Theses Dissertations Before you start you

Theses & Dissertations

Before you start you should become familiar with the following UU web pages: • Information for prospective research students • Information for current research students • Funding opportunities • Sources of funding 2008/9 Sources of funding 20010/11 • In the Regulations PDF you will get guidance on: • The preparation of dissertations • The presentation of dissertations Note: Regulations is a large document and takes some time to download.

Once you have looked at the formal documentation you may also find it useful to consult Dissertation Doctor or Writing your thesis or dissertation These 2 websites give useful guidance on defining your subject, becoming focused, setting yourself goals, reviewing the literature, breaking the research proposal down into manageable parts and other helpful advice. Another useful link is Skills 4 Study: postgraduate students Also check the Library catalogue for books on writing theses and dissertations. For example: • A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations or • Writing a thesis : a guide to long essays and dissertations

International The database usually associated with dissertations is UMI Dissertation Abstracts International DAI is a comprehensive index to north American dissertations. There is also a separate section covering non-north American material. UU LIBRARY DOES NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THIS DATABASE. But there are other ways to search north American theses. One of these is Dissertation Express. Internet “Students, faculty, staff and researchers can now order their own unbound copies of dissertations and theses with express delivery to their home, school or office. Select from over 1. 9 million graduate works available from UMI. ” You pay for this service. You can search by author title or subject and there is a range of fees depending on the format you prefer. Theses for example, can be delivered directly to your desktop as PDFs. This is a useful service because the current situation is that UU Library applies for north American theses only in exceptional circumstances.

International ETDs Increasingly American university theses & dissertations are being produced in electronic format (ETDs) and in many cases are freely available online from these universities, obviating the need to use either DAI or Dissertation Express. Your own completed thesis has to be submitted in electronic format, though as yet UU does not make theses publically available as ETDs. Internet ETDs are being produced worldwide in preference to print. The following slides will give some guidance on where they are and how to access them. NOTE • Some systems may charge for access • others may be free but limited to certain groups • and others are completely free and open to all researchers.

Local But first check the Library Catalogue to see what print theses are available in UU. Search in the usual way but select the Theses sub-catalogue from the drop-down menu beside the search boxes. You will get a list of all theses (masters and doctoral) held in the University of Ulster.

UK & Ireland You can then go further afield and search for U. K and Irish theses using • UU subscription databases (free to you) and • Databases freely available on the Internet.

UK & Ireland British Library Document Supply section has a British Library Thesis service called Ethos is a repository for many UK Higher Education theses. Internet You must register to use the service. Once registered you are able to search over 250, 000 theses for free. Over 17, 500 theses are in electronic format and available for immediate download. BL will send an ETD directly to your Desktop free of charge. A charge will apply if you want BL to digitise a print copy or if you want them to send you thesis on CD. To avoid this charge you can apply for thesis via the Library’s Document Delivery Service. (Inter-Library Loans). For details of theses held by BL click here

UK & Ireland RIAN – Ireland’s National Portal for Open Access Research Rian is a searchable catalogue of full-text research material from DCU, NUIG, NUIM, TCD, UCC, UCD, UL. Internet “Its aim is to harvest to one portal the contents of the Institutional Repositories of the seven university libraries, in order to make Irish research material more freely accessible, and to increase the research profiles of individual researchers and their institutions”. It includes all research material which may be conference addresses, journal articles, reports, multimedia, or theses / dissertations

UK & Ireland COPAC cross searches British Library plus the major university and National libraries of the UK and Ireland. • At the search page select main search Internet • Key in your search terms and at material type select theses and then run your search. • You can get to COPAC from UU Library Home page under electronic resources and then other library catalogues

UK & Ireland Index to theses This is a commercial but very important database for tracking down theses. Subscription database This (and other subscription databases mentioned in following slides) is free to UU students. The Index contains UK and Irish theses published since 1716. There is also a sub-catalogue of Irish theses. There abstracts for many of theses and there is direction on how to access them. Some are freely available electronically. Otherwise apply via the Library’s Document Delivery service which is free to you.

UK & Ireland International First. Search This is an American database with millions of records. You can search both British and international theses here. Subscription database • Within First. Search select World. Cat • Key in you search details • Scroll down to subtype limits and under Any contents select Thesis/dissertation and run your search. Your search will produce a list of theses or dissertations. Some of these will be ETDs and there will often be a link through to the full text of the ETD.

UK & International Other subscription databases which enable you to restrict your search to theses or dissertations are: Subscription database Abi-Inform ARTbibliographies Modern ASSIA Engineering Village 2 Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts MLA International Bibliography Proquest Medical Library Sociological Abstracts Worldwide Political Science Abstracts All students - especially research students – should be familiar with these and other subscription databases. This is where a lot of current research can be found; not just information on theses.

UK and Europe E-theses Internet Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) “This is an international organisation dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to the traditional paper-based theses and dissertations. ” There are 3 sections: Find ETDs, Submit ETDs and Manage ETDs Choose Find ETDs You can then choose the production service you wish to search with.

UK and Europe E-theses DART-Europe E-theses Portal This is the European Working Group of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). Internet “The DART-Europe partners help to provide researchers with a single European Portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), and they participate in advocacy to influence future European e-theses developments. ” It is freely available to all researchers and provides access to 9 thousand records from 11 European countries.

UK and Europe E-theses Di. VA (Digitala Vetenskapliga Arkivet) Scandinavian theses This database gives access to research publications and theses. Internet Some full text ETDs are available through this Portal

International Dissertationsandtheses. com E-theses Links to more than 25, 000 quality research papers. This is a commercial database. The expectation is that you purchase what interests you. Internet You can get summaries of the papers but bibliographic details are not given which makes it difficult to purchase a paper through Document Delivery.

International E-theses OAister is a union Catalogue of digital resources. It is maintained by the University of Michigan and is a free resource. ETDs are among its resources. Internet For example a search for Othello (restricted to text), produces 70 hits. Some of these hits are theses or dissertations.

International African universities The Association of African Universities provides a Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD). Internet It was launched in 2003. Access to brief citations is free, once you register.

International Australia E-theses Australasian Digital Theses Program (ADT) “The aim 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. ” Internet The service is free.

Theses / Thèses Canada International Canada “This is [the] central access point for Canadian theses and information about the Theses Canada program. ” Print & E-theses From here you will be able to: • “Search AMICUS, Canada's national online catalogue, for bibliographic records of all theses in Library and Archives Canada's theses collection, which was established in 1965. Internet • Access and search the full text electronic versions of numerous Canadian theses and dissertations. • Find out everything you need to know about Theses Canada, including how to find a thesis, how our program works, information on copyright and much more. ” The aim is: “to provide free access to as many Canadian electronic theses and dissertations as possible…[and also] to provide access to non digital theses in the collection. ”

International Asia Internet There is no one umbrella organisation for theses produced in Asia. However the following union collection of Hong Kong libraries offers many ETDs. Dissertations and theses Collection (DTC) An online union collection of Hong Kong postgraduate students’ doctoral and master dissertations and theses indexed in the online catalogues of seven university libraries in Hong Kong. Thousands of them are in full text and in English. Although cross disciplinary many focus on Hong Kong. See also the University of Oregon East Asian theses and dissertations The Institute of Commonwealth studies listed in slide 22 might be useful for Asian countries in the Commonwealth.

International Center for Research Libraries Internet “The collection includes doctoral dissertations submitted to institutions outside the U. S. and Canada. The range of years includes mid-19 th century through the present, with the greatest concentration in the late 19 th, early 20 th centuries. ” NOTE: These can also be searched in Worldcat (First. Search).

Subjects There are subject based databases on the Web which give you information about theses and dissertations and which sometimes give you access to the full text in the form of ETDs. A useful feature is that some sites may tell you if a thesis is in progress. Index to Theses is invaluable, but nevertheless, lists only completed research. Some will also give you links to the researcher’s email address. There are, for example: Internet ADIT Art & Design Index of Theses A Bibliography of North American Theses on Traditional Drama and Related Topics; compiled by Paul Smith, Univ. of Newfoundland British Logic Colloquium recent theses in logic British Society for the History of Science list of theses Caltech Library System. ETDs Courtauld Institute of Art Research includes Ph. Ds & MAs DAREnet access to academic research output in the Netherlands Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology – online. Complete and in progress Edinburgh Research Archive. It contains full-text digital theses and dissertations. It is possible to sign up to receive email updates Game Career Guide : Theses ETDs History Online. A section of the Institute of Historical Research (IHR) website. Provides a chronological listing of theses

Subjects Internet Institute of Commonwealth Studies Theses in progress in commonwealth Studies Louisiana State University : Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection New voices in Translation Studies. International Association for Translation & Intercultural Studies. Provides abstracts of recently submitted Ph. D theses in Translation Studies. Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford). Lists 130 Ph. D and MA theses SMI Music Theses Register Irish theses/dissertations complete & in progress Society for Renaissance Studies links Renaissance-related doctoral theses Theses in Progress in Commonwealth Studies annual listing of MPhil and Ph. D research being carried out at UK universities. The full-text of issues from 2004 onwards may be downloaded from the website in PDF format. University of Johannesburg Electronic Theses and Dissertations Titles generally date from 2003 and can be downloded from the website in PDF format. University of Melbourne Library Catalogue Asian theses collection. Searchable by country University of Surrey Collection of Dance Dissertations UR Research ESM - Sibley Music Library theses These are a selection of websites listed at Bubl, ”a catalogue of Internet resources”, and Intute “a free online service providing you with a database of hand selected Web resources for education and research. ”

International For those students who are doing a Ph. D the Universal Index of Doctoral Dissertations in Progress may be of interest. Internet It is a forum for those in the academic community to register their theses in progress. Access is free but only to those registering their theses. The aims are to: “Avoid duplications in doctoral dissertations. Create the ultimate meeting place for researchers. Allow for interaction between them. ”

UK and Europe And finally…life after research? Check Find a Ph. D This databases gives information on European research (though not on specific researchers nor the titles of their theses or dissertations). Internet It is a useful starting point for post doctorate work. Want to publish? Check • Dissertation. com • Submitting graduate work to UMI dissertation publishing