All students and staff at QUT are able to locate and access QUT Masters (Research) and PhD theses. Masters and PhD students and staff may request theses and dissertations from other Australian and overseas institutions, when needed for research or teaching. There are always two steps to obtaining a thesis or dissertation:
- Locate the thesis or dissertation that you are seeking;
- Obtain the thesis by requesting it in the appropriate manner.
Below we have outlined these steps for
- QUT theses
- non-QUT theses
Finding and obtaining QUT theses
Definitions (QUT MOPP Section C - 10.1 Standard terminology for research papers)
Thesis: used in all cases at QUT where a major requirement for the award of a higher degree is the submission of a substantive piece of written work;
Dissertation: used in all other cases where the submission of a piece of written work is a requirement, with the exception of reports of projects;
Project report: used to describe reports of projects conducted by students at bachelor degree and graduate diploma levels.
Finding QUT theses
QUT Library holds an archival collection of all QUT PhD and Masters (Research) theses. These are held in a closed Stack collection at each campus Library depending on which faculty they were submitted to. Honours theses and Masters (Coursework) Major Project dissertations are NOT deposited in the stack collection.
QUT Library also holds an archival collection of Undergraduate Project Reports for many faculties and schools. The collection of these project reports is dependent on school and faculty policies. These Project Reports are in open-shelf collections on each campus.
To locate specific theses in QUT Library, use the QUT Library Catalogue to search by author for the relevant school or research centre, or by subject heading or keyword. If you are searching by author, you must type in the entire name of the school in full.
(For example: Queensland University of Technology School of Computing Science)
You can use the "Limit" option in the Library Catalogue to limit your author or subject/keyword searches to "QUT and Other Theses".
Obtaining QUT theses
QUT theses can be requested at the Loans Desk at each campus Library by filling in a request form. The theses are collected twice per day and held at the Loans Desk for you to collect. QUT theses cannot be taken out of the Library - you must read them in the Library and return them to the Loans Desk. They are an irreplaceable collection and QUT policy forbids the Library from lending them.
Finding and obtaining non-QUT theses and dissertations
| Australian Digital Thesis Project (ADT) | A distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the postgraduate research students at Australian Universities. You can search by keyword or browse by institution for theses. Most are available in full-text. The ADT database provides access to full-text theses documents deposited by students at participating Australian universities. Not all Australian universities are participating in the project, and not all make it a requirement for students to deposit their thesis to the database. QUT has joined. |
| Australian Education Index (AEI) | Available to all QUT Students and Staff only. Indexes published and unpublished material at all levels of education within Australia, including journal articles, monographs, research reports, theses, conference papers, legislation, parliamentary debates, and book reviews, giving a comprehensive coverage of educational topics. |
| ProQuest Dissertations and Theses | Available to all QUT Students and Staff only. An authoritative index and abstract service for doctoral dissertations and masters' theses in North America and Europe. It includes dissertations from 1861 and theses from 1962 to the present. Titles published since 1997 are available in PDF digital format and have 24 page previews available. |
| British Library Document Supply Centre |
Available to all QUT Students and Staff and the Public. DSC's British Thesis Service provides access to more than 140,000 theses submitted for doctoral degrees from almost all UK universities. |
| Other Library Catalogues | You can then access the library catalogue of that institution to search for theses and dissertations. |
Obtaining theses and dissertations
Once you have identified the thesis or dissertation you are seeking, you must try to obtain it. Staff and PhD and Masters students have two options for obtaining theses and dissertations:
- Requesting the purchase of the thesis for your individual research
This should be your preferred option if the thesis is most relevant to your personal research and not of particular relevance to other researchers at QUT; - Recommending the purchase of the thesis or dissertation for the QUT Library Collection
This should be your preferred option if the thesis is likely to be relevant to other researchers at QUT.
Requesting the purchase of the thesis or dissertation for individual research
- One way to do this is to simply place a Document Delivery request. The Library will obtain a print copy of the thesis for you. NOTE: These theses are extremely expensive for the Library to buy and we would ask you to be very selective in your requests. Please carefully evaluate how useful the thesis would be and only request it if it is directly relevant to your research.
- Another way to buy a thesis or dissertation for personal research is to request that it is purchased using a system called a School Document Requisition. You simply request a form from your Liaison Librarian and then fill in the details of what you want and supply a School Fund Code for charging for the purchase. The Library will process the request and obtain it for you. This is generally a slightly slower option, as the purchase must be made through standard purchasing systems.
Recommending the purchase of the thesis or dissertation for the QUT Library collection
Contact the Liaison Librarian for your school or faculty and discuss your purchase request with them. NOTE: The Library has limited funds for purchase of research resources and the use of this option will depend on the research funding available.