German Language Humanities : Dissertations
A guide to research materials in the areas of Germanic languages and literature
Theses and Dissertations
The following resources are general indexes to theses and dissertations on all topics, including those on Germanic Studies.
Dissertations are important as they often express the most innovative work on a topic; include comprehensive citations and bibliographies of primary and secondary sources; and provide detailed literature reviews and theoretical discussions.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses GlobalThis index includes dissertations and masters theses from most North American graduate schools as well as many European universities. Full text is provided for most indexed dissertations from 1997 to the present, while most dissertations from 1980 on include abstracts written by the author. Orders for complete dissertations before 1997 may be placed online, but check UW's Library Catalog first to see if they are owned on campus. Free interlibrary loan may also be a possibility
- Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)Covers from 1920 to present. Includes doctoral dissertations about English language, literature, and culture published anywhere in the world
- DART-EuropeDART-Europe is a project by research libraries and library consortia to improve global access to European research theses
- Dissonline.de - Digitale Dissertationen im InternetOpen access dissertations online, a service of the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, integrated into their larger catalog (after entering search, limit to Hochschulschriften and even further to Online Ressourcen). Instructions, in German, here
- Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS)OS offers free access to the full text of nearly 100,000 electronically stored UK theses; of the remaining 200,000 records dating back to at least 1800, many are available to be ordered for scanning through the EThOS digitisation-on-demand facility. A rich resource!
- Foreign Dissertations at the Center for Research Libraries (CRL)CRL holds more than 800,000 foreign dissertations and Habilitationsschriften from universities outside of the US and Canada. If you know the exact title of a dissertation and do not find it in the CRL Catalog, CRL has a program to purchase foreign doctoral dissertations for scholars' individual research needs; such requests should be initiated via Interlibrary Loan
- HelveticatThe catalog of the Schweizerische Nationalbibliothek; search for dissertations by combining diss with a keyword
- Index to Theses in Great Britain and IrelandA comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1716.
As of 2013, there were 589,028 theses in the collection, with 355,862 having abstracts - Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). NDLTD supports electronic publishing and open access to scholarship in order to enhance the sharing of knowledge worldwide. Try the new Global ETD Search
- Open Access Theses and Dissertations (OATD)Index of more than 1.5 million electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), with preference given to records of graduate-level theses freely available online
- Österreichische DissertationsdatenbankThis database references over 99,000 dissertations and theses held at Austrian Universities; about two-thirds are abstracted in both German and English