Whether you are looking for a specific graduate work, or want to find out what dissertations or theses have been written on a particular subject, ProQuest provides a variety of tools to help. Most major research libraries subscribe to one of the below tools:
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database (PQDT)
With more than 2.3 million entries, the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database is the most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses in the world. Graduate students customarily consult the database to make sure their proposed thesis or dissertation topics have not already been written about. Students, faculty, and other researchers search it for titles related to their scholarly interests.
PQDT is a subscription product, and thousands of research libraries around the world use it. The database includes citations for dissertations from as far back as 1637 to those accepted as recently as last semester. UMI Dissertation Publishing publishes over 60,000 dissertations and theses each year, and newly published graduate works are added to the PQDT database on a weekly basis.
Graduate students customarily consult the database to make sure their proposed thesis or dissertation topics have not already been written about. Students, faculty, and other researchers search it for titles related to their scholarly interests. The database includes citations for materials ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to those accepted as recently as last semester; those published from 1980 forward also include 350- word abstracts, written by the author. Citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts. Of the millions of titles listed, UMI offers over 1.8 million in full text.
The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. We add some 60,000 new dissertations and 12,000 new theses to the database each year.
Dissertation Express
If you have a specific title in mind, Dissertation Express will let you look it up by title, author, or publication number. Once you find it, you can place your order immediately via our online ordering system.
Dissertations & Theses @
Dissertations & Theses @ is a service for our active university publishing partners that provides the university's academic community with free access to citations and abstracts for graduate works from that university. For graduate works published from 1997 forward, a full text PDF will usually be available for free download as well.
We'll search the database for you at no charge through DATRIX® Direct Dissertation database searching, customized to your research needs. DATRIX is an individualized search service for those who lack library access to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database. Using the keywords you specify, we review the entire database and retrieve up to 500 titles per search. You'll receive a spreadsheet of the relevant citations, complete with ordering information. For a free up-to-date search in a subject area you are interested in, use our DATRIX service: 1-800-521-3042 or info@proquest.com.
ProQuest's expert bibliographers and database specialists will work closely with you to create a selection profile, carefully customized to reflect your collection needs. Then they'll make sure you get the titles that fit your criteria, promptly and reliably.We automatically send the materials you need, the minute they become available, at a 20% discount. You retain the right to return them for full credit if they fall outside your profile, and you can cancel at any time.These are just some of the selection criteria you can specify:
Subject area
Keywords
Format-paper or Microform
Institution
Publication date
U.S. and/or Canadian
Retrospective, current, and/or future titles
Dissertations and/or theses
Once the computer retrieves citations that fit your profile, our staff librarians review them personally to make sure they're appropriate. They'll continue to work with you to refine the profile as your needs change
For a no-risk free trial, call toll free 800-521-0600, ext. 3042, and tell us the subject you're interested in. We'll send you a statement of the search strategy, sample citations, a printout of existing titles, and an estimate of the number of new titles per year. Once you've reviewed it, we'll refine the profile to suit your specifications. You're under no obligation to purchase the results of this trial search.
Printed Reference Tools at Your Library
Libraries and researchers can also gain full or partial access to the PQDT database through various print reference:
Virtually every major research library in the world offers one or more of these keys to the ProQuest Dissertation & Theses database. Ask library staff to help you find them if necesary.
