Although the specific sources here are listed elsewhere in this guide, there are enough options for finding dissertations that it also seems worthwhile to pull them together into one place, plus add some additional tips for finding the full documents. We do not currently have access to ProQuest's full Dissertations & Theses database. |
These sources include a mixture of indexing-only and full documents. When you've found a source that doesn't include a link to the whole thing, see the other boxes on this page for some tips on locating it.
For more dissertation sites, see the second tab in the more comprehensive Finding Dissertations guide.
Library archives at schools keep records and copies of all doctoral dissertations and masters theses for future reference and to showcase the knowledge creation by the institution. Until recently much of this knowledge has been available only to students, faculty, and alumni of the school. Now much of this information is being made Open Access for all to use. For example, nine of the University of California schools make doctoral materials freely available to anyone anywhere. The trick can be to know how to identify the correct school for the document you want.
One way to get at this content without knowing the school is to use a targeted Google search to search only education sites for dissertations in institutional repositories. Click on the search below to see an example of the kind of results this produces, a mixture of individual documents and collections of them.
Option 1 Sometimes you will just have the title of the dissertation, such as What lies beneath: An exploration of the influence of social identity on school leadership. In this case, WorldCat has the information about the dissertation, but there is no link. When this happens, try searching Google Scholar. Sometimes you can find an open link to the full-text, as below:
Option 2 Try the title in Google, as in the case of this one: Is emotional intelligence predictive of entrepreneurial success? Again there is no link in WorldCat, but a basic Google Search leads you to the full-text at the University of Pennsylvania repository.
If you find a thesis or dissertation that would be useful to your research but the library does not have it and you can't find an open access copy, you can usually order it through interlibrary loan like you would any other book. Sometimes libraries will send a digital copy, sometimes a print version. Login to request an interlibrary loan.