Other international theses

Finding theses

The Bodleian Libraries

The Bodleian Libraries holds copies of many theses. These can be found on SOLO, the University’s library catalogue, and can be ordered so that you can consult them in a library.

Card catalogue

Many continental European theses accepted for higher degrees and published before 1973 are held in the Bodleian Library but are not yet catalogued on SOLO. These holdings can be found in the Foreign Dissertations Catalogue card index. This catalogue is unfortunately not currently available to readers.

To access material in this catalogue, speak to staff at the Main Enquiry Desk in the Lower Reading Room of the Old Bodleian Library, or contact us by email or phone (01865 277162).

Other finding aids

You can use Library Hub Discover to search the online catalogues of some of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland to see whether the thesis has been purchased by another university library. 

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global is a collection of 5 million citations and 2.5 million full-text works from thousands of universities all over the world. Full-text coverage spans from 1743 to the present, with citations dating back to 1637. Many of the theses in the collection are from the US, but it also includes many European, Canadian and Mexican theses.

OAIster is a union catalogue of digital resources from universities and other institutions from all over the world, and includes many recent theses. 

The DART-Europe E-theses Portal aims to provide researchers with a single portal for the discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), allowing you to search over 800,000 full-text European theses.

Open Grey is a system for information on Grey Literature in Europe, which provides open access to 700.000 bibliographical references of grey literature (paper) produced in Europe, including doctoral dissertations, and allows you to export records and locate the documents.

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations is a repository of over 6 million electronic theses and dissertations from around the world.

Open Access Theses and Dissertations aims to provide a resource to find open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.

The catalogues of national libraries may help in tracking down theses from their countries. 

 

China

Hong Kong

  • The HKU Scholars Hub: Theses: The Hong Kong University Theses Collection holds theses and dissertations submitted for higher degrees to the University of Hong Kong since 1941.

India

  • Shodhganga: provides a platform for research students to deposit their PhD theses and make them available to the entire scholarly community in open access.

Japan

Pakistan

  • Pakistan Research Repository: aims to be a digital archive of all PhD theses produced in the country to promote the intellectual output of Pakistani institutions.

South Korea

  • RISS International: free access to the full text of theses and dissertations on a complete spectrum of subjects from 160 Korean universities, and of dissertations authored by Koreans who obtained their doctoral degrees from non-Korean institutions.

Taiwan

  • NDLTD in Taiwan: includes PhD dissertations and Master theses from Taiwan.

 

  • Trove: a free repository which includes almost 1 million Australian theses and some New Zealand theses.
  • nzresearch.org.nz: open access repository providing free access to research outputs produced by staff and researchers at a number of colleges and universities based in New Zealand.
  • New Zealand Educational Theses Database: a national database of New Zealand educational theses from 1961 compiled by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

 

Theses Canada: allows you to find theses in the Library and Archives Canada collection, which was established in 1965. Many Canadian theses dating from 1990 onwards can also be found on ProQuest Dissertation and Theses.

Austria

France

Germany

  • DissOnline (The Deutsche Bibliothek): the ordinary catalogue/Hochschulschriften can be used to search for all German theses. This database can also be searched via Google.
  • Karlsruhe University: a "supra-catalogue" useful for searching for German theses, embracing a number of German resources, but also covers Austria, Switzerland and other countries to some extent.

All German doctoral theses have to be published, and should be more widely available than their British counterparts.

Greece

Ireland

  • RIAN: a portal of open access research publications from seven, Irish university libraries.

All Irish theses can be found using Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Netherlands

Portugal

  • RCAAP: an online digital library of doctoral (PhD) and Masters dissertations and theses completed in Portuguese universities.

Russia & CIS

  • DissEng.com: a large scientific information resource presents a catalogue of dissertations covering all aspects of modern science.

Scandinavia

Spain

Some Spanish theses can be found using Proquest Dissertations & Theses Global.

Sweden

  • Dissertations.se: search among university dissertations from Sweden, written in English.
  • Lund University Dissertations: provides information on doctoral theses presented at the university since 1996.
  • Karolinska Institutet: holds information on its doctoral theses from 1995 onwards.
  • SwePub: search among scholarly articles, conference papers and dissertations from Swedish universities.

 

Brazil

Peru

  • Cybertesis: repository of digital theses and dissertations developed by the National University of San Marcos.

Copies and copying

Printed dissertations may be copied up to the normal limits, although some 19th century theses may be subject to conservation restrictions. See our copying guide for details

Copying from paper theses obtained through inter-library loans from international libraries will depend on restrictions imposed by the library lending the item.