Overview of thesis databases

Reading other students‘ theses can help you in your own thesis writing process. Luckily, most universities have a thesis database. In these databases, you can find out who has written about your topic and how they approached it.

Some theses are only accessible via your university library, although more and more universities are opening the doors of their databases to the general public.

General databases

Login required (but you can make an account):

• ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (More than 2 million master’s theses)
• eThOS (400,000 British doctoral theses)

No login required:

• DART-Europe E-theses Portal (More than 106,000 doctoral theses)
• Openthesis (International database)
• thesis.fr (270,000 PhD theses from French universities)
• Deutsche National Bibliothek (German thesis database)

Ivy League Universities

• Brown University (all electronic dissertations submitted since 2008):
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth College
• Harvard University
• Princeton University
• University of Pennsylvania
• MIT