FINDING THESES During the course of doing your PhD or Masters thesis, it will be useful for you to consult theses completed by other research students. Looking at other theses can, amongst other things, help you: • discover what has already been written on your research topic • refine a research topic • identify gaps in your topic of interest. It will also be useful for you to see how theses are laid out, and to see what a methodology chapter or a literature review looks like before you start on your own.
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FINDING THESESDuring the course of doing your PhD or Masters thesis, it will be useful for you to consult theses completed by other research students. Looking at other theses can, amongst other things, help you:
• discover what has already been written on your research topic
• refine a research topic
• identify gaps in your topic of interest.
It will also be useful for you to see how theses are laid out, and to see what a methodology chapter or a literature review looks like before you start on your own.
At Charles Darwin University (CDU), you can access theses in hard copy or online. Theses written by CDU research students are available from the Library in hard copy or through CDU eSpace, the University’s institutional repository.
For other Australian theses you can search the Trove database, which is accessible from the Library’s web page.
The ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) database allows you to search for international theses, predominantly those from the United States and Europe. This database is also accessible through the Library’s web page.
This Workshop will guide you through the process of finding this range of theses through CDU Library.
Searching for CDU Theses
To find CDU theses you need to start by searching the Library Catalogue.
To do this, navigate to the Library’s Home Page and search the CDU Library Catalogue.
Theses in the Special Collection
Those theses that are in the Theses Collection (part of the Special Collection) at CDU Library are not available for loan; however, you can view them within the Library.
If you are based at CDU Casuarina Campus and wish to view a particular thesis in the Special Collection, complete the following online form: http://www.cdu.edu.au/library/forms/ris/scitem.html, and pick up the thesis from the Service Desk to view within the Library.
Searching for Australian theses
To find other Australian theses, you can search the Trove database.
Navigate to the Library’s Home Page and select the link to Databases; then from the A-Z list of databases, select “T”, then Trove database.
Searching for International theses
To find non-Australian theses, there are several databases and websites that you can search.
A good place to start searching is the comprehensive ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database (PQDT).
Navigate to the Library’s Home Page and from the list of databases select the link to PQDT.
Other useful tools for finding theses
Databases:CINAHL Plus with Full Texthttp://www.cdu.edu.au/library/search/a-z_databases.html#CThis Database is the most comprehensive source of full text for nursing and allied health journals. To identify
theses, you limit your keyword search by selecting the Publication type, “Doctoral Dissertation”.
Libraries Australiahttp://www.cdu.edu.au/library/search/a-z_databases.html#LThe national catalogue for all major Australian public, government and university libraries.
NUS Theses Collectionhttp://www.cdu.edu.au/library/search/a-z_databases.html#NThis Informit database indexes theses submitted to the National University of Singapore 1947-2007 and
deposited in the NUS Library.
Other useful tools for finding theses
Websites:
OAISTER http://www.oaister.org/
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations http://www.ndltd.org/
