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

SOLO @ http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk Printed copies from c mid/late 1970s- Digital copies of theses on ORA (Oxford’s research

repository)

ORA @ http://ora.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ 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 2000- : Social Science Library• Everything else : Bodleian Library (consult in Duke Humphrey)

incld: non-science D.Phil. Theses 1917-; M.Litt./B.Litt. 1953- M.Phil. 1977- 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 synonymsAND 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 (http://ethos.bl.uk) 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

Email, 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 (http://www.worldcat.org/) and Karlsruher

Virtueller Katalog (http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk.html ) –Library catalogues from acround the World

COPAC (www.copac.ac.uk) –UK research libraries Catalogues of National Libraries Sudoc (www.sudoc.abes.fr) – French academic

libraries

Other options for finding theses

Ask your subject librarian for advice

Ask a Librarian