Finding SFU theses and projects

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The Bennett Library (SFU Burnaby) has print, microform, and web-based copies of SFU PhD and Masters theses, final projects, and extended essays for programs that are required or have chosen to submit them to the Library.

Undergraduate honours theses are not available in the Library. Some departments (e.g. English) keep bound honours essays in the department office. In some cases, the only possibility for finding an honours essay may be to contact the author or the faculty supervisor.

Digital theses and projects

Digital theses and projects are available:

Find theses and projects by department or faculty

  1. Go to the SFU Library Catalogue.
  2. Enter Theses followed by the name of the department, school, or faculty in quotation marks.

Theses Department of [Department name]
e.g. Theses "Department of Psychology"

Theses Faculty of [Faculty name]
e.g. Theses "Faculty of Education"

Tips:

  • Use Theses rather than Thesis.
  • Use Faculty only for faculties without departments (eg. Business Administration, Education, Health Sciences).

 

Find theses by topic and department/faculty

  1. Go to the SFU Library Catalogue.
  2. Search by Keyword.
  3. Type in the the department or faculty.
  4. Add a topic word:

Theses "Department of [Department name]" and [Topic word]
e.g. Theses Department of Geography and Tourism

Theses "Faculty of [Faculty name]" and [Topic word]
e.g. Theses "Faculty of Business Administration" and Bonds

 

Tips:

  • Use the asterisk (*) to search for all forms of a word
    e.g. femini* will find feminist, feminism, feminine, etc.
  • Use Theses rather than Thesis.
  • Use Faculty only for faculties without departments (eg. Business Administration, Education, Health Sciences).

Find theses by topic and degree type

  1. Go to the SFU Library Catalogue.
  2. Search by Keyword.
  3. To find Master's theses, type:

Thesis [Degree type] and [Topic word]
e.g. Thesis M A and femini*
e.g. Thesis M Sc and prosthe*

To find Doctoral theses, type:

Thesis [Degree type] and Simon Fraser and [Topic word]
e.g. Thesis Ph D and Simon Fraser and femini*

Tips:

  • Use the asterisk (*) to search for all forms of a word
    e.g. femini* will find feminist, feminism, feminine, etc.
    e.g. prosthe* will find prosthetic, prostheses, prosthesis

Using Summit - SFU's Institutional Research Repository

  1. Visit the Summit homepage
  2. Once there, you will be able to search an author/title/keyword and use the Facets to filter the search results. 
    1. Facets include by author, resource type (thesis, essay, etc.), collection and more. 
  3. Alternatively you can browse the Collections by Theses, Departments and Schools, or SFU Community. 
  4. Faculty publications are also available.
  5. Summit can be accessed from the Library website under Help > Publish.

Using Dissertations and Theses Abstracts and Index

  1.  Dissertations and Theses Abstracts and Index is a searchable database containing both citations and full text of millions of theses.
  2.  We have created a subset of SFU theses within Dissertations and Theses Abstracts and Index which you can search.
  3.  Type a topic word, eg. prosthetics, in the search bar.                              
  4.  Use the available options to focus your search, eg. publication date, doctoral dissertation, advisor, etc.

 

See also:

Finding an SFU MBA Research Project

Finding Theses/Projects from other Universities