doctoral dissertation" (as appropriate) for search words to refine your search on Google Scholar
Note: Universities have systematically preserved their PhD output, but this isn’t
necessarily the case for Masters dissertations, which are much less likely to be preserved. Google Scholar can be a way to discover these, where they exist.
Finding Theses
8 4. Hands-On exercises
Other available listings focus on a particular subject or geographical area, e.g. Theological Research Exchange Network, Pankur (Classics), History On-Line: Theses in Progress …Be aware that many of the listings are not updated frequently. If you know of departments and institutions working in your field, you could investigate their websites.
4. Hands-On exercises
Finding Theses – Hands On Exercises.
First, find the Subject Guide for Theses and the list of Theses databases as instructed above in 1.
1. Index to Theses
Your research topic is broadly focused on internet shopping and consumer behaviour.
Try a Quick search on internet shopping or online shopping. How many results do you get?
Now try the Simple search. What’s the most recent thesis you can find, and which institution is it from? Can you get hold of the full text online?
2. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Still thinking about internet shopping and consumer behaviour, go to ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
ProQuest takes you to the Basic Search screen straight away. Try a search on internet shopping.
Narrow your results to theses 2010-2019.
Look up at the related searches box. Are there any helpful related searches that you could use to focus your search?
You can use the ‘Narrow results by’ options to refine your search down further.
Note: Do remember though that people often change the topic of their thesis
during the course of their research. Not all students complete on time and there is no guarantee that someone who registered to do a particular topic will eventually produce a thesis which you can read.
Finding Theses
4. Hands-On exercises 9
Let’s focus on a particular thesis. Look for : The impact of quality on customer behavioural intentions based on the consumer decision making process as applied in e-commerce Wen, Chao, University of North Texas, 2012.
Click on Citation/Abstract to see the abstract for the thesis. Note the keywords used to describe the thesis – these may prove useful search terms for you to find related material.
Click on Back to Results. Now click on Preview – Pdf to get a sample of the thesis contents.
3. If you have time, try out one or more of the other theses databases, or Google Scholar.
Tip: Getting a sample of thesis contents will help you decide how relevant the thesis is to you, and whether it’s worth downloading the full version.
Finding Theses
10 5. Finding Theses Held at the University of Edinburgh
5. Finding Theses Held at the University of Edinburgh
We’ll now move to theses held at the University of Edinburgh, where they are and how you can access them. It’s all fully explained in the ‘Theses’ section of the CRC website. However, a quick overview here!
Theses @ Edinburgh
First all, what theses do we hold? The Library principally holds higher degree theses only, e.g. Ph.D, D.Phil
Finding Theses
5. Finding Theses Held at the University of Edinburgh 11
How to Find a University of Edinburgh Thesis
First all, what
Consulting Theses
Tip: Ask the CRC staff if you need help!
Finding Theses
12 5. Finding Theses Held at the University of Edinburgh
Note: Any scanned copies will automatically be added to ERA
for future users.
Tip: Most Edinburgh University Theses are held in the CRC, principally Arts, Humanities, Medicine and & Veterinary Medicine.
Finding Theses
6. Useful URLs 13
Getting Help
6. Useful URLs
Center for Research Libraries Global Resources Network
http://www-apps.crl.edu/catalog/dissertationSearch.asp
CRC Website : http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/crc
DART Europe E-Theses portal http://www.dart-europe.eu/basic-search.php
ERA : http://www.era.lib.ed.ac.uk/index.jsp
Google Scholar : http://www.scholar.google.co.uk
OpenGrey : http://www.opengrey.eu/
Theses Subject Guide ; http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/subject-guides-theses
Universal Index of Doctoral Dissertations in Progress http://www.phddata.org/