british library doctoral thesis

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Using the Library

We're a bit different to your local library. You can't take books out, but you can use our Reading Rooms in London and Yorkshire for personal study and to access our collection. All you need is a free Reader Pass.

Our users include academic researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students and members of the public.

We're continuing to experience a major technology outage as a result of a cyber-attack . At the moment, our Reading Rooms in London and Yorkshire are open, but access to our collection and online resources is limited.

Consult the collection

We've released a searchable online version of our main catalogue, which contains the majority of our printed collections, but not everything is included.

Read our collection item FAQs below or watch our 'how to' video for more details.

What would you like to do?

Get your Reader Pass

A Reader Pass gives free access to our Reading Rooms and collection. Anyone can get a Reader Pass, you’ll just need to bring some identification to Reader Registration in London or Yorkshire.

Study in our Reading Rooms

All our Reading Rooms are open for personal study, with access to free Wi-Fi and limited access to collection items.

To use our Reading Rooms you will need your free Reader Pass.

Access our collection

Search our online catalogue to find the majority of books and special collections held at St Pancras and limited collection items at Boston Spa.

You will need to come onsite to order, and please note not everything is available. Please contact us to check availability.

Use our online resources

Our full website is currently unavailable, in the meantime there are some useful resources below. You can access these from home and you don't need a Reader Pass.

Speak to one of our team

Our Reference Services team are on hand to answer your research queries and advise on collection item availability. We're receiving a high volume of enquiries at the moment so please bear with us. We'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Frequently asked questions

Reader registration.

If you have a question about our registration process, please email [email protected] and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

How do I become a Reader?

Please visit Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa to be issued with your Reader Pass.

We’re now able to issue photographic passes again, and these will last for one year. The pass will allow you to use our Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves and order collection items to consult.

If you have previously been issued with a temporary paper pass, you will need to revisit Reader Registration to exchange it for a photographic pass.

You must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration.

My Reader Pass has expired, how can I renew it?

Please visit Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa to be issued with your Reader Pass. This pass will last for one year. Your pass will allow you to use our Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves and order collection items to consult.

Please bring your expired pass with you to Reader Registration, as your new pass will need to carry your expired Reader number to order any collection items.

I have pre-registered as a Reader but haven't completed my registration, what do I do?

Please bring your pre-registration confirmation email with you to Reader Registration, as your photographic pass will need to carry your Reader number to order any collection items.

What ID do I need to bring to register as a Reader?

At the moment we can only issue one-year photographic passes.

Whether you are renewing, replacing or getting a new pass, please bring:

• a state-issued photo ID, printed with your photo, name and address (driving license or national ID card) or
• two separate documents, one showing your name and one showing your home address.

Types of documents we can accept include:

• State-issued documents e.g. passport
• Bills and financial documents
• NHS documentation e.g. NHS appointment letters and prescriptions
• DVLA documentation or correspondence
• Residency e.g. tenancy agreements.

Please note:

• We can accept original documents, photos, online versions or scanned copies of the documents above. Please ensure all text is legible
• Some driving licenses and national identity cards do not show your address. If yours doesn't, we can't accept it as your sole ID
• All documents need to be valid, or the paperwork issued within the last 12 months
• If necessary, it's up to you to provide official translations for foreign documents
• If you would like to bring a guest aged over 18 into our Reading Rooms, they will also need a Reader Pass. If you require a carer or have an adult dependent, they will also need a Reader Pass.
• Unfortunately, we can't issue a Reader Pass without seeing the ID listed above. Without a Reader Pass, you won't be able to use our Reading Rooms.

Can I pre-register for my Reader Pass before I visit the Library?

At the moment you can only get a Reader Pass by visiting the Reader Registration in St Pancras or Boston Spa, and you can’t pre-register online.

With this Reader Pass you will be able to use the Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves, and order collection items to consult.

My temporary paper pass is still valid, what should I do?

You can continue using your temporary paper pass until it expires.

If you have a temporary white paper pass but you need to order collection items, you can revisit Reader Registration to exchange it for a photographic pass before its expiry date.

If you have a temporary blue paper pass you can continue to use it until it expires, and then exchange it for a photographic pass.

With a photographic pass you will be able to use the Reading Rooms for personal study, use our free Wi-Fi, access items on the shelves, and order collection items to consult.

You must bring identification with you when you visit Reader Registration, even when replacing your temporary pass. You may want to consider visiting the Reader Registration in the afternoons, when it is likely to be quieter.

Reading Rooms and our collection

All our Reading Rooms are open for personal study, and you can now search an online version of our main catalogue . Please read our FAQs for more information about how to search for and order collection items at the moment.

Are the Reading Rooms open?

All of our Reading Rooms are open during their normal opening hours , for personal study, and for accessing books and other items from our collection, subject to availability and certain restrictions. See FAQs below for more details. Digital and audio-visual collections are not currently available.

When will more services be restored?

Our teams have been working since the cyber-attack to find ways to restore access to as much of our collection as possible, while ensuring that we do so in a way that is safe and resilient.

Recent improvements

• Improved Reader Registration process. If you have renewed or got a new Reader Pass since the cyber-attack last year, you can now get a full Reader Pass. This means anyone with a Reader Pass can order collection items in the Reading Rooms
• Improved collection item access. We’ve now restarted the transfer of collection items between our two sites, which has expanded the range of collection materials available for you to order. This means Readers in St Pancras can access material stored in Boston Spa, and vice versa. This has restored access to material that can be retrieved manually from our stores in Boston Spa, but as we are currently unable to access our automated stores, not everything is available. You can use our online catalogue to identify the items you need and their location, but please check their availability before visiting the Reading Rooms by contacting our Reference Services team . If your item is being transferred from another site please allow two working days for delivery. You still need to visit in person and complete paper forms to order collection items at the moment.

Further improvements and restoration of service you’re likely to see between now and July:

• Restored access to more collection items in Boston Spa , including those held in our automated stores
• Restored on-site access to Non-Print Legal Deposit collections
• Restored access to a range of other digital content.

We’ll share more details as soon as we can

How can I find out what's currently available?

There are a few ways to explore what's in our collection and find out what's currently available:

• You can now use a searchable online version of our main catalogue . This catalogue contains records of the majority of our printed collection and some freely available online resources
• You can consult printed catalogues in the Reading Rooms
• You can work with our Reading Room staff on-site to search for items in our special collections, such as archives and manuscripts
• You can search Jisc Library Hub Discover , WorldCat , The National Archives and The Archives Hub for records of items held in our collection, and see if they are held elsewhere.

The following table can help you find the collection types you require:

We're working hard to expand access to all of our collection as soon as we can, and will update our website and social media channels with more information.

Online ordering is not currently possible, so you will need to come to the Reading Rooms to order your collection items. Please contact our Reference Services Team before you visit to check what you need will be available, by contacting us .

What's in the online catalogue?

The online catalogue is a searchable version of our main catalogue of books and other printed material. It contains records relating to the following collection item categories:

How do I order collection items in your St Pancras Reading Rooms?

To order an item you'll need to place a manual order in one of our Reading Rooms by completing a paper order form. Our staff can help you with this.

To identify the items you need, you can use our online catalogue to search for the item you require. If a record is marked ‘Not available’, this means the item is unavailable at the moment. If a record is marked ‘Should be available’, you will be able to see a shelfmark reference. You can take note of the shelfmark, because you will need it to place a manual order in the Reading Rooms by completing a paper order form.

We can’t guarantee that items marked ‘Should be available’ are available to order; they may be in use by another Reader or restricted for other reasons. To check the availability before you visit, contact our Reference Services team by contacting us .

In the Reading Rooms you can also consult our printed catalogues, which contain items not currently included in the online catalogue.

To see if items are held elsewhere, you can search Jisc Library Hub Discover , WorldCat , The National Archives and The Archives Hub .

Orders for same-day delivery close at 16.00.

How can I find out if a collection item is available before I visit?

Before you visit, you can use our online catalogue to search for the items you require. If a record is marked ‘Not available’, this means the item is unavailable at the moment. If a record is marked ‘Should be available’, you will be able to see a shelfmark reference. Please take note of the shelfmark as you will need it to place a manual order in the Reading Rooms by completing a paper order form.

How quickly will my orders be delivered to the Reading Room?

We will endeavour to deliver your order within 70 minutes. However, please bear in mind that in some cases it may take longer if our staff have to do extra checks to ensure that the items you ordered are available. Orders for same-day delivery close at 16.00.

Can I order collection items to your Boston Spa Reading Room?

We’ve now restarted the transfer of collection items between our two sites, which has expanded the range of collection materials available for you to order. This means Readers in Boston Spa can access material stored in St Pancras, and vice versa. This has restored access to material that can be retrieved manually from our stores in Boston Spa, but as we are currently unable to access our automated stores, not everything is available.

If your item is being transferred from another site please allow two working days for delivery. You still need to visit in person and complete paper forms to order collection items at the moment.

We recommend contacting our Boston Spa Reading Room team before you visit to check what you need will be available, by emailing [email protected] .

We plan to restore access to more collection items stored in Boston Spa, including those held in our automated stores, over the coming months.

Can I access special collections such as archives and manuscripts?

Access to some archival and manuscript material is still restricted, but the majority of special collections held at St Pancras are now once again available. Our specialist archive and manuscripts catalogue is not online at the moment so you will need to come on-site to our Reading Rooms, where Reading Room staff will be able to help you search for what you need, and advise on its availability.

Can I access your sound and vision collection?

How up to date is the online catalogue.

The catalogue is a snapshot as of April 2023, and we will not be adding any new records to it for the time being. Please see the table above for details of the categories of collection data it includes.

Is this version of the online catalogue just an interim solution?

Yes - we will ultimately bring back a fully integrated catalogue with online ordering and other features. However, this will take some time to implement so in the meantime we will work iteratively to improve the service we can offer to Readers using this version of the main catalogue as a basis.

How many items can I order?

You can order up to six collection items per day. Please note that as usual it is possible for only four manuscripts to be in process at any one time.

Can I increase my daily order limit?

Please speak to a member of our team in the Reading Rooms for help with this.

Can I order the collection items I require in advance of coming to the Reading Rooms?

We hope to implement a system for this soon but unfortunately it's not possible at the moment.

Can I reserve my items to view again?

Yes, you can reserve your items for up to three working days. Please speak to a member of our team in the Reading Room for help with this.

Can I extend the reservation period?

That may be possible, please speak to a member of our team in the Reading Room for help with this.

Can I consult material on the shelves in the Reading Room?

Yes, you can access collection items held on the open shelves in the Reading Rooms.

Can I access your digital collection?

Most of our digital collection and electronic resources are currently unavailable, but some freely available online resources are included in our online catalogue.

You can also access the resources below from home without a Reader Pass:

• search HathiTrust or Archive.org for older and out-of-copyright digitised material
• use Google Books to search a huge range of digitised content from our collection
• access 1 million images of items from our collection on Flickr
• search millions of newspaper articles via the British Newspaper Archives
• explore Artstor's digital library.

We plan to restore access to a range of other digital and digitised content between April and July 2024.

Can I access online services in the Reading Rooms?

• digital content including electronic resources
• online and advance ordering
• Reading Room PCs.

Why do I have to surrender my Reader Pass in the specialist Reading Rooms when collection items are issued to me?

To help us maintain collection security, we need to monitor the collection items consulted in the specialist Reading Rooms.

What time do I need to return the special collection items I'm consulting?

We would appreciate if you can return these items to the Issue Desk 45 minutes before closing time.

Will I be able to take photographs from special collection items?

Please ask our staff in the Reading Rooms who will be able to assist you.

Can I access the Print Room?

Yes, prints, drawings, photographs and related visual material held in the Visual Art collection can be consulted in the Print Room located in the Asian and African Reading Room. The Print Room is open by appointment only on Monday and Friday between 10.30 and 12.30. Please contact the Visual Arts team via email ( [email protected] ) to check the availability of required items and to book an appointment. Please note that advanced booking is required.

Can I access UK doctoral theses?

Our online catalogue now provides access to digital doctoral theses held in UK institutional repositories. To access these documents, search for a thesis and then click on a title of interest to view the full details for that work. The link can be found under the section labelled "View Online - External Resource Available" (in green) just above the "I want this" section (in red) at the bottom of the page.

Are the Eccles Centre Fellowships going ahead in 2024?

The Eccles Institute has unfortunately decided to suspend the Visiting Fellowship programme for 2024-25. We know that this will be disappointing, and this decision has not been taken lightly. We anticipate that there will be some opportunities for Eccles Institute support after key Library services have resumed.

How can I access high-res images of items from your collection?

At the moment, most of our digital collection and electronic resources are unavailable, but you can use alternate online resources including our Flickr and Images Online sites. You can also find digitised resources on a number of our blogs , and on the IDP website .

We can supply hi res images for all images that are available on Images Online, and are working on adding some additional images without captions/metadata that have been kindly given by previous users.

If you have any questions about the image you'd like to use please email [email protected] and we'll come back to you as soon as we can.

If you have previously been supplied images by the Library please get in touch as we can redistribute them to users who may need them.

British Library On Demand

We are now offering an interim manual interlibrary loan and scan from print service to business account holders. We'll be contacting account holders with more details about this service. British Library On Demand from digital collections and some of our print collections remains unavailable. We're working on restoring the whole service as soon as we can.

In the meantime:

• all requests submitted before Saturday 28 October and in our system will be cancelled, with the option for you to reapply once our service is up and running should items still be required
• renewal charges will not apply, and you can continue to return your items to us when no longer required.

I have an outstanding request, when will this be fulfilled?

All requests in our system will be cancelled, with the option for you to reapply once our service is up and running, should items still be required.

Should I still send my items back?

Yes, you can continue to return your items to us when no longer required.

Can I renew my items?

Renewal charges will not apply, so you can keep hold of your items if you need them for longer and send them back to us when no longer required.

Can I request an interlibrary loan?

We are now offering an interim, manual interlibrary loan and scan from print service to business account holders. We’ll be contacting account holders with more details about this service.

Access digitised content

Most of our digital collection and electronic resources are currently unavailable, but some freely available online resources are included in our online catalogue. See our collection item FAQs above for more information about what's included.

Out-of-copyright material

Search HathiTrust or Archive.org for older and out-of-copyright digitised material.

Google Books

Use this filtered search to access over 700,000 digitised books from our collection on Google Books.

Access 1 million images of items from our collection on Flickr . Find and buy images from our unique collections on our images online site.

Search millions of newspaper articles via the British Newspaper Archives .

Other available resources

Research repository.

Search our open access Research Repository for outputs from our staff, open access data sets, 3D models of collection items and content from other heritage organisations.

English Short Title Catalogue

Access a temporary search interface for the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), to search over 480,000 pre-1801 records, many with links to Early English Books Online (EEBO) . Created by Nikolai Vogler for the collaborative research project Print & Probability .

Open University

Freely available eresources are listed by The Open University .

Journal articles

Anyone can sign up for a free Jstor account. Creating an account gives access to 100 free articles per month from their range of journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.

Artstor digital library

Explore Artstor's digital library of images, videos, documents, and audio files.

Endangered Archive Programme

Look at digitised collections items from around the world through our Endangered Archive Programme (EAP) .

Our website content

Our full website is unavailable, but it is possible to find some of our content using the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to search for archived copies of our website.

MARC and ISIL assignment service

Our MARC organization code and ISIL assignment service is still available for libraries and related organizations, such as archives and museums. If you are such an organization and require a MARC organization code or an ISIL, please contact [email protected] and we can assign those identifiers for you.

Asian and African Studies

Americas and Oceania Collections

Collection Care

Digital Scholarship

Endangered Archives

English and Drama

European Studies

Innovation and enterprise

Knowledge Matters

Maps and Views

Medieval Manuscripts

Social Science

Sound and Vision

The Newsroom

UK Web Archive

Untold lives

Other services

Find more information about other services at the Library, including Public Lending Right (PLR), legal deposit and the International Library Leaders programme.

EThOS: e-theses online service Open access EThOS: e-theses online service Open access

EThOS, provided by the British Library, is a free online service providing access to UK doctoral theses.

Access EThOS is an open access resource.

Content  EThOS, provided by the British Library, is a free online service providing access to UK doctoral theses. It does not cover MPhils or master's dissertations.

EThOS aims to provide a central listing of all doctoral theses awarded by UK higher education institutions, with the full text of as many theses as possible. 

The database includes more than 600,000 records. Around 4,000 law theses are covered, dating from the 1920s to the present day.

Searching  EThOS has basic and advanced search facilities. Searches can be limited to theses available for immediate download.

Advanced search allows users to search by author, title, awarding body, year of award and other criteria. Boolean connectors (AND, OR, AND NOT) can be selected from a drop-down menu

Downloading  Many theses are available for download; it is necessary to create a free account to do this. 

There is an option to request digitisation of a thesis if it is not yet available for download. Sometimes this is free, but sometimes there is a charge (see FAQs). 

Help A Help menu and an FAQ page are available.

Theses and dissertation: Finding a UK thesis

• Finding a Sussex thesis
• Finding a UK thesis
• Finding an international thesis
• Help and Support

The Electronic Theses Online System

The Electronic Theses Online System is a service from the British Library that provides online access to the full-text of UK doctoral theses. It contains over 380,000+ records of doctoral theses from UK Higher Education Institutions. Many of these have already been digitised and are available for immediate download.

Can I request UK theses from other universities from the Library?

You no longer request theses from other universities through Sussex University's Interlibrary Requests service - you can access them directly via EThOS.

Do I need to register?

You do not need to register to search the 380,000+ records in the EThOS database, but you will need to register if you would like to download a thesis.

Are immediate downloads available?

If the thesis in which you are interested has already been digitised, you will be able to download it immediately without charge. If the thesis you need has not yet been digitised, there will be a short delay whilst digitisation takes place. You will then be notified by EThOS when the thesis is ready to be downloaded. Once the thesis has been digitised it is then available for immediate download by any other user.

Are all theses digitised?

Some theses cannot be digitised for copyright reasons. If this is the case with the thesis you need, please inform the Interlibrary Requests team who will investigate whether a hard copy can be borrowed directly from the relevant university.

Does this service cost me anything?

On rare occasions you may be asked by EThOS to pay for the digitisation of a thesis. This is because, although the majority of institutions participating in EThOS have agreed to pay for the digitisation of their own theses on request, some institutions have not.

In such cases, the Library will pay the cost of digitisation provided that funding is available. Please contact the Research Support team on Tel: 01273 877941 (int 7941) or Email: [email protected] with the full details of your request.

image copyright: The British Library

Useful Links

Library Search

• Browse SRO theses Browse theses added to Sussex Research Online
• EThOS A service from the British Library that provides online access to the fulltext of UK doctoral theses. The EThOS database contains over 300,000+ records of doctoral theses from UK Higher Education Institutions.
• Copyright guide A practical guide on copyright issues in your thesis.
• << Previous: Finding a Sussex thesis
• Next: Finding an international thesis >>
• Last Updated: Feb 9, 2022 1:24 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.sussex.ac.uk/theses

Library Guides

Theses and dissertations

Introduction to ethos, about ethos, benefits of using phds, further information.

Benefits to researchers

• Easy access to UK research theses.
• Centralised access to new and retrospectively digitised theses.
• Raised profile for individual authors from wider circulation of their work.
• Support for the principle of Open Access and increased use of publicly-funded research outputs.

Ethos is the British Library digital repository for UK research theses offering a central access point to UK doctoral theses. The majority of universities in the UK are members. You can cross-search over 500,000 theses including those available for immediate download.

Requesting doctoral theses

You must first register on an individual basis with Ethos in order to make requests through the Ethos website. The  Ethos site provides further information .

In some cases the first person (or their institution) to request a thesis is required to pay for the cost of digitisation. In the first instance researchers should refer to the Director of Research and Enterprise or their supervisor in the school about recovering costs from school research funds.

How long will it take?

Immediate download for theses already digitised. For theses not yet digitised you will need to contact the library of the university where the paper thesis is held to request access.

University of Greenwich theses are uploaded to  GALA  and harvested into Ethos allowing you to search and download from from either source.

Visit our theses and dissertations page to find out more about  finding PhD theses  within and beyond the university.

List of institutions taking part in Ethos .

Frequently asked questions about Ethos .

• << Previous: Home
• Last Updated: Aug 8, 2023 9:35 AM
• URL: https://libguides.gre.ac.uk/theses

Library policies | Library Code of Conduct | IT Service Status | Portal © University of Greenwich | FOI | Privacy and cookies | Legal | Terms & conditions

Theses and Dissertations: UK PhD Theses

• UK PhD Theses
• Overseas PhD Theses
• BU Theses & Dissertations This link opens in a new window

For Library Enquiries: tel. +44 (0) 1202 965959 Available 9am - 5pm Mon to Fri

For IT Support: tel. +44 (0) 1202 965515 Available 24/7

Using UK PhD Theses in EThOS

Obtaining Theses

• Thesis and Dissertation databases can be accessed via this BU Library webpage .
• If a thesis is not available full text online then it may be possible to obtain via the Inter-Library Loan service . The clarity of your request is enhanced if you attach a printout of the source details e.g. a record from one of the databases .
• Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) is the British Library service which provides full text open access to digital copies of UK PhD theses. The EThOS database contains records of over 250,000 UK theses, with the added functionality of being able to request access to digital copies of selected theses that have not already been digitised.
• Personal registration on EThOS is required to be able to download theses. Bournemouth University is an Open Access Sponsor of EThOS, so all BU theses are indexed.
• Theses which are already available to download have a pdf attached to the record. For those theses that do not have a pdf attached, you should select the record to check Availability of Full Text – there are 3 possible scenarios:
• The home institution will pay the digitisation cost and access will be free.
• The home institution will digitise the thesis, but you will be charged.  In these cases you should consult your supervisor as to how important the thesis is to your research and consider requesting payment via the Inter-Library Request Service.
• The thesis is not available via EThOS service. Please contact the current institution's library directly if you wish to view the thesis.

Doing a thesis at BU

This guide is to help with searching for theses from other institutions.

If you are doing a thesis at BU and want guidance to help with writing and completing your research see our PGR Guide

Subject Guide

• Next: Overseas PhD Theses >>
• Last Updated: Oct 18, 2023 11:46 AM
• URL: https://libguides.bournemouth.ac.uk/theses-dissertations

• Cambridge Libraries

Physical & Digital Collections

Theses & dissertations: home, access to theses and dissertations from other institutions and from the university of cambridge.

This guide provides information on searching for theses of Cambridge PhDs and for theses of UK universities and universities abroad. 

For information and guidance on depositing your thesis as a cambridge phd, visit the cambridge office of scholarly communication pages on theses here ., this guide gives essential information on how to obtain theses using the british library's ethos service. .

On the last weekend of October, the British Library became the victim of a major cyber-attack. Essential digital services including the BL catalogue, website and online learning resources went dark, with research services like the EThOS collection of more than 600,000 doctoral theses suddenly unavailable. The BL state that they anticipate restoring more services in the next few weeks, but disruption to certain services is now expected to persist for several months. For the latest news on the attack and information on the restoration of services, please follow the BL blog here:  Knowledge Matters blog  and access the LibGuide page here:  British Library Outage Update - Electronic Legal Deposit - LibGuides at University of Cambridge Subject Libraries

A full list of resources for searching theses online is provided by the Cambridge A-Z, available here .

University of Cambridge theses

Finding a cambridge phd thesis online via the institutional repository.

The University's institutional repository, Apollo , holds full-text digital versions of over 11,000 Cambridge PhD theses and is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates. Theses in Apollo can be browsed via this link . More information on how to access theses by University of Cambridge students can be found on the access to Cambridge theses webpage.   The requirement for impending PhD graduates to deposit a digital version in order to graduate means the repository will be increasing at a rate of approximately 1,000 per year from this source.   About 200 theses are added annually through requests to make theses Open Access or via requests to digitize a thesis in printed format.

Locating and obtaining a copy of a Cambridge PhD thesis (not yet available via the repository)

Theses can be searched in iDiscover .  Guidance on searching for theses in iDiscover can be found here .   Requests for consultation of printed theses, not available online, should be made at the Manuscripts Reading Room (Email:  [email protected] Telephone: +44 (0)1223 333143).   Further information on the University Library's theses, dissertations and prize essays collections can be consulted at this link .

Researchers can order a copy of an unpublished thesis which was deposited in print form either through the Library’s  Digital Content Unit via the image request form , or, if the thesis has been digitised, it may be available in the Apollo repository. Copies of theses may be provided to researchers in accordance with the  law  and in a manner that is common across UK libraries.  The law allows us to provide whole copies of unpublished theses to individuals as long as they sign a declaration saying that it is for non-commercial research or private study.

How to make your thesis available online through Cambridge's institutional repository

Are you a Cambridge alumni and wish to make your Ph.D. thesis available online? You can do this by depositing it in Apollo the University's institutional repository. Click here for further information on how to proceed.    Current Ph.D students at the University of Cambridge can find further information about the requirements to deposit theses on the Office of Scholarly Communication theses webpages.

UK Theses and Dissertations

Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS , a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions. It achieves this by harvesting e-theses from Institutional Repositories and by digitising print theses as they are ordered by researchers using the system. Over 250,000 theses are already available in this way. Please note that it does not supply theses submitted at the universities of Cambridge or Oxford although they are listed on EThOS.

Registration with EThOS is not required to search for a thesis but is necessary to download or order one unless it is stored in the university repository rather than the British Library (in which case a link to the repository will be displayed). Many theses are available without charge on an Open Access basis but in all other cases, if you are requesting a thesis that has not yet been digitised you will be asked to meet the cost. Once a thesis has been digitised it is available for free download thereafter.

When you order a thesis it will either be immediately available for download or writing to hard copy or it will need to be digitised. If you order a thesis for digitisation, the system will manage the process and you will be informed when the thesis is available for download/preparation to hard copy.

See the Search results section of the  help page for full information on interpreting search results in EThOS.

EThOS is managed by the British Library and can be found at http://ethos.bl.uk . For more information see About EThOS .

World-wide (incl. UK) theses and dissertations

Electronic versions of non-UK theses may be available from the institution at which they were submitted, sometimes on an open access basis from the institutional repository. A good starting point for discovering freely available electronic theses and dissertations beyond the UK is the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) , which facilitates searching across institutions. Information can also usually be found on the library web pages of the relevant institution.

The DART Europe etheses portal lists several thousand full-text theses from a group of European universities.

The University Library subscribes to the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses  (PQDT) database which from August 31 2023 is accessed on the Web of Science platform.  To search this index select it from the Web of Science "Search in" drop-down list of databases (available on the Documents tab on WoS home page)

PQDT includes 2.4 million dissertation and theses citations, representing 700 leading academic institutions worldwide from 1861 to the present day. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The University Library only subscribes to the abstracting & indexing version of the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database and NOT the full text version.  A fee is payable for ordering a dissertation from this source.   To obtain the full text of a dissertation as a downloadable PDF you can submit your request via the University Library Inter-Library Loans department (see contact details below). NB this service is only available to full and current members of the University of Cambridge.

Alternatively you can pay yourself for the dissertation PDF on the PQDT platform. Link from Web of Science record display of any thesis to PQDT by clicking on "View Details on ProQuest".  On the "Preview" page you will see an option "Order a copy" top right.  This will allow you to order your own copy from ProQuest directly.

Dissertations and theses submitted at non-UK universities may also be requested on Inter-Library Loan through the Inter-Library Loans department (01223 333039 or 333080, [email protected] )

• Last Updated: Dec 20, 2023 9:47 AM
• URL: https://libguides.cam.ac.uk/theses

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A-Z Databases: EThOS: Welcome

Content, coverage & description.

EThOS is a UK wide repository of digitized doctoral theses. It provides full text access to 250,000 theses published in the UK as well as bibliographic records of non digitized theses. A quick and free  registration is required to access the full text content.  

• EThOS e-Theses Online Service This link opens in a new window The British Library digital repository for UK research theses offering a central access point to UK doctoral theses. The majority of universities in the UK are members. You can cross-search over 500,000 theses including those available for immediate download. more... less... Not Searchable via One Search. You must first register on an individual basis with Ethos in order to make requests through the Ethos website. The Ethos site provides further information.

When to use

EThOS is an excellent resource for finding highly specialised and original research. S tudents embarking on a doctoral programme may wish to see examples of successful theses in their own discipline and identify areas of research that have not already been covered.  

Video guide: Using Ethos to find UK theses

University of Kent (2019) Using Ethos to find UK theses.  28 August. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_c3ZRC5tG0 (Accessed: 13 July 2021).

Basic search

Keep search terms simple, e.g. 'organisational culture', 'business ethics' , ' eosinophilic inflammation', ' diabetes management'. 

Full text availability is indicated by a green open padlock symbol next to the search results.  You can restrict the search results to full text only by checking the box  ' limit search to items available for immediate download' below the search bar.

Search results are listed in order of relevance. You can change the order of results to A to Z by author or year (most recent to oldest and vice versa) by using the 'sort by" option above the search results. 

Click the relevant search result to view the abstract and download the thesis (if applicable). The full text can be accessed via the 'Immediate download'   link when this is available. You will be prompted for the username and password you chose when you registered with EThOS. 

Advanced Search

The advanced search tool enables you to search for a specific thesis by author and title. Use  the drop-down menus next to the search boxes to select your desired search criteria. 

You can also combine search terms using the Boolean operators 'AND', 'OR', 'NOT' (drop-down menu to the left of the search boxes). Example:

'higher education' (box one) AND  'social inequality' (box two)  will instruct  the database to look for theses which contain both search terms in the thesis abstracts or titles. 

'social inequality' (box one) OR  'poverty' (box two) will instruct the database to search for each search term separately. 

'higher education' (box one) AND  'social inequality' (box two) OR  'poverty' (box three) will instruct the database to search for articles which contain the first search term 'higher education' and either the second 'social inequality' or the third 'poverty'. 

Try to keep your search terms simple especially when combining search terms.  EThOS is a highly specialised database and over complicating searches may lead to a zero result outcome. 

Help and Support

Library staff are available to help you to use all of our online databases and electronic journal services. 

Contact us at  [email protected]  or via the  Self Service Port al . 

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• Last Updated: Mar 24, 2022 1:40 PM
• URL: https://uws-uk.libguides.com/EThOS

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The Library has a full set of Imperial PhD theses.

The majority of Imperial PhD theses are available on open access, while some are restricted to 'Imperial users only', in  Spiral .

We also provide access, to Imperial students and staff, to some Imperial Master's dissertations and online theses from other universities in the UK and worldwide.

Access to theses

Imperial phd theses.

• Check if an electronic copy of the thesis is available in the Spiral repository . If the thesis has been digitised you can access and download it.

Imperial College London PhD theses

Information for imperial students and staff.

• If the thesis has not been digitised, you can visit the Abdus Salam Library to consult it - complete a  Thesis request form prior to your visit.
• You can also place a Document Delivery request for an electronic copy of the thesis using “ORDER A BOOK OR ARTICLE” tab in  Library Search . The time scale for digitisation is 4 weeks.

Information for external users and alumni

• Most of the electronic copies of Imperial PhD theses are available on open access in the Spiral repository . Some theses are closed access, for copyright reasons, and are unavailable to external users.
• You can visit the Abdus Salam Library to consult any print theses, including theses unavailable in Spiral - complete a  Thesis request form and, if you do not have a current membership card, complete the online library membership application form prior to your visit.
• If you are unable to visit the library or wish to receive an electronic copy of a thesis, please contact the Document Delivery Service by email at [email protected] . Full details will be given upon application.

Imperial Master's dissertations

Library Services provides access to the Master's dissertations of some departments - check the table below for details. If your department is not listed there are no Master's dissertations available. 

Please contact Your librarian if you would like to deposit your department's Master's dissertations in Spiral.

Master's dissertations

Theses from other universities.

UK theses are available online via the British Library EThOS service . To obtain a copy of a thesis:

• first register for the service
• if a thesis has already been digitised it will be available for immediate download
• if a thesis has not been digitised and there is no charge , place your order to digitise it. You will receive a notification from EThOS by email when the thesis is ready to download.
• if a thesis has not been digitised and there is a charge , make a request through the Document Delivery Service via Library Search . You will either receive a copy on loan or, if this is not possible, the Library will order a digital copy and notify you when it is available for download - this will take 4-5 weeks.

Overseas theses

Most overseas theses are now available online via Library Search . If the thesis you are interested in is not available request it using Document Delivery.

Library Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS)

The British Library provides digitised UK PhD theses online via the Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) .

You can search the site without registering. However, to download a thesis you must register and agree to the terms and conditions of access.

Access to theses which have already been digitised is free. If a thesis has not already been digitised, you may be asked to pay the cost of digitisation (£60) or it may be free. This depends on the policy of the institution supplying the thesis.

The EThOS database holds details of over 400,000 theses. Some of these are available for immediate download. Once you register you can download a thesis or request a digital copy if it is not currently available. If the thesis is not immediately available there will be a short delay while it is digitised.

Theses are supplied by participating institutions free of charge as zipped PDFs. Alternative formats (CD/DVD or paper) are available for an extra charge.

Participating institutions

Some institutions may not be participating in EThOS or may charge for the digitisation of a thesis. If you cannot find the theses you want or do not want to pay for the digitisation of the thesis you can still submit an Inter-Library request . However, some libraries do not lend their theses.

We will not make a request for a thesis already available on EThOS.

International & Masters Theses

You can submit an Inter-Library request for international and Masters theses.

More information

For more information contact the Inter-Library Service or check the EThOS FAQs .

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Library Services

Here we explain how to access copies of research theses that UCL Library Services holds. There is also an increasing number of open access thesis repositories available online.

Theses held in UCL Library

Open access repositories containing the full text of selected research theses.

• Indexes of completed theses

Obtaining copies of research theses

• Open Access for Thesis: how to deposit

University of London theses

The Library holds a copy of most research degree theses completed by students registered at UCL and awarded by the UoL, including many from students at Schools and Institutes prior to merger with UCL. Theses are listed by author on the Library catalogue, Explore : they are shelved in our off-campus Store and may be retrieved for consultation (24-hour notice required) by completing the store request form or via the request link on Explore. Theses are not available for loan, either to individuals or via interlibrary loan.

Some UoL research degree theses submitted by UCL students in the areas of classical, Germanic, Latin American studies; history and law are not held: check the UoL School of Advanced Study catalogue for availability.

UCL started to award its own degrees to students registering from 2007/2008. Print copies of research theses are catalogued by author in Explore and shelved in Store; electronic versions are in many cases available on open access in UCL Discovery .

If you wish to access a thesis recorded in UCL Discovery for which the full text is subject to an access restriction or not present, it is best to contact the author directly to request a copy privately.  If this is not possible, please contact the UCL Open Access Team .

If a thesis is not available via UCL Discovery or EThOS (see below) then it might be possible to obtain a copy from our interlibrary loan service via your home university interlibrary loan department. Please contact your university library and ask them to enquire about this service with UCL's Interlibrary Loan service; e-mail [email protected] for more information.

The Library does not normally hold print copies of any theses in the following categories:

• MA, MSc, MRes, LLM theses.
• Diploma theses.
• Undergraduate dissertations.
• Theses submitted at other universities or colleges.

Further information is available in the Support for dissertations and research projects LibGuide .

A growing number of open access thesis repositories is becoming available including:

• ProQuest , holds many full text theses. You can search for dissertations and theses there.
• UCL Discovery , UCL's open access research repository, includes theses alongside other UCL publications. You can search for theses, or browse a list.
• EThOS , a database run by the British Library that aims to record all UK doctoral theses, with links to access an electronic version of the full text where available. The digitisation of theses that only exist in print form can often be requested, depending on the awarding institution and for a fee: UCL supports this process for UCL-held theses.
• The DART-Europe E-theses Portal , holds details of open access electronic theses stored in repositories across Europe.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations , includes links to a number of international search tools and portals.

Video - Using PhD theses in research: EThOS 

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Indexes of completed theses (access available to members of UCL only)

Proquest dissertations & theses global (pqdt global).

PQDT Global contains over a million full-text dissertations and theses from 1861 onwards that are available for download in PDF format. The collection includes PQDT UK and Ireland content.

Many UK universities now decline to lend research theses. You may visit the awarding university or, increasingly, obtain an electronic version either from the university itself or from EThOS (see above).

Theses awarded by universities worldwide may be requested via UCL Library Services Interlending and Document Supply service . The normal charge for this service applies. Please note that theses are never available for loan: they must be consulted on Library premises only.

Open access for theses: how to deposit

Candidates for UCL research degrees are required to deposit an electronic copy of their final thesis in UCL's Research Publications Service (RPS), to be made open access in UCL's institutional repository, UCL Discovery . Theses are amongst the most highly-downloaded items in UCL Discovery . Making your thesis open access will mean that it is accessible worldwide, to anyone who wants to read it.

It is also possible, but not mandatory, to submit a print copy of your thesis to the Library for storage and preservation if you wish. We recommend submitting the print copy in cases where the electronic copy cannot be made openly available online in UCL Discovery, but you wish the print copy to be accessible to members of the Library.

Please refer to our guidance on how to deposit  for further information on the submission procedures.

Oxford theses

The Bodleian Libraries’ thesis collection holds every DPhil thesis deposited at the University of Oxford since the degree began in its present form in 1917. Our oldest theses date from the early 1920s. We also have substantial holdings of MLitt theses, for which deposit became compulsory in 1953, and MPhil theses.

Since 2007 it has been a mandatory requirement for students to deposit an electronic copy of their DPhil thesis in the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) , in addition to the deposit of a paper copy – the copy of record. Since the COVID pandemic, the requirement of a paper copy has been removed and the ORA copy has become the copy of record. Hardcopy theses are now only deposited under exceptional circumstances. 

ORA provides full-text PDF copies of most recent DPhil theses, and some earlier BLitt/MLitt theses. Find out more about Oxford Digital Theses, and depositing with ORA .

Finding Oxford theses

The following theses are catalogued on SOLO (the University libraries’ resource discovery tool) :

• DPhil and BLitt and MLitt theses
• BPhil and MPhil theses 
• Science theses

SOLO collates search results from several sources.

How to search for Oxford theses on SOLO

To search for theses in the Oxford collections on SOLO :

• navigate to the SOLO homepage
• click on the 'Advanced Search' button
• click the 'Material Type' menu and choose the 'Dissertations' option
• type in the title or author of the thesis you are looking for and click the 'Search' button.

Also try an “Any field” search for “Thesis Oxford” along with the author’s name under “creator” and any further “Any field” keywords such as department or subject. 

Searching by shelfmarks

If you are searching using the shelfmark, please make sure you include the dots in your search (e.g. D.Phil.). Records will not be returned if they are left out.

Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)

ORA was established in 2007 as a permanent and secure online archive of research produced by members of the University of Oxford. It is now mandatory for students completing a research degree at the University to deposit an electronic copy of their thesis in this archive. 

Authors can select immediate release on ORA, or apply a 1-year or 3-year embargo period. The embargo period would enable them to publish all or part of their research elsewhere if they wish. 

Theses held in ORA are searchable via  SOLO , as well as external services such as EThOS and Google Scholar. For more information, visit the Oxford digital theses guide , and see below for guidance on searching in ORA.

Search for Oxford theses on ORA

Type your keywords (title, name) into the main search box, and use quotes (“) to search for an exact phrase.

Refine your search results using the drop-downs on the left-hand side. These include:

• item type (thesis, journal article, book section, etc.)
• thesis type (DPhil, MSc, MLitt, etc.)
• subject area (History, Economics, Biochemistry, etc.)
• item date (as a range)
• file availability (whether a full text is available to download or not)

You can also increase the number of search results shown per page, and sort by relevance, date and file availability. You can select and export records to csv or email. 

Select hyperlinked text within the record details, such as “More by this author”, to run a secondary search on an author’s name. You can also select a hyperlinked keyword or subject. 

Other catalogues

Card catalogue  .

The Rare Books department of the Weston Library keeps an author card index of Oxford theses. This includes all non-scientific theses deposited between 1922 and 2016. Please ask Weston Library staff for assistance.

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

You can use ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global  to find bibliographic details of Oxford theses not listed on SOLO. Ask staff in the Weston Library’s Charles Wendall David Reading Room for help finding these theses. 

Search for Oxford theses on ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global

Basic search.

The default Basic search page allows for general keyword searches across all indexes using "and", "and not", "and or" to link the keywords as appropriate. Click on the More Search Options tab for specific title, author, subject and institution (school) searches, and to browse indexes of authors, institutions and subjects. These indexes allow you to add the word or phrase recognised by the database to your search (ie University of Oxford (United Kingdom), not Oxford University).

Advanced search

The Advanced search tab (at the top of the page) enables keyword searching in specific indexes, including author, title, institution, department, adviser and language. If you are unsure of the exact details of thesis, you can use the search boxes on this page to find it by combining the key information you do have.

Search tools

In both the Basic and Advanced search pages you can also limit the search by date by using the boxes at the bottom. Use the Search Tools advice in both the Basic and Advanced pages to undertake more complex and specific searches. Within the list of results, once you have found the record that you are interested in, you can click on the link to obtain a full citation and abstract. You can use the back button on your browser to return to your list of citations.

The Browse search tab allows you to search by subject or by location (ie institution). These are given in an alphabetical list. You can click on a top-level subject to show subdivisions of the subject. You can click on a country location to show lists of institutions in that country. At each level, you can click on View Documents to show lists of individual theses for that subject division or from that location.

In Browse search, locations and subject divisions are automatically added to a basic search at the bottom of the page. You can search within a subject or location by title, author, institution, subject, date etc, by clicking on Refine Search at the top of the page or More Search Options at the bottom of the page.

Where are physical Oxford theses held?

The Bodleian Libraries hold all doctoral theses and most postgraduate (non-doctoral) theses for which a deposit requirement is stipulated by the University:

• DPhil (doctoral) theses (1922 – 2021)
• Bachelor of Divinity (BD) theses
• BLitt/MLitt theses (Michaelmas Term 1953 – 2021)
• BPhil and MPhil theses (Michaelmas Term 1977 – 2021)

Most Oxford theses are held in Bodleian Offsite Storage. Some theses are available in the libraries; these are listed below.

Law Library

Theses submitted to the Faculty of Law are held at the Bodleian Law Library .

Vere Harmsworth Library

Theses on the United States are held at the Vere Harmsworth Library .

Social Science Library

The Social Science Library holds dissertations and theses selected by the departments it supports. 

The list of departments and further information are available in the Dissertations and Theses section of the SSL webpages. 

Locations for Anthropology and Archaeology theses

The Balfour Library holds theses for the MPhil in Material and Visual Anthropology and some older theses in Prehistoric Archaeology.

The Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library holds theses for MPhil in Classical Archaeology and MPhil in European Archaeology.

Ordering Oxford theses

Theses held in Bodleian Offsite Storage are consulted in the Weston Library. The preferred location is the Charles Wendell David Reading Room ; they can also be ordered to the Sir Charles Mackerras Reading Room .

Find out more about requesting a digitised copy, copyright restrictions and copying from Oxford theses .

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Q. How can I access a thesis through EThOS?

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Answered By: Andrew Willan Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024     Views: 9606

DISCOVER and the Library Catalogue have been replaced by Library Search . We're busy updating all of our links, but in the meantime, please use Library Search when searching for resources or managing your Library Account.

The EThOS service is currently unavailable a result of a cyber-attack . Updates on British Library services are available via their blog .

Whilst the British Library is working to restore access to EThOS their online catalogue now provides access to digital doctoral theses held in UK institutional repositories - Using Advanced search and selecting 'Theses' from 'Material Type' dropdown menu  is recommended. To access these documents, search for a thesis and then click on a title of interest to view the full details for that work. The link can be found under the section labelled "View Online - External Resource Available" (in green) just above the "I want this" section (in red) at the bottom of the page.

See the following examples of finding theses that are available ( Available Online in green with a link to the thesis) and those that aren't (red box with 'This item is not currently available' text).

Available thesis

Unavailable thesis

EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) provides access to UK doctoral theses from The British Library, in association with higher education institutions in the UK. Most available theses are PhDs, but also other types of doctoral thesis, e.g. D.Ed., Mus.D., D.Eng (for M Phil and other theses contact our Get It For Me  service).

The EThOS service is currently unavailable. Updates on British Library services are available via their blog .

The British Library online catalogue now provides access to digital doctoral theses held in UK institutional repositories. To access these documents, search for a thesis and then click on a title of interest to view the full details for that work. The link can be found under the section labelled "View Online - External Resource Available" (in green) just above the "I want this" section (in red) at the bottom of the page.

You can search for all the UK theses currently listed in the British Library Catalogue and download any of the full-text theses that are already held in EThOS, either directly or via links to an institution’s own repository.  EThOS replaced the British Theses Service - microfilms are no longer available from the British Library.

How to use EThOS

To read or download theses:

• register for your own personal account with EThOS
• search the database yourself
• before you can download a thesis you must accept the terms and conditions of use; they protect the rights of the author or other rights owners
• if you need help, get in touch with the  Inter-Library Loans Team  or your Liaison Librarian .

If the doctoral thesis you want is held by EThOS you can download it immediately free of charge.

How to request a thesis that is not available for immediate download

If a digitised version of a thesis cannot be made available, EThOS will let you know. You can then make a request  through the  Get It For Me  service,  who will try to obtain the original copy of the thesis direct from the institution that holds it.

NOTE: Non-members of the University of Liverpool who wish to consult UoL theses and are unable to visit the Library in person should use the EThOS service to access them.

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PhD theses: Home

You can search for records of LBS theses via LBS Research Online, our library catalogue and EThOS. NB: LBS doctoral theses are subject to a ten year embargo .

LBS Research Online

LBS Research Online is the London Business School institutional repository. As well as theses, it contains research produced by our faculty.

Search LBS Research Online

Library catalogue

In the advanced search mode, select type = thesis from the first drop-down box. For print copies of theses, you will need to request access by email.

Search the catalogue

EThOS is the UK's online national thesis service, run by the British Library. It contains approximately 500,000 records.

Search EThOS

Need help? Please email [email protected]

• Last Updated: Feb 5, 2024 11:12 AM
• URL: https://library.london.edu/theses

PhD –> BHO –> BL –> PhD: linking British History Online’s thesis data to the British Library

Dec 7, 2020 | British History Online , Features & Articles

By Jonathan Blaney

In this post, Jonathan Blaney—editor of British History Online —explains the latest stage in BHO’s project recording the history of History PhDs in the UK and Ireland. Earlier this year we completed work to digitize, index and publish records of nearly 30,000 theses awarded between 1901 and 2014. These records, derived from historical data gathering exercises by the IHR, are now freely available on British History Online. In an earlier post we described this data and how it might be used to chart trends in History PhD research over the decades.

Here Jonathan explains his latest work to add links from thousands of doctorate listings in BHO to EThOS, the British Library’s online catalogue of all UK PhDs. As a result it’s now possible to browse BHO for theses in your field, link to the BL and from there (where available) click through to digital copy of the full thesis.

British History Online has recently published two sets of listings: theses in history awarded between 1970 and 2014 , (7000 records) and an earlier set of theses awarded from 1900 to 1970 in the UK and Ireland (22,000 records). The listings are free to read on the website and the underlying data is also freely available to download if people want to use it to look for trends in the writing of history, or the history profession, over that period.

But what if you want to read one of the listed theses?

Many readers will know that the British Library runs an online service called EThOS , which lists doctoral theses awarded in the UK. Going back to the eighteenth century, this listing now numbers about 600,000 theses. At a minimum EThOS will let you discover the awarding institution, who should hold a copy of the thesis, but EThOS frequently offers a link to the thesis on an institutional repository or its own copy for download.

If you know about EThOS then it’s relatively easy to go from British History Online to EThOS and manually search for the thesis you are interested in. But we decided to try to add links from our listing of a particular thesis to its listing on EThOS for the 22,000 theses in our 1970-2014 data set.

From the outset we knew this would not be very easy, because the title on our listing often varies from the title on EThOS. To the human eye these differences may not even register: it’s obviously the same thesis! But a computer program would compare two titles that are exactly the same except for an extra space in one, and conclude that there is no match. Computers are very literal. Our first attempts at matching literally but case-insensitively only gave us a success rate of about 10%.

The problem is that if we relax the criteria for a match, using fuzzy matching of some kind, we run the risk of numerous false positives: matches to the wrong thesis on EThOS. There are 300 theses on EThOS for every thesis on BHO, so this a very real possibility. We think adding the wrong link is worse than not having a link at all.

After a bit of trial and error we used these steps for our matching process:

• truncate each thesis to 23 characters
• match case-insensitively
• match on the author surname as well, to cut down false positives
• make all punctuation optional, with an optional space before things like colons

This proved to be a reasonable compromise. We matched around 70% of the titles we were hoping to find on EThOS.

There were a few false positives, but each would very likely match a true positive as well, so we could manually check these by looking for BHO theses with multiple matches.

Take, for example a thesis authored by Jones which begins:

British Foreign Policy …

That is already 23 characters and can easily match a different thesis authored by a Jones. We had to accept a small amount of these as the price for sufficient correct matches, and the time taken to manually check theses with multiple links was quite small.

If you look at our listings now you will see lots of links, but perhaps not 70% of the 22,000 theses in our listing. There are two more caveats here, to do with the scope of EThOS. EThOS does not list non-doctoral theses, such as an M.Phil., but BHO does: these will never match. Equally, BHO lists theses awarded in Ireland, but EThOS confines itself to theses awarded in the UK, so these too will never match. We think that 70% of matchable theses have been matched: that’s just short of 11,000 thesis records in total.

So if you don’t find an EThOS link on one of our PhD listings it’s still worth looking yourself: there’s a good chance you will find it on EThOS. If you do, please contact us and send us a link so we can add it.

Where we have identified a match and added a link it’s now possible to move swiftly to the full text of your chosen thesis where this is provided on EThOS. In the example below (from our list of theses awarded in 2011) you’ll see links to 5 of the 6 titles (the missing link here is a York MA thesis which isn’t included in EThOS).

Extract from the BHO’s listing for 2010 theses

EThOS records—especially for recent theses—typically provide an abstract, so you can get a sense if it’s useful for your research. Many BL records also provide follow-on links to a copy of the dissertation itself, as for Dr Alison Ronan’s 2010 Keele thesis, ‘A small vital flame: anti-war women’s networks in Manchester, 1914-18’.

The BL’s EThOS record for Alison Ronan’s 2010 PhD thesis.

Using BHO’s thesis records in tandem with EThOS makes for a really powerful tool. BHO’s indexing of its records enables you to search across thousands of History dissertations by a range of attributes, including (to use Sara Wolfson’s record from the listing above): by subject (British and Irish History); year of completion (2010); university (e.g. Durham); chronological coverage (‘1625-1669’); temporal and thematic ‘categories’ (‘Gender and Women’ / ’16th-17th century’); index terms (‘court’ / ‘aristocracy’ etc.); and supervisor/s (Natalie Mears and Toby Osborne).

British History Online therefore provides many opportunities for searching thousands of theses for what’s of interest to you (subject, chronology, supervisor and so on). Not surprisingly, this granularity of search isn’t available on EThOS. But once you’ve found something of interest via BHO, and there’s an EThOS link, it’s now just two clicks from discovering a thesis to reading the full text.

For more on this project see our earlier blog posts ‘30,000 PhD theses now available on British History Online’ (June 2020) and ‘BHO theses completed: making the data available’ (July 2020).

British History Online (BHO) is a collection of nearly 1300 volumes of primary and secondary content relating to British and Irish history, and histories of empire and the British world. BHO also provides access to 40,000 images and 10,000 tiles of historic maps of the British Isles.

Within  BHO Premium  you’ll also find 200 volumes of prime research content via institutional and personal subscription;  trial subscriptions  are available for institutions. BHO was founded by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament Trust in 2003. It’s since grown into an essential resource for teachers and researchers which is regularly updated with new content.

Jonathan Blaney is Editor of British History Online and Head of Digital Projects at the Institute of Historical Research.

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Finding SOAS PhD Theses in the Library Catalogue

All SOAS PhD theses can be found through the  Library catalogue and this will tell you if there is a digital copy which can be viewed online.

• Search by author or title if you know the details of the particular thesis you would like to see
• To browse our PhD thesis collection enter ‘Thesis’ in the search box and select ‘Classmark’ in the drop-down menu
• To limit your search of theses to a particular subject then click on ‘Advanced’ select ‘Add Search Field’ and enter keywords into the new search box
• If a digital copy of the PhD thesis is available for you to view online there will either be a note in the catalogue record or a separate entry for the digital copy

Using Printed Copies of SOAS PhD Theses

• SOAS keeps printed copies of all PhD Theses and they can be consulted in our Special Collections Reading Room on Level F
• All printed PhD theses need to be ordered before you visit the Reading Room. Once you have found the PhD thesis you need you can fill in an online order form through the ‘Order archive material’ link from the catalogue record of the PhD thesis. Alternatively you can fill in an order form available from the Library Enquiry Desk or Special Collections Reading Room
• Before you consult any SOAS PhD thesis in the Special Collections Reading Room you will be asked to fill in a Data Protection Declaration
• You are permitted to photograph a maximum of 5% of a PhD thesis or one complete chapter (whichever is the greatest) for personal research purposes only
• Please note that some of our printed PhD theses are currently unavailable to consult in Special Collections because they are being digitized. If this is a case you will find a note on the Library Catalogue record for the PhD thesis
• If the printed thesis you need is affected please write to [email protected] for further assistance

Using Digital Copies of SOAS PhD Theses

• A significant number of SOAS PhD theses have been made available freely online (with permission from the author) through SOAS Research Online since 2011
• You can browse the latest PhD theses via SOAS Research Online or you can search by author or title if you know the details of the thesis you need
• Some PhD theses in SOAS Research Online are restricted for a period of time at the request of the author. They will only become available digitally once this restriction period has expired
• A number of our PhD theses (dated before 2011) are available via the British Library EThOS service. You can search the EThOS database to check if a PhD thesis is available
• SOAS will be making a significant proportion of our PhD thesis collection available online in 2018 due to our work with Proquest who are digitizing our backrun of PhD Theses. If you cannot find a digital copy through the SOAS Library catalogue then please check ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses database

Finding PhD theses from Other Institutions

To find PhD theses produced at other institutions we recommend you use the following resources

• British Library EThOS Service
• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: The Humanities and Social Sciences Collection
• EBSCO Open Dissertations
• DART - Europe E-Theses Portal
• Shodhganga - Indian Theses
• Theses Canada Portal
• SOAS Interlibrary Loan Service
• Other Library Catalogues

SOAS PhD Digitization Project

SOAS is currently working with  Proquest to digitize our entire collection of PhD theses. The results of this project will mean that theses will be made available to anyone to read, without charge, via SOAS Research Online . In addition, a copy will be added to ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses online database, a very well established database used by students and researchers internationally.

Please note that this may affect access to the printed library copy of some theses in 2018, if this is the case there will be a note in the catalogue records of the individual thesis. Once a PhD thesis is added to SOAS Research Online you will be able to find a link to the digital copy via the SOAS Library Catalogue.

We have written to our SOAS PhD graduates by letter and email to ask authors to opt-out of the project if they do not want their thesis to be digitized. If you are an author of a SOAS PhD thesis and did not receive this communication and do not want your thesis to be included in the project please let us know by writing to [email protected] Please note any thesis submitted from 2011 onwards is not included in this project as authors have already selected whether they wish to have their thesis digitized and these existing agreements will stand.

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• Last Updated: May 10, 2024 2:59 PM
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Scholars ‘stumble through’ as British Library tools stay offline

Loss of access to ethos archive of 600,000 doctoral dissertations causes major disruption for phd students.

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PhD students have described “stumbling through” their research after losing access to the UK’s national database of doctoral theses, as disruption to the British Library’s digital archive following a devastating cyberattack enters its third month.

The UK’s national library has warned that some services could remain offline for “several months” after the attack by the Rhysida ransomware group – a Russia-linked unit also allegedly responsible for attacks on government institutions in Chile, Kuwait and Portugal – in late October.

Concern among many researchers focuses on the loss of the EThOS archive of 600,000 doctoral dissertations. About half of this site’s users are postgraduates.

Khadijah Na’eem, a PhD student at Royal Holloway, University of London , told Times Higher Education that the loss of “unlimited access” to the British Library’s digital archives had caused her significant difficulties.

“I am stumbling through my research without access to all of that beautiful knowledge, especially EThOS,” she said, adding that she “hoped that the British Library manage to work their way through this nasty attack soon”.

Before the creation of EThOS in 2009, researchers who wanted to access PhD dissertations from other institutional repositories had to apply to the British Thesis Service, and copies of a thesis would be sent to the library’s Boston Spa collection in West Yorkshire.

Academic librarians have also expressed hope that the service will be restored soon. With EThOS now regarded as one of the UK’s great open access resources, its loss would be “a harsh blow to research communities both in the UK and globally”, said Caroline Ball, academic librarian (business, law and social sciences) at the University of Derby .

“EThOS is the only free, open access, large-scale, aggregated source of UK dissertations available to researchers,” explained Ms Ball. “There are institutional repositories and subscription databases, but nothing else that does both for UK theses and researchers.”

EThOS is “also often the only place to find details of many pre-digital era, print-only theses – many of which are in fact digitised on behalf of universities by the British Library as a result of requests via EThOS,” added Ms Ball. “While much of the research itself is archived and duplicated elsewhere, there is no comparable source to bring together, promote and highlight open access to the crucial and innovative PhD research taking place within UK higher education institutions.”

Scott Shapiro, director of the Yale CyberSecurity Lab, said the British Library attack showed that hackers target not just “high-value stuff like passport information” but also data with low financial value but high strategic or reputational importance for governments. Customer data including passport scans is understood to have been offered for sale on the dark web.

“Ransomware is a hostage-taking situation,” explained Professor Shapiro. “The best situation from [the point of view of] a hostage taker is not to care about the information but for the victim to care a lot about it. The UK government obviously cares about its library holding – and it’s embarrassing to them, and they have deep pockets. Add that up and it’s a good play, although the UK intelligence services will be after this group, so it’s risky.”

[email protected]

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