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Theses & dissertations: home, access to theses and dissertations from other institutions and from the university of cambridge.

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad. 

For information and guidance on depositing your thesis as a cambridge phd, visit the cambridge office of scholarly communication pages on theses here ., this guide gives essential information on how to obtain theses using the british library's ethos service. .

On the last weekend of October, the British Library became the victim of a major cyber-attack. Essential digital services including the BL catalogue, website and online learning resources went dark, with research services like the EThOS collection of more than 600,000 doctoral theses suddenly unavailable. The BL state that they anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is now expected to persist for several months. For the latest news on the attack and information on the restoration of services, please follow the BL blog here:  Knowledge Matters blog  and access the LibGuide page here:  British Library Outage Update - Electronic Legal Deposit - LibGuides at University of Cambridge Subject Libraries

A full list of resources for searching theses online is provided by the Cambridge A-Z, available here .

University of Cambridge theses

Finding a cambridge phd thesis online via the institutional repository.

The University's institutional repository, Apollo , holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates. Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link . More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be found on the access to Cambridge theses webpage.   The requirement for impending PhD graduates to deposit a digital version in order to graduate means the repository will be increasing at a rate of approximately 1,000 per year from this source.   About 200 theses are added annually through requests to make theses Open Access or via requests to digitize a thesis in printed format.

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

Theses can be searched in iDiscover .  Guidance on searching for theses in iDiscover can be found here .   Requests for consultation of printed theses, not available online, should be made at the Manuscripts Reading Room (Email:  [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 333143).   Further information on the University Library's theses, dissertations and prize essays collections can be consulted at this link .

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form either through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit via the image request form , or, if the thesis has been digitised, it may be available in the Apollo repository. Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.  The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study.

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

Are you a Cambridge alumni and wish to make your Ph.D. thesis available online? You can do this by depositing it in Apollo the University's institutional repository. Click here for further information on how to proceed.    Current Ph.D students at the University of Cambridge can find further information about the requirements to deposit theses on the Office of Scholarly Communication theses webpages.

UK Theses and Dissertations

Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS , a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions. It achieves this by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and by digitising print theses as they are ordered by researchers using the system. Over 250,000 theses are already available in this way. Please note that it does not supply theses submitted at the universities of Cambridge or Oxford although they are listed on EThOS.

Registration with EThOS is not required to search for a thesis but is necessary to download or order one unless it is stored in the university repository rather than the British Library (in which case a link to the repository will be displayed). Many theses are available without charge on an Open Access basis but in all other cases, if you are requesting a thesis that has not yet been digitised you will be asked to meet the cost. Once a thesis has been digitised it is available for free download thereafter.

When you order a thesis it will either be immediately available for download or writing to hard copy or it will need to be digitised. If you order a thesis for digitisation, the system will manage the process and you will be informed when the thesis is available for download/preparation to hard copy.

See the Search results section of the  help page for full information on interpreting search results in EThOS.

EThOS is managed by the British Library and can be found at http://ethos.bl.uk . For more information see About EThOS .

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted, sometimes on an open access basis from the institutional repository. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations beyond the UK is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , which facilitates searching across institutions. Information can also usually be found on the library web pages of the relevant institution.

The DART Europe etheses portal lists several thousand full-text theses from a group of European universities.

The University Library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  (PQDT) database which from August 31 2023 is accessed on the Web of Science platform.  To search this index select it from the Web of Science "Search in" drop-down list of databases (available on the Documents tab on WoS home page)

PQDT includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations, representing 700 leading academic institutions worldwide from 1861 to the present day. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. 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.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The University Library only subscribes to the abstracting & indexing version of the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database and NOT the full text version.  A fee is payable for ordering a dissertation from this source.   To obtain the full text of a dissertation as a downloadable PDF you can submit your request via the University Library Inter-Library Loans department (see contact details below). NB this service is only available to full and current members of the University of Cambridge.

Alternatively you can pay yourself for the dissertation PDF on the PQDT platform. Link from Web of Science record display of any thesis to PQDT by clicking on "View Details on ProQuest".  On the "Preview" page you will see an option "Order a copy" top right.  This will allow you to order your own copy from ProQuest directly.

Dissertations and theses submitted at non-UK universities may also be requested on Inter-Library Loan through the Inter-Library Loans department (01223 333039 or 333080, [email protected] )

• Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023 9:47 AM
• URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/theses

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Research Repository

• Interactive resource

Introduction to EThOS: the British Library database of UK theses

Public deposited.

Abstract The British Library service known as EThOS is effectively a shop window on the amazing doctoral research undertaken in UK universities. With half a million thesis titles listed, you can uncover unique research on every topic imaginable and often download the full thesis file to use immediately for your own research. This webinar will offer a guided walk through the features and content of EThOS, and the research potential for making use of EThOS as a dataset. There was a brief sound issue during the demonstration of EThOS in this webinar, you can find more information about how to search EThOS at: https://ethos.bl.uk/Help.do

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Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository

Apollo is the institutional repository of the University of Cambridge, managed by the Open Research Systems team based in Cambridge University Library. The Repository is committed to store and preserve the University’s research outputs. Research outputs can include, but are not limited to, publications, conference proceedings, book chapters, monographs, theses, various forms of research data (video recordings, spreadsheets, computational scripts, code, images etc.), presentations and others.

How to deposit

Detailed information about deposit processes into Apollo, including eligibility for inclusion in Apollo.

Governance and policies

Detailed information about repository governance and an outline of key relevant policies.

Recent submissions

Research data and Software

Library Services

Here we explain how to access copies of research theses that UCL Library Services holds. There is also an increasing number of open access thesis repositories available online.

Theses held in UCL Library

Open access repositories containing the full text of selected research theses.

• Indexes of completed theses

Obtaining copies of research theses

• Open Access for Thesis: how to deposit

University of London theses

The Library holds a copy of most research degree theses completed by students registered at UCL and awarded by the UoL, including many from students at Schools and Institutes prior to merger with UCL. Theses are listed by author on the Library catalogue, Explore : they are shelved in our off-campus Store and may be retrieved for consultation (24-hour notice required) by completing the store request form or via the request link on Explore. Theses are not available for loan, either to individuals or via interlibrary loan.

Some UoL research degree theses submitted by UCL students in the areas of classical, Germanic, Latin American studies; history and law are not held: check the UoL School of Advanced Study catalogue for availability.

UCL started to award its own degrees to students registering from 2007/2008. Print copies of research theses are catalogued by author in Explore and shelved in Store; electronic versions are in many cases available on open access in UCL Discovery .

If you wish to access a thesis recorded in UCL Discovery for which the full text is subject to an access restriction or not present, it is best to contact the author directly to request a copy privately.  If this is not possible, please contact the UCL Open Access Team .

If a thesis is not available via UCL Discovery or EThOS (see below) then it might be possible to obtain a copy from our interlibrary loan service via your home university interlibrary loan department. Please contact your university library and ask them to enquire about this service with UCL's Interlibrary Loan service; e-mail [email protected] for more information.

The Library does not normally hold print copies of any theses in the following categories:

• MA, MSc, MRes, LLM theses.
• Diploma theses.
• Undergraduate dissertations.
• Theses submitted at other universities or colleges.

Further information is available in the Support for dissertations and research projects LibGuide .

A growing number of open access thesis repositories is becoming available including:

• ProQuest , holds many full text theses. You can search for dissertations and theses there.
• UCL Discovery , UCL's open access research repository, includes theses alongside other UCL publications. You can search for theses, or browse a list.
• EThOS , a database run by the British Library that aims to record all UK doctoral theses, with links to access an electronic version of the full text where available. The digitisation of theses that only exist in print form can often be requested, depending on the awarding institution and for a fee: UCL supports this process for UCL-held theses.
• The DART-Europe E-theses Portal , holds details of open access electronic theses stored in repositories across Europe.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations , includes links to a number of international search tools and portals.

Video - Using PhD theses in research: EThOS 

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Indexes of completed theses (access available to members of UCL only)

Proquest dissertations & theses global (pqdt global).

PQDT Global contains over a million full-text dissertations and theses from 1861 onwards that are available for download in PDF format. The collection includes PQDT UK and Ireland content.

Many UK universities now decline to lend research theses. You may visit the awarding university or, increasingly, obtain an electronic version either from the university itself or from EThOS (see above).

Theses awarded by universities worldwide may be requested via UCL Library Services Interlending and Document Supply service . The normal charge for this service applies. Please note that theses are never available for loan: they must be consulted on Library premises only.

Open access for theses: how to deposit

Candidates for UCL research degrees are required to deposit an electronic copy of their final thesis in UCL's Research Publications Service (RPS), to be made open access in UCL's institutional repository, UCL Discovery . Theses are amongst the most highly-downloaded items in UCL Discovery . Making your thesis open access will mean that it is accessible worldwide, to anyone who wants to read it.

It is also possible, but not mandatory, to submit a print copy of your thesis to the Library for storage and preservation if you wish. We recommend submitting the print copy in cases where the electronic copy cannot be made openly available online in UCL Discovery, but you wish the print copy to be accessible to members of the Library.

Please refer to our guidance on how to deposit  for further information on the submission procedures.

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MPhil/PhD theses

You can access print and digital copies of MPhil/PhD theses written by research students at Birkbeck and at other universities in the UK and further afield.   

Birkbeck print theses 

• Pre-1995 theses : check the national Index to Theses  for details. 
• Post-1995 theses : search the Birkbeck Library catalogue  for details. 
• Requests are usually fulfilled within 3 hours during library opening times .
• I f you want to search for only theses in the Library catalogue, on the advanced search page put the word 'theses' into a shelfmark search and then add any other search terms you want.
• Birkbeck Library does not hold some theses in classics, German, history, and law. You may be able to find these in the  British Library's Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS)  or the libraries of relevant institutes within the University of London's School of Advanced Study . 

Birkbeck Digital theses (2012-present) 

• You can search for and view digital copies of theses submitted after 2012 in the Birkbeck Institutional Repository Online (BIROn) . 
• If you want to upload a thesis to BIROn, you can find  FAQs on the BIROn site . 

Accessing MPhil/PhD theses at other universities 

• For digital, downloadable copies of MPhil/PhD theses awarded by other UK universities, search the British Library's Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS) .  
• For hard copies of MPhil/PhD awarded by overseas universities, you can submit an interlibrary loan .
• Access theses in Australia - Trove  
• Access theses in Europe - DART- Europe  
• Access theses in France - theses.fr 
• Access theses in South Africa - TD Portal  
• Access (Catalan) theses in Spain - Tesis Doctorals en Xarxa  
• Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)  

Library Guides

Theses and dissertations

Introduction to ethos, about ethos, benefits of using phds, further information.

Benefits to researchers

• Easy access to UK research theses.
• Centralised access to new and retrospectively digitised theses.
• Raised profile for individual authors from wider circulation of their work.
• Support for the principle of Open Access and increased use of publicly-funded research outputs.

Ethos is the British Library digital repository for UK research theses offering a central access point to UK doctoral theses. The majority of universities in the UK are members. You can cross-search over 500,000 theses including those available for immediate download.

Requesting doctoral theses

You must first register on an individual basis with Ethos in order to make requests through the Ethos website. The  Ethos site provides further information .

In some cases the first person (or their institution) to request a thesis is required to pay for the cost of digitisation. In the first instance researchers should refer to the Director of Research and Enterprise or their supervisor in the school about recovering costs from school research funds.

How long will it take?

Immediate download for theses already digitised. For theses not yet digitised you will need to contact the library of the university where the paper thesis is held to request access.

University of Greenwich theses are uploaded to  GALA  and harvested into Ethos allowing you to search and download from from either source.

Visit our theses and dissertations page to find out more about  finding PhD theses  within and beyond the university.

List of institutions taking part in Ethos .

Frequently asked questions about Ethos .

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Theses: UK Theses

• Manchester Theses
• Worldwide theses

Key UK dissertation and theses resource

• ProQuest dissertations & theses global 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.

Finding and accessing UK theses

• Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service which aims to maximise the visibility and availability of the UK’s doctoral research theses. EThOS aims to provide a national aggregated record of all doctoral theses awarded by UK Higher Education institutions and free access to the full text of as many theses as possible for use by all researchers. There are approximately 440,000 records relating to theses awarded by over 120 institutions of which around 160,000 are available as full text. Requests for many of the remainder can be ordered for scanning through the EThOS digitisation-on-demand facility. You can download digitised PhD thesis from across the UK for free once you have registered on the website. Records are held for all UK PhD-awarding institutions, but EThOS does not yet hold all records for all institutions. This is constantly updated as more theses including University of Manchester outputs from March 2013 are submitted solely in electronic form.

• Web of Science Conference Proceedings via Web of Science: Index to published proceedings for international conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops and conventions across a wide range of disciplines. Proceedings relating to Business and Management can be found in the Social Sciences Proceedings on the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science tab.

Institutional repositories

Most major research universities use institutional repositories to store records of their scholarly work. Institutional repositories are sometimes also used to disseminate research. They are valuable to researchers for various reasons:

• Free access to details of research carried out in your area.
• Free access to details of research carried out by particular researchers.
• Research papers may be available free of charge.
• Content can be found by internet search engines such as Google.

Pure  is our institutional repository. For other repositories search the Directory of Open Access Repositories .

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Theses and dissertation

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The Electronic Theses Online System

The Electronic Theses Online System is a service from the British Library that provides online access to the full-text of UK doctoral theses. It contains over 380,000+ records of doctoral theses from UK Higher Education Institutions. Many of these have already been digitised and are available for immediate download.

Can I request UK theses from other universities from the Library?

You no longer request theses from other universities through Sussex University's Interlibrary Requests service - you can access them directly via EThOS.

Do I need to register?

You do not need to register to search the 380,000+ records in the EThOS database, but you will need to register if you would like to download a thesis.

Are immediate downloads available?

If the thesis in which you are interested has already been digitised, you will be able to download it immediately without charge. If the thesis you need has not yet been digitised, there will be a short delay whilst digitisation takes place. You will then be notified by EThOS when the thesis is ready to be downloaded. Once the thesis has been digitised it is then available for immediate download by any other user.

Are all theses digitised?

Some theses cannot be digitised for copyright reasons. If this is the case with the thesis you need, please inform the Interlibrary Requests team who will investigate whether a hard copy can be borrowed directly from the relevant university.

Does this service cost me anything?

On rare occasions you may be asked by EThOS to pay for the digitisation of a thesis. This is because, although the majority of institutions participating in EThOS have agreed to pay for the digitisation of their own theses on request, some institutions have not.

In such cases, the Library will pay the cost of digitisation provided that funding is available. Please contact the Research Support team on Tel: 01273 877941 (int 7941) or Email: [email protected] with the full details of your request.

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Theses and dissertations

The library holds a large number of Bristol theses and dissertations, including many PhD and doctoral theses. Read our advice about how to locate theses from other institutions, both in the UK and internationally .

University of Bristol theses and dissertations

To find a University of Bristol thesis:

• If the thesis is held in the Research Reserve, it can be requested using the 'reserve a copy' button.
• If the thesis is held in the Research Reserve, use the online request form to request it.
• See below for details of how to access theses held in our other library sites.
• Recently submitted theses may be listed on Explore Bristol Research  though information about these is regularly added to Library Search.

Arts and Social Sciences

The collection includes theses from Arts Faculty, Social Sciences and Law Faculty, Physics, Mathematics, Biological Sciences, Geographical Sciences, Agricultural Science and the School for Policy Studies.

MA, MSc, MPhil and MLitts do not have to be deposited with the library under the Regulations, so our collections of these are incomplete. 

How to consult a thesis

• Arts and Social Sciences theses are now held in the Library's Research Reserve.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.
• We will notify you when the thesis arrives at the library.
• Thesis loans are for use in the Arts and Social Sciences Library only.

School of Chemistry PhD, MSc and DSc theses from 1910 to date.

Thesis loans are for use in the Chemistry Library only, though postgraduates with seats may keep a thesis at their desk. You may ask if a particular thesis can be kept behind the Issue desk if you will be using it repeatedly for a period of time. Other theses are kept in a Library Staff room and are not available during the evenings.

School of Education EdD, PhD, MPhil, and a selection of Masters theses. Many theses written before 2005 are located in the Research Reserve.

• The MSc and Masters theses are located in the Quiet Study Area;
• The MPhil, PhD and EdDs are located in Research Reserve.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.

The thesis collection from the Medical Library has been relocated to the library's Research Reserve. The collection includes: PhD, MD, MSc, ChM and DSc theses of staff and postgraduate students of the Health Sciences Faculty, from 1910 to date.

A card catalogue in the Medical Library contains details of the earlier theses, or you may check the  Card Catalogue Online .

• See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.
• We will notify you when the thesis arrives at the library;
• Theses are for use in the Medical Library only and you will be asked to sign a register.

School of Physics PhD, MSc and DSc theses from 1950 to date, with a few earlier ones. BSc and MSci projects are also held.

A card catalogue in the Physics Library contains details of the earlier ones.

• Ask at the Issue Desk to borrow a thesis, quoting author, year and category;
• Theses may be borrowed by staff and postgraduates as standard loans;
• Undergraduates may use theses in the library only;
• BSc and MSci projects may be borrowed by undergraduates: for the standard loan period.

Queens (Engineering, Mathematics, Computer science)

Engineering and Mathematics PhD theses are held in the Research Reserve, including Computer Science theses before the Department transferred to the Faculty of Engineering.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request these.

A card catalogue, on the right beyond the Issue desk, contains details of pre-1978 theses.

• It can take 2-3 working days for a thesis to arrive and you will be notified when they are available;
• PhD theses may not be borrowed by undergraduates; taught postgraduates or external members but may be consulted in the library.

MSc Projects

• Some early Engineering MSc projects (1914-1950) are available from the Research Reserve - please contact your  Subject Librarian

Undergraduate projects

• Individual and group projects from 2015/16 - 2019/20 academic years for Civil and Mechanical Engineering are available on the open shelves in the Gallery.
• Early projects from 1920 to 1949 have been moved to  Special Collections  in the  Arts and Social Sciences Library

Veterinary Sciences

MSc Meat Science theses from 1979 to date and a small number of PhD theses. The majority of veterinary sciences PhD theses are housed in the Research Reserve.  See 'to find a University of Bristol thesis' section above for details of how to request.

Theses are shelved in the Computer Room and are for use in the library only.

Wills Memorial (Law, Earth Sciences)

Collections of both Law and Earth Sciences theses.

Theses are confined to the library; please ask at the information desk if you wish to borrow one.

UK and international theses

Information about many UK and international theses can be found via  Library Search . If the thesis you are interested in is not available online, you can use our  inter-Library Loan service . Non-UK theses can be difficult to obtain: in some countries, universities are working together to make full text electronic collections available:

• Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS)  - a service provided by the British Library
• DART - Europe e-theses Portal
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
• PQDT Open  - open access dissertations and theses
• PQDT Global  -  a collection of dissertations and theses from around the world

Submit a thesis

Advice on how to submit a thesis for a higher degree can be found on the  Presenting and submitting your dissertation for examination  page. Information on how to submit a thesis to the library can be found on the Library's own Thesis Guidance  pages.

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Main navigation

All SOAS PhD theses can be found through the Library catalogue and this will tell you if there is a digital copy which can be viewed online.

• Search by author or title if you know the details of the particular thesis you would like to see
• To browse our PhD thesis collection enter ‘Thesis’ in the search box and select ‘Classmark’ in the drop-down menu
• To limit your search of theses to a particular subject then click on ‘Advanced’ select ‘Add Search Field’ and enter keywords into the new search box
• If a digital copy of the PhD thesis is available for you to view online there will either be a note in the catalogue record or a separate entry for the digital copy

Using Printed Copies of SOAS PhD Theses

• SOAS keeps printed copies of all PhD Theses and they can be consulted in our Special Collections Reading Room on Level F
• All printed PhD theses need to be ordered before you visit the Reading Room. Once you have found the PhD thesis you need you can fill in an online order form through the ‘Order archive material’ link from the catalogue record of the PhD thesis. Alternatively you can fill in an order form available from the Library Enquiry Desk or Special Collections Reading Room
• Before you consult any SOAS PhD thesis in the Special Collections Reading Room you will be asked to fill in a Data Protection Declaration
• You are permitted to photograph a maximum of 5% of a PhD thesis or one complete chapter (whichever is the greatest) for personal research purposes only

Using Digital Copies of SOAS PhD Theses

• A significant number of SOAS PhD theses have been made available freely online (with permission from the author) through SOAS Research Online since 2011
• You can browse the latest PhD theses via SOAS Research Online or you can search by author or title if you know the details of the thesis you need
• Some PhD theses in SOAS Research Online are restricted for a period of time at the request of the author. They will only become available digitally once this restriction period has expired
• A number of our PhD theses (dated before 2011) are available via the British Library EThOS service. You can search the EThOS database to check if a PhD thesis is available

Finding PhD theses from Other Institutions

To find PhD theses produced at other institutions we recommend you use the following resources

• British Library EThOS Service
• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: Global (access via Senate House Library)
• EBSCO Open Dissertations
• DART - Europe E-Theses Portal
• Shodhganga - Indian Theses
• Theses Canada Portal
• SOAS Interlibrary Loan Service
• Other Library Catalogues

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Oxford theses

The Bodleian Libraries’ thesis collection holds every DPhil thesis deposited at the University of Oxford since the degree began in its present form in 1917. Our oldest theses date from the early 1920s. We also have substantial holdings of MLitt theses, for which deposit became compulsory in 1953, and MPhil theses.

Since 2007 it has been a mandatory requirement for students to deposit an electronic copy of their DPhil thesis in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) , in addition to the deposit of a paper copy – the copy of record. Since the COVID pandemic, the requirement of a paper copy has been removed and the ORA copy has become the copy of record. Hardcopy theses are now only deposited under exceptional circumstances. 

ORA provides full-text PDF copies of most recent DPhil theses, and some earlier BLitt/MLitt theses. Find out more about Oxford Digital Theses, and depositing with ORA .

Finding Oxford theses

The following theses are catalogued on SOLO (the University libraries’ resource discovery tool) :

• DPhil and BLitt and MLitt theses
• BPhil and MPhil theses 
• Science theses

SOLO collates search results from several sources.

How to search for Oxford theses on SOLO

To search for theses in the Oxford collections on SOLO :

• navigate to the SOLO homepage
• click on the 'Advanced Search' button
• click the 'Material Type' menu and choose the 'Dissertations' option
• type in the title or author of the thesis you are looking for and click the 'Search' button.

Also try an “Any field” search for “Thesis Oxford” along with the author’s name under “creator” and any further “Any field” keywords such as department or subject. 

Searching by shelfmarks

If you are searching using the shelfmark, please make sure you include the dots in your search (e.g. D.Phil.). Records will not be returned if they are left out.

Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)

ORA was established in 2007 as a permanent and secure online archive of research produced by members of the University of Oxford. It is now mandatory for students completing a research degree at the University to deposit an electronic copy of their thesis in this archive. 

Authors can select immediate release on ORA, or apply a 1-year or 3-year embargo period. The embargo period would enable them to publish all or part of their research elsewhere if they wish. 

Theses held in ORA are searchable via  SOLO , as well as external services such as EThOS and Google Scholar. For more information, visit the Oxford digital theses guide , and see below for guidance on searching in ORA.

Search for Oxford theses on ORA

Type your keywords (title, name) into the main search box, and use quotes (“) to search for an exact phrase.

Refine your search results using the drop-downs on the left-hand side. These include:

• item type (thesis, journal article, book section, etc.)
• thesis type (DPhil, MSc, MLitt, etc.)
• subject area (History, Economics, Biochemistry, etc.)
• item date (as a range)
• file availability (whether a full text is available to download or not)

You can also increase the number of search results shown per page, and sort by relevance, date and file availability. You can select and export records to csv or email. 

Select hyperlinked text within the record details, such as “More by this author”, to run a secondary search on an author’s name. You can also select a hyperlinked keyword or subject. 

Other catalogues

Card catalogue  .

The Rare Books department of the Weston Library keeps an author card index of Oxford theses. This includes all non-scientific theses deposited between 1922 and 2016. Please ask Weston Library staff for assistance.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

You can use ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global  to find bibliographic details of Oxford theses not listed on SOLO. Ask staff in the Weston Library’s Charles Wendall David Reading Room for help finding these theses. 

Search for Oxford theses on ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global

Basic search.

The default Basic search page allows for general keyword searches across all indexes using "and", "and not", "and or" to link the keywords as appropriate. Click on the More Search Options tab for specific title, author, subject and institution (school) searches, and to browse indexes of authors, institutions and subjects. These indexes allow you to add the word or phrase recognised by the database to your search (ie University of Oxford (United Kingdom), not Oxford University).

Advanced search

The Advanced search tab (at the top of the page) enables keyword searching in specific indexes, including author, title, institution, department, adviser and language. If you are unsure of the exact details of thesis, you can use the search boxes on this page to find it by combining the key information you do have.

Search tools

In both the Basic and Advanced search pages you can also limit the search by date by using the boxes at the bottom. Use the Search Tools advice in both the Basic and Advanced pages to undertake more complex and specific searches. Within the list of results, once you have found the record that you are interested in, you can click on the link to obtain a full citation and abstract. You can use the back button on your browser to return to your list of citations.

The Browse search tab allows you to search by subject or by location (ie institution). These are given in an alphabetical list. You can click on a top-level subject to show subdivisions of the subject. You can click on a country location to show lists of institutions in that country. At each level, you can click on View Documents to show lists of individual theses for that subject division or from that location.

In Browse search, locations and subject divisions are automatically added to a basic search at the bottom of the page. You can search within a subject or location by title, author, institution, subject, date etc, by clicking on Refine Search at the top of the page or More Search Options at the bottom of the page.

Where are physical Oxford theses held?

The Bodleian Libraries hold all doctoral theses and most postgraduate (non-doctoral) theses for which a deposit requirement is stipulated by the University:

• DPhil (doctoral) theses (1922 – 2021)
• Bachelor of Divinity (BD) theses
• BLitt/MLitt theses (Michaelmas Term 1953 – 2021)
• BPhil and MPhil theses (Michaelmas Term 1977 – 2021)

Most Oxford theses are held in Bodleian Offsite Storage. Some theses are available in the libraries; these are listed below.

Law Library

Theses submitted to the Faculty of Law are held at the Bodleian Law Library .

Vere Harmsworth Library

Theses on the United States are held at the Vere Harmsworth Library .

Social Science Library

The Social Science Library holds dissertations and theses selected by the departments it supports. 

The list of departments and further information are available in the Dissertations and Theses section of the SSL webpages. 

Locations for Anthropology and Archaeology theses

The Balfour Library holds theses for the MPhil in Material and Visual Anthropology and some older theses in Prehistoric Archaeology.

The Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library holds theses for MPhil in Classical Archaeology and MPhil in European Archaeology.

Ordering Oxford theses

Theses held in Bodleian Offsite Storage are consulted in the Weston Library. The preferred location is the Charles Wendell David Reading Room ; they can also be ordered to the Sir Charles Mackerras Reading Room .

Find out more about requesting a digitised copy, copyright restrictions and copying from Oxford theses .

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• Theses & dissertations
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OU theses and dissertations

Online theses.

Are available via Open Research Online .

Print theses

Search for OU theses in the Library Search . To see only print theses click 'In the Walton Hall library' and refine your results to resource type 'Thesis'.

OU staff and research students can  borrow a consultation copy of a thesis (if available). Please contact the Library helpdesk giving the author and title of the thesis.

UK theses and dissertations from EThOS

The Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS) offers free access to the full text of UK theses.

• EThOS offers a one stop online shop providing free access to UK theses
• EThOS digitizes theses on request into PDF format, this may require payment
• EThOS is managed by the British Library in partnership with a number of UK universities
• EThOS is open to all categories of library user

What does this mean to you as a library user?

When you need to access a PhD thesis from another UK based HE institution you should check EThOS to either download a thesis which has already been digitised or to request that a UK thesis be supplied to you.

• For all UK theses EThOS will be the first point of delivery. You can use the online ordering and tracking system direct from EThOS to manage your requests for UK PhD theses, including checking the status of your requests
• As readers you will deal directly with EThOS so will not need to fill in a document delivery request
• OU staff and research students will still be entitled to access non-UK based PhD theses by filling in a document delivery request
• In some cases where EThOS is unable to supply a UK thesis OU staff and research students will be able to access it by filling in a conventional document delivery request. The thesis will be supplied through direct loan
• The EThOS system is both faster and cheaper than the previous British Theses service which was based on microfilm
• The British Library no longer arranges interlibrary loans for UK PhD theses
• Interlibrary Loan procedures for other types of request from the British Library (articles and books for example) will remain the same

If you have any queries about using EThOS contact the Document Delivery Team ( [email protected] or the Library Helpdesk ).

Note 13/03/2024: The British Library is continuing to experience a major technology outage affecting its websites and other online systems, due to a Cyber attack. as a result access to ETHOS might not be possible until the issue is fixed. 

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The University of Liverpool Repository

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Data Catalogue

For Data Collections, deposit using the Data Catalogue .

Doctoral students: For information on how to deposit your thesis, please visit This guide .

Browse the repository

If you need to raise a particular technical query, email the repository help team .

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Research Support,  University of Liverpool Sydney Jones Library, Abercromby Square Liverpool L69 3DA,  UK +44 (0)151 794 0000

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University of Birmingham eTheses Repository

Recent changes.

We have recently introduced some changes to Library thesis deposit, in summary:

• You are no longer required to submit a hard bound copy of your thesis to the Library, an electronic version is still required
• If your thesis should not be made immediately publicly accessible, you must upload a signed and approved restricted access form alongside your thesis deposit

To upload a research output to the repository, select the type of output from the dropdown menu and choose ‘Deposit’

It may take us up to 5 working days to confirm receipt of Theses deposits. If you require urgent acknowledgment that we have received your deposit, please Email Us once you have completed your deposit.

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Theses and dissertations

We provide access to University of York PhD/MPhil theses and Masters dissertations for members of the University and visitors to the Library. We can also help you to find theses/dissertations from other institutions.

For all York theses and dissertations, copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise stated. You may copy a modest amount of material from a thesis with full attribution as defined in law. In all other circumstances you should contact the rights-holder for permission.

• Read our practical guide to Copyright law

Search for a York thesis or dissertation

All available University of York theses can be found on YorSearch , including electronic versions held in the Digital Library and White Rose eTheses. You can search YorSearch for the title, author or department and academic year.

What we hold

We hold the University's PhD and MPhil theses, including physical copies up to 2012.

White Rose eTheses   holds electronic copies from 2013 onwards, as well as a selection of pre-2013 theses.

University of York Masters dissertations for some subjects are available:

• electronically via  YorSearch
• in print via Borthwick Institute for Archives ( Note : booking is necessary)

We also hold a selection of digitised undergraduate dissertations for certain subjects:

• History   (selection from 1967 onwards)
• History of Art   (selection from 1997 onwards)
• Social Policy and Social Work   (selection from 2019 onwards)

Consulting a thesis/dissertation in the Library

Our physical theses and dissertations are kept in a secure store. To consult them you will need to request access via Borthwick Institute for Archives by emailing [email protected] with the details of the thesis and a preferred appointment date.

Note : theses and dissertations can only be consulted in the reading room at the Borthwick Institute and cannot be removed.

If you are an independent researcher and want to consult a York thesis, contact us at [email protected] .

Finding theses from other universities

You can try one of the following services to find theses by students from other institutions.

• Read more about using PhD theses on EThOS (youtube.com)
• White Rose eTheses Online holds electronic, doctoral level theses from the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York
• Index to theses is an index to British and Irish higher degree theses with abstracts (summaries) or brief details of each thesis
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations allows you to search for electronic theses from around the world

If you can't access the full text of a thesis you're interested in, please complete our Request Form and we will try to source it for you. Please note the success of this may depend on the holding library's policies, or obtaining the author's permission, but we will let you know if we're unable to source it.

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The Library holds printed copies of all Newcastle University PhD theses, and some copies of theses written for other research degrees such as DSc, MD, DLitt, LLD, Deng, DBA, EdD, MPhil. All theses held by the Library are listed in  Library Search  and where we have a printed and an electronic copy of theses a link is provided to the full-text.

Submitting your thesis

The Student Progress Office provides information on  Research Degree Examination Procedures and Forms , including the University's  Guidelines for the Submission and Format of Theses and Library Submission Forms. You may also wish to speak to your supervisor for advice on thesis presentation. The  University encourages and supports open access as an invaluable way to maximise the visibility and impact of its research and strongly encourages all PhD students to deposit an electronic version of their final examined thesis, as well as a printed copy. UKRI-funded students are expected to comply with the UKRI policy on open access, the key requirements being:

• The full text version of the thesis should be available from an open access repository no longer than 12 months following the award of the doctorate. Authors who identify themselves as RCUK funded on their submission form will normally only be allowed to request an embargo of a maximum of 12 months.
• The research must acknowledge the support of the funder.

We can ensure your compliance by depositing a copy of your thesis in our repository.

Print Services  located on level 1 of the Philip Robinson Library can help with binding enquiries. 

Access to your thesis

After your degree has been awarded the final version of your thesis is passed to the library and added to our print and electronic collections. A standard 6 month embargo on access is applied to all thesis received to give authors time to consider publishing from all or part of their work. In certain circumstances longer embargo periods can be applied but permission from your Dean is required. You will be asked to sign a deposit licence when you hand over your thesis which explains the conditions under which it will be kept. The many advantages of making your thesis open access include:

• Research reaches a wider audience, increasing the probability of citation.
• Your personal profile and impact are enhanced.
• Indexing by anti-plagiarism software helps prevent unauthorised re-use.
• It will ensure compliance for UKRI-funded students.

Newcastle University eTheses

Access over 5,000 electronic theses published at Newcastle University

Understand your rights as an author and when you are using the content of others.

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Find citations, full-text and associated datasets of publications by University of Edinburgh staff. Also theses online.

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Theses related information

Open Access Theses and Dissertations

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Advanced research and scholarship. Theses and dissertations, free to find, free to use.

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Browse by author name (“Author name starts with…”).

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Written in any language English Portuguese French German Spanish Swedish Lithuanian Dutch Italian Chinese Finnish Greek Published in any country US or Canada Argentina Australia Austria Belgium Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile China Colombia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Ireland Italy Japan Latvia Lithuania Malaysia Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway Peru Portugal Russia Singapore South Africa South Korea Spain Sweden Switzerland Taiwan Thailand UK US Earliest date Latest date

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Recent Additions

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About OATD.org

OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions . OATD currently indexes 7,221,548 theses and dissertations.

About OATD (our FAQ) .

Visual OATD.org

We’re happy to present several data visualizations to give an overall sense of the OATD.org collection by county of publication, language, and field of study.

You may also want to consult these sites to search for other theses:

• Google Scholar
• NDLTD , the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. NDLTD provides information and a search engine for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), whether they are open access or not.
• Proquest Theses and Dissertations (PQDT), a database of dissertations and theses, whether they were published electronically or in print, and mostly available for purchase. Access to PQDT may be limited; consult your local library for access information.