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Open Access Resources: OA Theses and Dissertations

Online Help for a Great Thesis Statement

The links below have more information about writing great thesis statements from university writing centers and libraries around the world.

Abstracts and full-text of theses and dissertations

Use the Library Databases to find abstracts and the full-text of theses and dissertations from  universities worldwide. Tip. Make sure you develop your research strategy before you start searching.

  • ADT Australasian Digital Theses
    The aim of the [Australasian Digital Theses] ADT program is to establish a distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research students at Australian universities. The theses will be available worldwide via the web. The ideal behind the program is to provide access to, and promote Australian research to the international community.
  • Cybertheses
    Cyberthèses is a thesis electronic archive and diffusion program, which has french-speaking origins. Initiated by the University of Montreal Press's and University Lumière Lyon 2 with the support of the "Fonds Francophone des Inforoutes", the Cyberthèses network brings a lot of institutions, french speaking or not, together in the world.
  • Dibrary
    Dibrary Portal uses OAI-PMH (the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), allowing access to digital resources by "harvesting" metadata from foreign universities and research organizations.
  • Index to Theses
    A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland since 1716. 541,050 theses in collection (308,535 of which have abstracts); Our monitoring of full-text thesis availability now extends to 32 UK/Irish university digital repositories. Thousands more entries have a `Link to Full Text' button, bottom-left.
  • OpenThesis
    OpenThesis is a free repository of theses, dissertations, and other academic documents, coupled with powerful search, organization, and collaboration tools.
  • Proquest Dissertations and Theses
    Abstracts and citations of dissertations and theses. Coverage is worldwide but emphasis in on N. American research. From 1997- contains free 24 page preview. Some full-text.
  • YÖK Ulusal Tez Kataloğu

Other Thesis and Dissertation Resources

  • DART-Europe E-Theses Portal
    DART-Europe is a partnership of research libraries and library consortia who are working together to improve global access to European research theses. DART-Europe is endorsed by LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche), and it is the European Working Group of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD).
  • Directory of Digitized Collections : IFLA
  • EThOS - UK dissertations and theses
    The database of UK dissertations and theses provided by the British Library
  • Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations (NDLTD)
    An international organisation which promotes the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses & dissertations.
  • Theses Canada Portal
    Theses Canada Portal provides a searchable catalog of all Canadian thesis published since 1965, many of which are available in full text electronic versions which can be downloaded free by students, scholars, and the public.