Theses and dissertations

This webpage is designed to help students find information on locating, obtaining and writing higher degree theses.

Locating theses

Australia

Deakin University higher degree by research students are required to deposit two copies of completed theses for the Deakin University Library. These copies are housed in the campus libraries at the Melbourne campus at Burwood, Warrnambool campus, Geelong campus at Waurn Ponds and Geelong Waterfront campus.
One copy of each thesis is available for loan and interlibrary loan.
For details of Coursework Masters and Honours theses please contact Faculty staff directly.
Higher degree by research theses completed by Deakin University graduates are listed on the Deakin University Library catalogue.
The education faculty at Deakin does have an online library of masters research papers and minor theses.
Australasian Digital Theses Program (ADTP). The aim of this project is to establish a distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research students at Australian Universities. It is based on input from Australian and New Zealand university libraries. More information about this project is available here
Libraries Australia provides access to the national database of material held in Australian libraries. It is a union catalogue which displays the locations of material in over 700 Australia libraries. To find theses in Libraries Australia:
- Simple Search: type in your search terms, and tick the appropriate box to limit to Theses.
- Advanced Search: here you can search on various fields, including author, title, subject, etc, and limit to Theses by ticking the appropriate box

North America and International

Proquest Digital dissertations (Dissertations and Theses) includes 1.6 million entries with over 100,000 records in full text. This is the current form of the Dissertation Abstracts database.

Search guide for Proquest Dissertations & Theses

Great Britain

Index to theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by the universities of Great Britain and Ireland and the Council for National Academic Awards
London : Aslib, c1986-
[G]

Hong Kong

Hong Kong University Theses Online - an index to more than 8,000 theses and dissertations submitted to Hong Kong University since 1941. Includes works in the arts and humanities, education, the social, medical and natural sciences. The collection is primarily in English. A small number of theses have been digitised and are available online.

Canada

Theses Canada - full text electronic versions of Canadian theses and dissertations published from 1998 to August 31, 2002

Other Countries

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations - search the NDLTD catalogue for digital theses and dissertations from 164 member institutions including the US, China, United Kingdom, Singapore, South Africa.

Library databases also index higher degree by research, postgraduate coursework and honours theses. Check with your liaison librarian for the most appropriate databases for your area of research

Obtaining theses

Theses are not always easy to obtain and are often only available from the institution which granted the degree. Some may be available for loan or for purchase. An increasing number are available in digital format via services such as the Australasian Digital Theses website.

To check the availability of a thesis

Check the Deakin University Library catalogue first to see if Deakin holds the required thesis.
If not held at Deakin please submit a request via the interlibrary loan form, or contact your liaison librarian for more information.
Where a thesis is held at another institution but is not available for loan, or is not held by any institution within Australia, the requestor will be notified.

Tip: If you cannot obtain a particular thesis remember to check if the author has published his/her research results in another form i.e. as a journal article or book.

How to write a thesis

The Academic Skills unit of Student Life, Deakin University, have written information pages to help you in the initial phases of studying as a higher degree by research (HDR) student. Their overview page includes a printable list of resources including a section on thesis writing.

To find books in Deakin's catalogue check under the subjects: