Finding theses and projects from other (non-SFU) universities

Locating the full text online of a non-SFU thesis

Try these sources:

Google or Google Scholar
Many universities make their theses freely available on the web.

Canadian Theses Portal
Full text of selected Canadian theses published after 1998.

Search engines with pointers to the full text of open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world:

Can't find a non-SFU thesis online? Request it via InterLibrary Loans

If you cannot find the thesis online, please place a request with the Library's InterLibrary Loan Division and they will attempt to obtain the thesis from the institution where the thesis was published, or acquire a copy from another source. There is no cost to using the InterLibrary Loan Service. 

Finding citation information for a thesis

In order to obtain a thesis or dissertation from another institution or to make use of specialized search engines, you may need:

  • the author of the thesis
  • thesis title
  • degree
  • date
  • issuing institution.

Consult these sources to find the full citation information for a thesis or dissertation:

Dissertations and Theses Abstracts and Index

Many journal article databases, such as MLA BibliographySociological Abstracts, or PsycINFO, include full citation information for theses. 

Worldcat
Search the catalogues of several thousand libraries.
Worldcat also offers the option to search for theses by subject area.

To locate theses and projects from SFU, see Finding University Theses and Projects from SFU.