Finding and obtaining UK theses and dissertations

Newcastle University theses
The Library holds copies of all Newcastle University PhD theses and copies of theses written for other research degrees such as DSc, MD, DLitt, LLD, DEng, DBA, EdD, MPhil. All theses held by the Library are listed on the Library catalogue. Links are provided to the full text where this is available.

Our new repository of electronic theses contains the full text of Newcastle University doctoral theses. Initially, e-theses will be from a small number of ‘pilot’ Schools, together with over 350 heavily requested theses from the 1970s onwards, but the service will eventually expand to cover all Schools, and new and old e-theses will be added regularly.

Finding and obtaining UK theses via EThOSnet
Full text UK doctoral theses are now available online via EThOS. This new database, which is a partnership between the British Library and UK universities, is freely available to everyone, and will enable you to:

  • search the details of 200,000 UK theses, mainly from the 1970s to the present.
  • download the full text of UK theses instantly and free of charge in PDF format.
  • request electronic copies of UK theses which have not yet been digitised (there may be a charge for this).
  • request UK theses in other formats (for example, hard-bound or on CD). There will be a small charge for this, and it will take a little longer.
Please note, EThOS replaces the previous system of borrowing UK theses on Inter Library Loan. Full instructions on how to obtain theses via EThOS are available on its web site.

Masters theses are not held at the BLDSC. Inter-Library loan applications are made directly to the Universities and may take several weeks.

Other resources for finding theses:
Index to Theses
This database indexes theses accepted for higher degrees in Great Britain and Ireland from 1716 to date. Abstracts are included from 1970 onwards.

Library catalogues
More and more universities are making their theses available full text online. These will usually be available from a university’s library catalogue and/or via ETHOS. The Registry of Open Access Repositories contains links to university repositories, many of which include theses. You can limit your search by country as required.

Other Library catalogues can be found using the Library's other catalogues page.
It may be possible to limit a Library catalogue search to theses only.

Subject databases

Many subject databases include details of theses and dissertations. In some subject databases you can limit your search to theses and dissertations.

Links to subject databases can be found using the Library's database pages.