Locating Theses

We are grateful to Gareth Johnson from the University of Leicester for providing the following information:

Theses and Dissertations are the written documents produced by students for a higher degree or as part of their undergraduate studies. British theses are not usually published documents so the author holds the copyright.

There are 6 main groups of theses and dissertations:

Undergraduate Dissertations

Many undergraduate students write a dissertation but these are not normally held in university libraries. They may be held in the appropriate university department but most are not available for consultation or loan. The only way of acquiring a copy may be through direct contact with the student.

Taught Course Theses/Dissertations

Many taught postgraduate degrees (masters) with nomenclature of MA, MSc and MBA require the submission of a dissertation in support of their work. Some university libraries hold copies of these and others keep them in their departments. Recording is not systematic but some are listed in the Index to theses. Most are not available for Interlending but some may be consulted in the awarding university’s library or appropriate department. Enquires should be made to the awarding university.

Research Theses and E-theses

These are completed for doctoral and some masters degrees. The nomenclature is usually nomenclature is usually Ph.D., D.Phil., M.D., D.Ed. or M.Phil.. They make an original contribution to knowledge and are important sources of primary research. Bibliographical records of these theses are available in the Index to Theses and this also contains a sub collection of theses from Ireland. For more information look at: www.theses.com/

Policy on the lending of theses varies between UK universities (see below for FIL guide), and increasingly most will direct customers to the British Library online electronic theses (e-theses) service – EThOS (http://ethos.bl.uk/) rather than loan a physical copy.  EThOS provides searching access to over 250,000 theses, with many available for download immediately.  A personal registration is required the first time the site is used.

In the past few years more and more UK theses have been made available electronically, especially those produced in the past 15 years (1995-date).  Theses listed as not available for immediate download can be requested to be digitised, although this may take in excess of 30 working days for the university and British Library to action the request.  A fee is charged by some universities for this digitisation service (currently £40), payable by credit card on the EThOS site. 
Not all UK theses are listed on the site but they can be requested via a speculative request (http://ethos.bl.uk/SpeculativeRequest.do), provided sufficient details can be supplied.

Over 125 universities now have open access institutional repositories, and many of the theses produced in recent years are increasingly also available in these (see OpenDOAR for a list http://tinyurl.com/2w4r9vp).  Older theses digitised via EThOS are also available here too.

Printed and Microfilmed Theses

Older theses (up to the mid-2005s) were microfilmed and are held by the British Library.  However, currently the British Library will not supply these on inter-library loan directing requests to apply via the EThOS service.  Microfilmed theses are stored at the London, St Pancras site but are not currently accessible or available for loan.
 
Some libraries may be prepared to loan paper theses if they are unable to supply them via the EThOS or local institutional repository sites.  Some universities may have weeded their physical theses stock following digitisation, and may no longer have inter-library loan copies available, but are generally amenable to visiting scholars accessing the theses in person, upon formal application.  Some theses may contain material that is commercially or politically sensitive. These may not be available for loan. Enquiries should be made to the awarding university’s library.

Where a physical copy is permissible for loan most universities require a user to sign a Copyright Declaration Form before consulting a thesis and these vary in accordance with the awarding university’s regulations. Most theses may only be borrowed for reference use and there are limitations on how much can be copied or quoted.  In very exceptional circumstances some university libraries may make photocopies of their theses for the full cost.  There are variations in policy as to whether the author’s permission must be sought in advance and each it is at each university’s discretion whether they will provide this service or not.  However, the e-theses digitisation route via EThOS is preferred.

International Theses

The British Library collection contains more than 475,000 US doctoral theses acquired from UMI (now ProQuest) in microform and several hundred Canadian doctoral theses. Since September 2001 the British Library stopped acquiring these. Paper copies of many North American theses can be purchased on-line from ProQuest Dissertations Express with a credit card at: http://disexpress.umi.com/

Alternatively, applications for overseas theses not held at the British Library can be made direct to the awarding university, or through the British Library’s Worldwide Searches service.

The IFLA Voucher Scheme of reusable plastic cards is widely acceptable for direct international loans and can be used instead of paying by invoice. Costs are at 8 Euros for each full voucher or 4 Euros for each half voucher. More information is available at the IFLA website

Electronic Theses

Many UK these are now available electronically, or can be requested via the British Library EThOS service, or local institutional repositories.

At International level considerable progress has been made and an example of this is the global ‘Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations’ (NDLTD). More information can be found at: http://www.ndltd.org/

ADT is the Australasian Digital Thesis Program to establish a distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research students of Australian universities. For more information look on: adt.caul.edu.au/

UK Theses Lending Policies

Information on the lending and copying of paper theses by higher education institutions in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Eire. Compiled on behalf of FIL by Graham Titley, University of Plymouth. Version 7, June 2010

This latest version of the Forum for Interlending document "UK Theses Lending Policies" concisely gives the access or lending policies for PhD and Masters theses for all UK and Irish Universities. It also indicates if the institution is participating in the British Library's EThOS service for PhD Theses.  This document is provided mainly as a support document to ILL & Document Delivery colleagues to assist in the advising of their users about the availability of UK theses for local use, but all are welcome to utilise the file (unedited).  The next update is planned for early 2011.

UK Theses lending policies June 2010   

Footnotes:

Most Universities are adding new e-theses to their own repositories so that they can be viewed on open access.

There is also the DART project -  the Europe E-thesis Portal that cover some UK universities. It is at: http://www.dart-europe.eu/basic-search.php

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