How to Obtain a Dissertation Completed at Another University

General information

In order to obtain a thesis or dissertation from another institution, you need to know the author, title, degree, date and issuing institution. The first step is to search in the Digital Dissertations database (which includes a 24 page free preview for all dissertations since 1997).

You can also search on Google or Google Scholar, as some authors choose to post their thesis on a personal webspace and some institutions make their theses available through institutional digital repositories. You can also use Worldcat, which enables users to search the catalogues of several thousand libraries in a single webpage (in the 'Advanced' menu you should select 'Thesis/dissertation' from the 'Content' drop-down). Worldcat also offers the option to search for theses by subject area.

Many databases, such as MLA Bibliography, Sociological Abstracts, or PsycINFO have theses grouped by subject area.

If you know the university where the thesis was published you can try to search that university's institutional repository - as many large insitutions have made made their theses available online (for example, you can search, among many others, Dspace@MIT and University of Texas' Digital Repository). The Directory of Open Access Reporsitories has compiled a list of online repositories.

Once you have the complete citation, it may be possible to borrow the thesis, without cost to you, by filling out the Interlibrary Loan Online Request Form from the Library's Document Delivery Services unit. Undergraduate students may request interlibrary loan of theses from the institutions that are part of the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL). Other Canadian, US, and foreign dissertations are not ordinarily available for undergraduates through ILL.

Theses from other Canadian universities

If you are looking for a Canadian thesis published after 1998 it may be available online at the Canadian Theses Portal. When you go to Search menu make sure to click on the radio button for 'Electronic theses'.

Theses from US universities

Theses from universities outside of North America

The Center for Research Libraries has theses and dissertations published at universities outside of North America; SFU students and faculty can borrow materials from the Center for Research Libraries via the Document Delivery Services Office.

Along with many universities from North America, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) also has links to materials published at universities worldwide.

British theses and dissertations

Other foreign theses and dissertations

DART Europe is a collaboration between major European universities and national libraries that provides access (some fulltext) to theses and dissertations.

Some Dutch foreign theses are available through NARCIS, a collaboration between Dutch universities and the National Library.