Virtual Reference Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs)
Theses and Dissertations are the most valuable scholarly resources that involve the collaborative work of researchers, supervisors, experts, and others. These are the results of at least three years of scientific work accomplished within a laboratory, through a research team, institute, or a university.
The Online Dictionary for Library & Information Science (ODLIS) defines Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) as "The Master's theses and Ph.D. dissertations submitted in digital form rather than in print on paper, as opposed to those submitted in hard copy and subsequently converted to a machine-readable format." ETDs are transforming the scholarly communication landscape through knowledge creation and sharing for industrialization and modernization.
ETD repositories have become platforms for the intellectual achievements of scholars and their institutions by making their research output available globally. It provides easy & wider access to theses and dissertations. To enable the researchers to access ETD contents from a single point, many institutional, national and international networks and organizations have taken initiatives to establish ETD repositories.
The students, researchers, and faculty members can use these resources to find scholarly output by researchers worldwide.
| ETD Initiatives – In India | |||||
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ShodhGanga URL- https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/ "Shodhganga" denotes digital repository of Indian Electronic Theses and Dissertations set-up by the INFLIBNET Centre. It provides a platform for research scholars to deposit their Ph.D. theses and make it available to the entire scholarly community in open access. |
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ShodhGangotri URL- https://shodhgangotri.inflibnet.ac.in/ Under the initiative called "ShodhGangotri", research scholars/research supervisors in universities are requested to deposit an electronic version of the approved synopsis submitted by research scholars to the universities for registering themselves for the Ph.D. programme now it is expanded to MRPs/PDFs/Emeritus Fellowship, etc. The repository on one hand would reveal the trends and directions of research being conducted in Indian universities, on the other hand, it would avoid duplication of research. |
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| 3 |
Krishikosh URL- https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/home Krishikosh is a digital repository of accumulated knowledge in agriculture and allied sciences, having collection of old and valuable books, old journals, thesis, research articles, popular articles, catalogues, conference proceedings, case studies, annual reports, newsletters, brochures, bulletins and other grey literatures spread all over the country in different ICAR Research Institutions and State Agricultural Universities. |
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| 4 |
IndCat: Online Catalogue of Theses URL- https://indcat.inflibnet.ac.in/index.php/main/theses IndCat is a union database of theses covering the Metadata of doctoral theses submitted to 458 Universities/Institutes in India. It has 4,50,118 unique records from all subject areas. |
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| 5 |
Database of Theses and Dissertations – DELNET (Metadata) URL- https://delnet.in/delnet-databases.html DELNET provides access to database of Theses and Dissertations submitted to Indian Universities, which covers various subjects. The database has 1,48,995 records. |
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| 6 |
CSIR Open Access Repository of Indian Theses URL- http://eprints.csirexplorations.com/ CSIR Explorations repository collects, preserves and disseminates in digital format the research output of the AcSIR (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research) community. |
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| ETD National-level Initiatives | |||||
| 1 |
BDTD: Brazilian Digital Theses & Dissertations - Brazil URL- http://bdtd.ibict.br/vufind/ Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), integrates the theses and dissertations information systems existing in teaching and research institutions in Brazil. It also encourages the registration and publication of theses and dissertations in electronic means. It enables the Brazilian S&T community to publish and disseminate their theses and dissertations produced in the country and abroad, giving greater visibility to national scientific production. |
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| 2 |
Chinese Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database (CDFD) -China URL- https://www.nlc.cn/newen/dissertations/ The database has collected dissertations covering basic science, engineering technologies, agriculture, medical science, philosophy, humanity, social sciences, and so on. As of 2022, the database has collected more than 500,000 doctoral dissertations from more than 500 institutions. |
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| 3 |
CiNii Dissertations -Japan URL- https://ci.nii.ac.jp/d/?l=en CSIR Explorations repository collects, preserves and disseminates in digital format the research output of the AcSIR (Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research) community. |
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| 4 |
Diss Online – Germany URL- https://www.dnb.de/EN/Home/home_node.html The German National Library houses the largest national collection of online dissertations in Europe. Online dissertations and theses since 1998 were collected. Since then, the collection has grown to more than 2,84,000 documents (as of November 2020). |
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| 5 |
Dissertations.se – Sweden URL- https://www.dnb.de/EN/Home/home_node.html Dissertations.se lets you search among university dissertations from Sweden, written in English. At the moment there are 84485 finished dissertations in the database - and about half of these are available for download as PDF. |
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Lithuanian Electronics Thesis and Dissertation (eLABa ETD) URL- https://www.elaba.lt/elaba-portal/en/paieska eLABa ETD searches lithuanian dissertations, their abstracts, master's and bachelor's theses repository of the Lithuanian Academy Electronic Library. |
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| 7 |
HKU Scholars Hub- Hong Kong URL- https://hub.hku.hk/advanced-search?location=thesis The HKU Scholars Hub is the current research information system of The University of Hong Kong. As a key vehicle of HKU's Knowledge Exchange Initiative, The Hub aims to enhance the visibility of HKU authors and their research, and to foster opportunities for collaboration. |
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| 7 |
HKU Scholars Hub- Hong Kong URL- https://hub.hku.hk/advanced-search?location=thesis The HKU Scholars Hub is the current research information system of The University of Hong Kong. As a key vehicle of HKU's Knowledge Exchange Initiative, The Hub aims to enhance the visibility of HKU authors and their research, and to foster opportunities for collaboration. |
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| 8 |
Institutional Repositories Database (IRDB) – Japan IRDB is a database service that collects and provides metadata of content registered in academic institutional repositories in Japan. |
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| 9 |
National Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations in Taiwan URL- https://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/cgi-bin/gs32/gsweb.cgi/login?o=dwebmge The National Library's online dissertation service is free for public use. It has become one of the most important academic support websites in the country. |
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| 10 |
NZresearch - New Zealand URL- https://digitalnz.org/nzresearch NZresearch discovers and provides access to New Zealand's most comprehensive selection of research papers and related resources. |
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| 11 |
Ohiolink Electronic Thesis and Dissertations (ETD) Center-US OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) contains over 58,000 theses and dissertations from students at 31 of Ohio's world-renowned academic institutions. Theses and dissertations from Ohio's academic institutions were downloaded more than six million times from researchers around the globe in 2015. |
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RCAAP – Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal URL- https://www.rcaap.pt RCAAP portal aims to collect, aggregate and index Open Access scientific contents from Portuguese institutional repositories. RCAAP constitutes a single entry point for searching, discovery and recall of thousands of scientific and scholarly publications. |
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| 13 |
Renati- Peru URL- https://renati.sunedu.gob.pe/?locale=en Regulations of the National Registry of Works leading to Degrees and Titles - RENATI |
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| 14 |
TESEO- Spain URL- https://www.educacion.gob.es/teseo/irBusquedaAvanzada.do A Spanish Ministry of Education database where you can retrieve doctoral theses written at Spanish universities. The website allows you to monitor and consult every thesis file since 1976. |
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| 15 |
TesiOnline- Italy URL- https://www.tesionline.it/ricerca Selects and publish degree theses to highlight the merit of authors and give them visibility. |
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| 16 |
TDX Online – Spain URL- http://www.tdx.cat/ TDX (Theses and Dissertations Online) is a digital cooperative repository of doctoral theses presented at Spanish universities. The consultation of theses is opened and allows the user to construct searches on the complete text of the files |
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| 17 |
Tez Merkezi – Turkey URL- https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/giris.jsp Tez Merkezi is a repository which provides access to doctoral theses and dissertations. Theses search can filtered using Thesis name, advisor, subject, thesis number, etc. |
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| 18 |
Theses - Canada URL- https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/services/services-libraries/theses/Pages/theses-canada.aspx Theses Canada is a collaborative program between Library and Archives Canada and Canadian universities. It strives to acquire and preserve theses and dissertations from participating universities; provide open access to Canadian digital theses and dissertations in the collection. |
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| 19 |
Theses – France Theses.fr provides access to all doctoral theses being prepared in France; doctoral theses defended in France and to people and organizations related to these theses. |
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| 20 |
Theseus – Finland Theseus gives you online access to theses and publications from Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences. Entire theses and publications can be read and utilized in the research and development work. |
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| 21 |
Trove – Australia Trove is a single point of entry to a treasure trove of artefacts, curiosities and stories from Australia's cultural, community and research institutions. On Trove you can find more than 14 billion digital items on any topic. |
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| ETD – International level Initiatives | |||||
| 1 |
Global ETD Search (NDLTD: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations) Searches the 6,455,288 electronic theses and dissertations contained in the NDLTD archive. NDLTD harvests metadata from participating repositories. NDLTD organizes all harvested metadata in a NDLTD Union Archive. This Archive, contains records of millions of ETDs, is managed by the University of Cape Town Digital Libraries Laboratory. |
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| 2 |
DiVA URL- http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/search.jsf?dswid=-4847 The publications in the DiVA portal have originally been registered and published in the local DiVA database of one of the 50 DiVA members. DiVA portal is a common finding tool for all publications that have been registered and published with each DiVA member. For each title in the database there is bibliographic information, usually an abstract and in several cases a link to the full text where the work is published. |
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| 3 |
DART-Europe E-theses Portal URL- https://www.dart-europe.org/basic-search.php DART-Europe was founded in 2005 as a partnership of national and university libraries and consortia to improve global access to European research theses. Access to 1,387,292 open access research theses from 585 Universities in 29 European countries is provided by the portal. |
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| 4 |
WorldCat URL- https://search.worldcat.org/ WorldCat is a great resource for locating unique, trustworthy materials that you often can't find anywhere except in a library. And by connecting thousands of libraries' collections in one place, WorldCat makes it easy for you to browse the world's libraries from one easy search box. It provides access to 30 million thesis and dissertations. |
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| ETD – Open Access Databases | |||||
| 1 |
Open Access Theses and Dissertations URL- https://oatd.org/ OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 6,810,395 theses and dissertations. |
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| 2 |
EBSCO Open Dissertations URL- https://opendissertations.org/ EBSCO Open Dissertations, institutions and students are offered an innovative approach to driving additional traffic to ETDs in institutional repositories. Our goal is to help make their students’ theses and dissertations as widely visible and cited as possible |
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| 3 |
PQDT OPEN (ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global) URL- https://about.proquest.com/en/products-services/pqdtglobal/ PQDT Open provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. The content that was available at PQDT Open is now discoverable and freely downloadable from proquest.com. The ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global (PQDT) ™ database is the world's most comprehensive curated collection of multi-disciplinary dissertations and theses from around the world, offering over 5 million citations and 3 million full-text works from thousands of universities. |
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